Lesson by: Judy Decker
Lesson Plan: 8^th Grade (6th grade notes - High school notes)
Unit: African Art
Project: African Ceramic Portrait Vessel - Mangbetu  Pottery

Vocabulary:		Materials:
Wedge               Effigy Knead                Mangbetu Coil                   Congo Pinch                 Score Slab                   slip Draped slap Pressed slab Incise Stamp	Mengbetu vessel courtesy of National Museum of African Art	Canvas cloth -- wire loop tools Rolling pins -- modeling tools Guide sticks -- plastic wrap Clay tools  -- plastic bowls Terra cotta (red) clay (or buff) Red slip dishes (or buff slip) Clay stamps -- doll face molds Gadgets - textured glazes - brushes (Crystal Gun Metal and Metallic Brown were two favorite glazes) Texture tools/panels

Motivation:

1. Video about African pottery

2. PowerPoint of African pottery - images gathered from the Internet (See some on this page). Examples were shown from previous years (See some here)

3. African Art Internet Lesson (to learn more about the culture)

4. Demonstrate various forming techniques. The first year I did this most did a portrait type vessel - the next years the students were given more freedom and I had all sorts of lidded forms and vases - many with added sprigging of animals, leaves, flowers, coils, handles - some tea-pots vessels, bowls and more.

5. Demonstrate decorating techniques -- demonstrate glazing

Resources:

African Ceramics (selected images)

Mangbatu Culture  Brief information about the culture

Getty ArtsEdNet Double Effigy (image of vessel no longer online)

Getty ArtsEdNet Lesson Sampler (lesson plan no longer online)

Michael C Carlos Museum
"At the turn of the century Mangbetu women of northeastern Zaïre wore their hair in the elaborate coiffure depicted on this vessel (from Michael C. Carlos Museum). The incised patterns on the face and rounded chamber represent the body decoration practiced at that time. The same heads also appeared as carved ornaments on Zande and Mangbetu harps. Utilitarian pottery produced by Mangbetu women provided the foundation for this new genre. Through creative influences from neighboring peoples, Mangbetu male artists added the head and transformed the traditional pottery into this innovative, figurative style. These vessels were eventually commissioned by chiefs as gifts or prestige items. The American Museum of Natural History's Congo Expedition of 1909 - 1914 provided additional stimulus to production through its collection program. But without any clear usefulness to the Mangbetu, this type of pottery died out after a brief period of florescence." Many were sold as souvenirs during Colonialism." 

Contemporary African American Ceramic artist These pots were hand built - and appear to use the same forming techniques that my students used.

More examples                                                              frog container was made by a seventh grader

Procedures:

1.      Line plastic bowl with plastic wrap (as a separator) - put name on bottom of bowl with masking tape

2.      Wedge clay to remove air bubbles

3.      Roll out slab of clay with rolling pin.  Use guide sticks on either side.  Slab should be about 3/8" thick.  Cut slab for bottom of bowl.  Place slab in bottom

4.      Option 1: Texture slabs with stamps, gadgets, and texture panels. Cut slab shapes and place in bowls--fuse where slabs touch.  Score and apply slip. (may leave slabs smooth and carve/incise in textures later)

Use a variety of textures---but choose ones that will compliment each other (similar in design)

5.      Option 2: Roll out coils of clay--rope like pieces of clay--roll up into interesting patterns--press into bowls--fuse coils together on back sides with slip and thin pads of clay.  (see pressed coil pot example)

6.      Fill bowl with patterned coils or textured slabs. Trim top of bowl even.  Un-mold when leather hard (keep wrapped in plastic bag--PUT NAME ON PLASTIC BAG)

7.      Make another bowl shape--this time without the bottom (leave open for neck of vessel).  Texture similarly to first bowl.

8.      Fuse second bowl on top of the first by scoring both edges and applying slip.

9.      Continue neck of bottle with coils or slab cylinder.  Make a cardboard cylinder to help support neck.

10.  Press mold face --or make pinch animal face -- for portrait.  Fuse onto neck of vessels. Add details with coils, stamps, tools.  

11. Incise/Carve patterns textures into body and neck of vessel

12.  Allow to dry---bisque fire ---

13. Glaze with earthen tones. -- glaze fire. An interesting wood patina can be obtained by painting with brown acrylic - polishing off raised areas -- then applying black and brown shoe polish. Buff to a nice sheen.

Notes for sixth grade:

I did this project with sixth graders uses Styrofoam bowls as molds. We used plastic wrap as a separator. Students  pressed rolled up coils into the bowls --set one aside to get leather hard for base. The second one was without a bottom and used for the top portion of the pot body. Fuse both bowl shapes together - hide seem with decoration. The neck was made by rolling a slab around a toilet paper tube wrapped with a layer of newspaper as separator. I had molds of dolls faces. Slab was pressed into the mold to make face - which was then fused onto the neck (a U shape was cut out of the neck behind the face). Surface decoration was added with sprigging of coils and pressed in textures. Students turned these into self- portraits by adding on their own hair style. Some made hats as lids to represent sports they played. One student really liked pizza so hers had and up-turned coil arm carrying a pizza. Other students did personal touches to represent self.

Notes for High School

My interest in African Ceramics actually began with a project done by one of my advanced students. They always had to do a piece inspired by a historical piece of ceramics. They could chose an artist or a culture. They had all forming techniques presented as beginning students so they could chose any hand building technique for the historical piece. One of my students wanted to do a piece inspired by African art. I knew nothing about African Ceramics at the time so did some searching (the was pre-Internet). I found an image of a Mangbetu portrait vessel and I liked it immediately. The book gave very little information about the piece or the people. I left that research up to my student. He chose to do a traditional coil vessel (using wide slab coils to form quickly) with a cardboard template to help control the shape. His vessel stood about 18" high. He used an old doll face to make a plaster mold for the face - which was them cast with a slab of clay pressed into the mold. After the face was fused onto the neck of the pot, he altered the face to look more like himself. He gave the pot his own shaped crew hair style. The body of the vessel was carved/incised with words and symbols that were important to him while a repeat pattern was carved into the neck. The piece was finished with metallic brown glaze on the inside and a rich brown patina on the outside. The patina was made by layering brown and black acrylic stains then polishing with brown and black shoe polish. 

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