82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 16, 1994 JOYCE BUPP York Co. Correspondent EAST BERLIN (Adams Co.) Becky Mummcrt is an expert craftsperson who really throws herself into her work. A potter of both redware and cobalt stoneware, Becky is known throughout the area for her beauti ful, handcrafted pieces, from mugs, pitchers, platters and din nerware to special-make items commemorating local historical happenings. And it all begins with Becky “throwing” a lump of damp clay onto her potter’s wheel and using the very most basic of tools her fingers to shape the revolving lump into a piece of raw pottery. Having crafted thousands of pieces over the last 20 years, she forms the clay effortlessly, styling the finished, graceful shape in a matter of a mere minute or two. “I’ve don this for so long, I can almost do it with my eyes closed,” quips this friendly, outgoing pot ter, working in a new shop she built just a year ago. But learning to properly “throw” a piece may take a novice a few months, espe cially perfecting the centering and learning how to avoid poking a finger through the soft clay sides during shaping. While her thrown pieces begin in the same manner, the two types of pottery feccky crafts are dis tinctly different. “Redware and cobalt stoneware arc about as different in process and product as you can get,” notes Becky. The two types of nottcry arc created from different clays, use different glazes and decorat ing techniques, and arc fired in the kiln to different intensities of heal. Always interested in art as a child, Becky followed high school with studies at the Maryland Insti tute of Art. When her husband was completing his music degree at In diana University, she became friends with students in the cera mics, or pottery, department. The couple then moved to Louisiana, Becky Mummert begins “throwing” a pitcher from a piece of raw clay. Potter Throws Herself Into Her Work where he taught at the Northeast Louisiana University and she be gan pursuing her pottery interest with classes. “Those classes really ‘look’ with me,” she recalls, looking back on the family’s properly along the Concwago Creek, where she grew up, and where the Mum merts have made their home since 1980. While she did make some pieces from the “homegrown” clay, the processing of the raw material of pottery is a tedious and time-consuming effort. “Clay is made of rock particles that have broken down over thou sands of years. It moves around underground. For a potter to use it, you must get out all the sticks and the stones, melt it down and scive it to remove all foreign particles. Then it has to be aged,” she ex plains. Purchasing her raw clay from a local supplier is much more efficient with her busy schedule. Aging of clay may be done in as little as a few weeks or for years; sometimes Becky incorporates vinegar into her clay mixes to has ten the process. According to Becky, Japanese potters bury clay to age for intended use decades later by their grandchildren. From the mixing of the clays to the covering witih the final glazes, pollers constantly use chemistry processes. Becky mixes as many as five types of clays to get just the right color and consistency she wants to produce a certain kind of finished redware or stoneware. And since each batch of even the same clay may vary sllightly in shade, the finished pieces often have subtle differences in colora tion. Redware is so called because of the reddish-brown finished color of the pottery, due to concentra tions of iron in the raw clay used to form it. After the piece has been shaped by hand or formed through rolling or molds, ornamentation is applied while the clay is still wet. Decoration may be applied with i watered-down form of clay, call The. are ti y, itter immert jsplays the background are some of her other redware pieces. ed ’‘slip.” Some decorations arc dribbled, freehand, onto die clay, poured out of a “slipeup.” More intricate designs, drawings and words are formed by “sgraffito,” which means “scratch through." A coating of the thin clay slip is ap plied over the wet piece and the ornamentation scratched through the slip coating. All of Becky’s artwork decorations are done freehand. After the first, or bisque firing, in the kiln, the redware piece turns a terra-cotta color, the familiar bridk-red shade of clay flower pots. After a coat of glaze is ap plied, a second and hotter firing in the kiln yields the finished, shiny product of a darker, reddish brown. By comparison, cobalt stone ware turns pink after the first, light, firing in the kiln, necessary to set the clay firm enough to han dle. Decorations are then applied to the fragile pieces, using a liquid -ry pottery, both redware at., ware, goes through two firings In Becky’s kilns cobalt, followed with an applica tion of glaze. A second firing, to temperatures reaching nearly 2,400 degrees, renders the stone ware extremely durable and hard. Redware is especially popular for accent and decorator pieces and in traditional, period settings. Cobalt stoneware, because of its durability and functionality, is of ten purchased for more everyday tableware use and for bakeware. “It’s dishwasher proof and also washes very easily by hand; my husband can attest to that,” grins Becky. During her busiest times of area craft-show schedules, he of ten lends a hand with customers at her sales booth. The Pennsylvania Dutch tradi tions and heritage of the area have heavily influenced Becky Mum men’s work. Many of her redware designs are reproductions, and numerous historical muscufn shops sell her pottery. Recently a friend visited a Philadelphia mu- favorite of her son’s. In scum and related to Becky that some of the pottery originals she saw “looked just like yours.” Her work has gone to many of the stales and is often sought by cus tomers as gifts to send to friends in foreign countries. Only rarely docs she find time to make special items for herself or her family. But a special re quest from a friend some ten years ago led her to create a whimsical item, popular among gardeners, called a “toadhouse.” Becky’s de sign resembles an upside-down clay flowerpot, with a small en trance and a stylized toad shape on top. The houses are designed to be placed in gardens and entice toads, which catch many insects, to make their home among the plants. With the building of her shop last year a short distance from their house, Becky was able to move her equipment, supplies and inventory out of rooms of their home and into an area with more adequate space and a display room. She recently added a second kiln as well. When the kilns arc in use, Becky rarely ventures 100 far away so she can monitor their pro gress and the heat levels generat ed. Even after a full day of several hours in the shop, evenings often find her back there, shaping hand les for mugs and pitchers, unload ing kilns, packing orders. “I ate, slept,and drank this for years,” Becky says of the long hours she has regularly spent in meeting private customer and craft show sales. With their two children through college and her shop now a reality, she is reducing some of her sales commitments enough to spend more time enjoy ing golfing. Craft-show seasons are general ly in the spring and again in the fall before the holidays. On July 23, Becky will take part in the third Annual Terre Hill Day in Lancaster County, an arts and crafts show of juried work. One of her largest shows is the local Col onial Days in East Berlin, and she regularly takes part in the York Country Crossroads Folk Art and Craft Show at the York Fair grounds, scheduled for November 19 and 20. For more information, Becky Mummert may be reached by tele phone at (717) 259-9620. itomestead JTotes stone-
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