American Journal of Art and Design

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Production of Ceramic Wares with Idea Development from Shells to Promote Femininity in Ghanaian Pottery

Received: Jul. 13, 2019    Accepted: Aug. 06, 2019    Published: Aug. 19, 2019
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Abstract

Ghanaian pottery practices and their modern reintroduction have been rendered masculine especially in tertiary institutions. Feminine participation in contemporary Ghanaian pottery/ceramic practices is virtually non-existent. The study believed women’s participation had contributions to make to pottery practices, and hence advocated the employment of feminine subjectivities and traditional spaces as well as indigenous pottery trade strategies and other feminine idiom within contemporary studio practices as means to rescue the stagnating practices and involve womanhood in the evolution of ceramic art at tertiary levels. ‘Modelling’ and ‘throwing’ were the main studio forming methods employed to produce crockery in the study. Materials used included; Abonko and Mfensi clays, manganese and glaze. Again, the study explored means and bases for feminine inclusion, especially in contemporary and academic pottery practices as means of normalising an anomaly engendered by maternity. It concluded among others that, pottery practices in their modernist sense had been trapped in sculpture representations and it was only through the use of feminine idioms and subjectivities that they ought to be freed to their full meanings as art. It was recommended with others that, female students would be given the chance to develop concepts that would depict their inner values and beliefs in their wares.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11
Published in American Journal of Art and Design ( Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2019 )
Page(s) 8-14
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Crockery, Feminine Idiom, Pottery

References
[1] Perani, J. and Smith, F. T. (1998). The Visual Arts of Africa: Gender, Power and Life Cycle rituals. New York. Prentice-Hall.
[2] Barley, N. (1994). Smashing Pots: Works of Clay from West Africa. Washington D. C: Smithsonian Institute Press.
[3] Anquandah, J. A. (2006). The Traditional Potter’s Craft, Accra; National Commission on Culture.
[4] Rattray, R. S. (1927). Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[5] Berns, M. C. (1993), Art, history and Gender: Women and clay in West Africa. African Archaeological Review, 11 (1), 129-148.
[6] Annan, G. (2018). Tracing the Evolution of the Roles of Female Characters in Selected Works of Chinua Achebe. University of Ghana, Legon. Accra. Unpublished MPhil. thesis submitted to the University of Ghana.
[7] Asihene, E. V. (1978). Understanding the Traditional Art of Ghana: Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Press, Inc.
[8] Cooper, E. (2000). Then Thousand Years of Pottery (4th ed). British Museum Press. p 7.
[9] Priddy, B. (1974). Pottery in Upper Region. National Museum of Ghana Occasional Papers, No. 6, 8, 41-51.
[10] Peterson, S. and Peterson, J. (2003). The Craft & Art of Clay: a complete potter’s handbook, (4th ed). London. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, p 108.
[11] Tourtillott, S. J. E. (2009). 500 Ceramic Sculptures: Contemporary Practice, Singular Works. New York: Lark Books, p. 1.
[12] Quinn, A. (2007). Ceramic Design Course: Principles, practice, and techniques: a complete guide for ceramicists. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. pp. 10, 14, 20.
[13] Hopper, R. (2000). Functional Pottery: Form and Aesthetic in Pots of purpose, Krause Publications Craft, pp. 9, 15, 29, 100, 165.
[14] Hodgekiss, A. (2013). Eating Hot Food off Plastic Plates can cause Increase the Risk of Kidney Stones. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article. [Accessed Date: 6th September, 2018].
[15] Vicchio, M. D. (2001). Postmodern Ceramics. Thames & Hudson Inc. p 106, 124, 134.
[16] Weida, C. L. (2011). Artistic Ambivalence in Clay: Portraits of Pottery, Ceramics, and Gender. UK. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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  • APA Style

    Mercy Abaka-Attah, Kofi Asante-Kyei, Alexander Addae. (2019). Production of Ceramic Wares with Idea Development from Shells to Promote Femininity in Ghanaian Pottery. American Journal of Art and Design, 4(2), 8-14. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11

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    ACS Style

    Mercy Abaka-Attah; Kofi Asante-Kyei; Alexander Addae. Production of Ceramic Wares with Idea Development from Shells to Promote Femininity in Ghanaian Pottery. Am. J. Art Des. 2019, 4(2), 8-14. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11

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    AMA Style

    Mercy Abaka-Attah, Kofi Asante-Kyei, Alexander Addae. Production of Ceramic Wares with Idea Development from Shells to Promote Femininity in Ghanaian Pottery. Am J Art Des. 2019;4(2):8-14. doi: 10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11,
      author = {Mercy Abaka-Attah and Kofi Asante-Kyei and Alexander Addae},
      title = {Production of Ceramic Wares with Idea Development from Shells to Promote Femininity in Ghanaian Pottery},
      journal = {American Journal of Art and Design},
      volume = {4},
      number = {2},
      pages = {8-14},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20190402.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajad.20190402.11},
      abstract = {Ghanaian pottery practices and their modern reintroduction have been rendered masculine especially in tertiary institutions. Feminine participation in contemporary Ghanaian pottery/ceramic practices is virtually non-existent. The study believed women’s participation had contributions to make to pottery practices, and hence advocated the employment of feminine subjectivities and traditional spaces as well as indigenous pottery trade strategies and other feminine idiom within contemporary studio practices as means to rescue the stagnating practices and involve womanhood in the evolution of ceramic art at tertiary levels. ‘Modelling’ and ‘throwing’ were the main studio forming methods employed to produce crockery in the study. Materials used included; Abonko and Mfensi clays, manganese and glaze. Again, the study explored means and bases for feminine inclusion, especially in contemporary and academic pottery practices as means of normalising an anomaly engendered by maternity. It concluded among others that, pottery practices in their modernist sense had been trapped in sculpture representations and it was only through the use of feminine idioms and subjectivities that they ought to be freed to their full meanings as art. It was recommended with others that, female students would be given the chance to develop concepts that would depict their inner values and beliefs in their wares.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AB  - Ghanaian pottery practices and their modern reintroduction have been rendered masculine especially in tertiary institutions. Feminine participation in contemporary Ghanaian pottery/ceramic practices is virtually non-existent. The study believed women’s participation had contributions to make to pottery practices, and hence advocated the employment of feminine subjectivities and traditional spaces as well as indigenous pottery trade strategies and other feminine idiom within contemporary studio practices as means to rescue the stagnating practices and involve womanhood in the evolution of ceramic art at tertiary levels. ‘Modelling’ and ‘throwing’ were the main studio forming methods employed to produce crockery in the study. Materials used included; Abonko and Mfensi clays, manganese and glaze. Again, the study explored means and bases for feminine inclusion, especially in contemporary and academic pottery practices as means of normalising an anomaly engendered by maternity. It concluded among others that, pottery practices in their modernist sense had been trapped in sculpture representations and it was only through the use of feminine idioms and subjectivities that they ought to be freed to their full meanings as art. It was recommended with others that, female students would be given the chance to develop concepts that would depict their inner values and beliefs in their wares.
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Author Information
  • Department of Ceramic Technology, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana

  • Department of Ceramic Technology, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana

  • Department of Ceramic Technology, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana

  • Section