Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels (Studies in Design and Material Culture)

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Summary: Moira Vincentelli 'Women and Ceramics, the gendered vessel'
Review: At last, a book all about women and ceramics. Accessible, yet thoroughly informed by cultural theory, it covers a wide historical range, and gives a comprehensive overview of the diverse relationships between women and ceramics. It is well illustrated, with many in-depth case studies. An invaluable aid to ceramics students at all levels. This book has been needed for a long time.

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Summary: Moira Vincentelli, books on Ceramics
Review: Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels by Moira Vincentelli
Manchester University Press, 2000.

In this excellent book, Vincentelli examines ceramics as practiced by women worldwide, including approaches to clay, gender roles, the effects of technology, social pressures and ways of collaborating. She states that "women's traditions are characterized by simple technology and a way of working the clay that keeps the maximum closeness between the hand and the material." Although women gained access to the wheel in the last century, she feels they are also in the forefront of the reaction against using it.

I thought of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party when I read Vincentelli's statement that"the hierarchy of the western division between art and craft serves to devalue what women do and associate men with art and women with craft". Perhaps a new perspective on the art versus craft controversy?


Women Potters by Moira Vincentelli
Rutgers University Press, 2004 .

A fine study of traditional pottery that documents with great photographs potters handbuilding and firing in many countries. There is much here to interest not only potters, but anthropologists, art historians, archeologists, and those in clay and art education. Maps of ceramic activity in major areas of the world by women and men, both handbuilding and wheelwork, are fascinating. In the introduction, Vincentelli states: "It was intriguing to find that women still represented a huge percentage of the world's potters: in four out of five traditional societies, pottery is a female task. But why did I not know this?" If you read her book, you'll begin to understand.

Methods of digging clay, forming, decorating, sealing and firing are described in detail, (I want to try sealing a pot with milk before pit firing to see if it will actuallly work. There are lots of other ideas!)
Problems are looked at squarely. Vincentelli documents the impressive pots and process of"Munchie" Roden" in Jamaica, while noting the difficulty of selling her work given her location in Spanish Town. Photographs show the abandonment of equipment unable to be maintained in certain locations, and researcher Margaret Tuckson is quoted on the disadvantages in some situations of introducing new technologies. Both recommend supporting the continuity and viability of existing methods.
Vincentelli has an optimistic attitude about the future, believing that ceramics will continue to thrive even as it changes, and that women will continue to make beautiful pots. Her book is, likewise, beautiful.