Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome. The hand building of pots using coils of clay is one of the earliest methods of constructing pottery during this time.
Romans used the coil pot method for home-made coarse ware, that is, hardworking pots that were more roughly made and used for different purposes such as cooking, carrying liquids and, if you couldn’t afford fine ware (more decorative pots), eating.
We first practised making coil pots using plasticine. We learnt that artists often make a marquette – a model for a larger piece of sculpture, created in order to visualise how it might look and to work out approaches and materials for how it might be made. Our maquettes helped us to hone our skills ready for using clay, effectively.
We had fun making our Roman coil pots. We used a coil for the base, which we smoothed and sealed using tools and we used several coils to build up our pot. We smoothed and sealed the inside of our pots and shaped and decorated them as they developed.
