You’ve watched as we prepared, fired and finished our salt kiln-fired pottery…now let’s explore our classic redware!

The redware begins with an initial kiln firing, to make the pottery piece strong enough for us to be able to handle and to dip into a water-based liquid glaze that will eventually produce a finished piece.

The black bands around the pottery are made from a number of different metal oxides that are combined together and mixed with water and an element to allow it to adhere to the redware – when the pottery piece is fired a second time with the glaze, it will create a nice, dark, uniform band across the piece. But for now, these decorative bands are a bit powdery, so we are very careful to avoid touching them with either our fingers or the tongs to prevent the bands from smearing or transferring them to other pieces of pottery.

While we did extensive research to ensure we’re sticking to more traditional early American methods of forming and decorating pottery, one element that is not used in our Greenfield Village pottery is lead, so our products are food safe. Lead was widely used in pottery products in the 18th and 19th centuries, but we’re now aware of how dangerous this metal is and it is not used in any of our Greenfield Village pottery.

Once the glaze has been applied, the pottery will go through a second firing at a higher temperature than the first, melting the glaze into a glassy surface. To see the glazing process, watch this video as one of our potters, Alex, demonstrates it.

So the next time you’re dining at Eagle Tavern or watching the ladies at our historic homes (like the Ford Home, below) prepare the midday meal, take a look at the pottery upon which those classic recipes are served – and see if you can find the release points from the tongs!

Ryan Forrey is lead potter in Greenfield Village’s Pottery Shop, where throwing pottery is a fun and rewarding job – but nothing like the movie Ghost.