Raw materials and terracotta (2 of 3)

Raw materials and terracotta


"Creation" comes from the earth and on Earth, understood as the planet, silicates account for about 90% of existing minerals, and among these are phyllosilicates or clay minerals that constitute that splendid element we call clay. Thanks to its plasticity, clay is malleable when hydrated and can therefore be easily worked by hand. When dry, it becomes rigid, and if subjected to intense heating (in our kilns, temperatures sometimes exceed 1000°C), it undergoes an irreversible transformation, becoming permanently solid and compact.

Clays exist in various colors; those used on our island are predominantly gray/greenish when "raw" and acquire a "reddish" color (some would say brick-colored) after the first firing. This "color" is more intense the greater the presence of iron oxide in the clay. The fired work is commonly called terracotta or biscuit ware.

To model clay, the artisan's hands would suffice, but to obtain objects with sinuous rounded shapes, the use of a potter's wheel is necessary. This tool (invented in the Minoan era) consists of two wheels joined by an axle that allows the master potter to spin the lump of clay and shape it as desired. You will understand that if made exclusively by hand or with the sole "aid" of the wheel, no creation would be identical to another; at most, it could be similar but never the same... yet in today's market, many identical objects are found... well, once a "model" is created by hand, a mold is made from it, usually in plaster, and from this, many identical objects are derived. Naturally, the similarity between someproducts is sometimes dictated by a "functional" need, consider, for example, dinner sets for which plaster molds are used to obtain the various elements. However, even if derived from plaster molds, our creations require the intervention of the master artisan to shape the clay onto the mold, and therefore retain their identity, which is not the case for industrially produced sets where a mechanical press replaces the artisan's hands to compress the clay onto the plaster mold, and which therefore have nothing "artisanal" about them.


As already mentioned, whether the object was created entirely by hand on the wheel, hand-molded onto a plaster form, or compressed with a mechanical press onto the form, it will still be necessary to wait for the water contained in the clay to evaporate completely before putting it in the kiln (drying).

The firing (around 1000°C) causes the nascent "terracotta" to become solid and compact (remember, clay can become terracotta, but the reverse process is impossible once fired). The firing of a clay work must be very slow, and the cooling phase equally slow, to avoid destroying the creation, so it is necessary to wait from 24h to 48h for the entire process.