THE POTTERY
Pottery is made by forming a ceramic (often clay) body into objects of a desired shape and heating them to high temperatures (600-1600 °C) in a bonfire, pit or kiln and induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing the strength and rigidity of the object. Much pottery is purely utilitarian, but much can also be regarded as ceramic art. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing.
Clay-based pottery can be divided into three main groups: earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. These require increasingly more specific clay material, and increasingly higher firing temperatures. All three are made in glazed and unglazed varieties, for different purposes. All may also be decorated by various techniques. Historic pottery of all these types is often grouped as either “fine” wares, relatively expensive and well-made, and following the aesthetic taste of the culture concerned, or alternatively “coarse”, “popular” “folk” or “village” wares, mostly undecorated, or simply so, and often less well-made.
THE FERTILISER
Fertilisers supplement essential nutrients in the soil needed by all plants for healthy, vigorous growth. Contrary to popular belief, fertiliser are not plant food. Plants manufacture their own food from water and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Fertilisers consist of organics and non organics.