How Was Briglin Decorated?
Briglin is best known for it’s wax resist process and it’s scraffito decoration. 1) Wax resist is a waxy substance used to prevent slips or glazes from adhering onto the clay body or a prior coating of slip, etc. A resist is especially helpful in keeping glaze from adhering to a pot’s foot. This prevents the glaze sticking a piece to the shelf in the kiln. It means the potter can maintain a ‘crisp’ bottom to pieces which is typical of Briglin. Wax resist is also used in decoration, where it can be brushed onto the body to produce patterns that will resist the coloured glaze. AA quotes in her book p.39 “She used a hot wax made with three medium-sized candles to a third of a pint of paraffin. The different ways of decorating with wax resist are too numerous to describe fully: there is wax on ‘raw’ and wax on bisque, wax on ‘raw’ and scraffitoed, then covered with an oxide on the banding wheel; there is painting the motif with wax on ‘raw’ then banding in the background; there is a combin
