Terra Cotta

About Terra Cotta

 

Terra cotta, also commonly spelled terracotta, is a building material created from clay. This becomes widely utilized because when compared to other building materials, it is cheap and easy to give shape; it is essentially just a clay product fired under specific techniques.

 

Terra cotta is one of the oldest building materials and sculpting media. The term simply means "baked earth" in Latin. Used in ancient times to make pipes, cooking pots, bricks, cornices and architectural ornaments, its principal use today is in the sculpture and tile that bear its unmistakable orangish color and porous texture.

 

The Process

 

1. Clay

 

Terra cotta is made from clay. However, different types of terra cotta have different names based on where the product is made. This is partly because clay harvested from the ground in any particular region will have a slightly different makeup than clay found elsewhere. However, wherever the terra cotta is made, the first step is finding suitable clay deposits and harvesting the clay from the ground.

 

2. Refining

 

The raw clay needs to be refined before it is made into terra cotta pots, tiles or other products. This process involves drying the clay and then screening and filtering it to remove impurities that affect the consistency, color and other properties of the clay. Depending on the purity of the clay pit from which the material is removed, raw clay has foreign matter, minerals, rocks and other items that need to be removed during this process.

 

3. Molding

 

Once it has been refined, terra cotta clay is often pressed into molds. Roofing tiles, flooring tiles and architectural embellishments are just a few of the mold types that are used for terra cotta in building material applications. The clay is firmly pressed into the mold so that it takes on the shape before firing.

 

4. Firing

 

Once the terra cotta has been pressed into the appropriate shape, it needs to be fired in order to cook and harden. Terra cotta falls into the category of low fire clay. This means that you must fire it at a lower temperature than many other clays or it will melt. This can damage the kiln as well as ruin the work. Normally, terra cotta is fired at a temperature between 2,048 and 2,079 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Additional Information

 

Terracotta female figurines were uncovered by archaeologists in excavations of ‘Mohenjo-daro’ (3000-1500 BC). Along with phallus-shaped stones, these suggest some sort of fertility cult and a belief in a mother goddess. The ‘Burney Relief’ is an outstanding terracotta plaque from Ancient ‘Mesopotamia’ of about 1950 BC.

The ancient Greeks' Tanagra figurines are mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines. Significant uses of terracotta have included Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army of China, built in 209–210 BC.

 

Pre-colonial West African sculpture also made extensive use of terracotta. The region’s most recognized for producing terracotta art in this part of the world include the Nok culture of central and north-central Nigeria, the Ife/Benin cultural axis in western and southern Nigeria (also noted for its exceptionally naturalistic sculpture), and the Igbo culture area of eastern Nigeria, which excelled in terracotta pottery. These related, but separate, traditions also gave birth to elaborate schools of bronze and brass sculpture in the area.

 

French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse made many terracotta pieces, but possibly the most famous is The Abduction of Hippodameia depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. American architect Louis Sullivan is well known for his elaborate glazed terracotta ornamentation, designs that would have been impossible to execute in any other medium. Terracotta and tile were used extensively in the town buildings of Victorian Birmingham, England.

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