This technique uses seals, cylinder seals or stamping wheels.
Seals
Wooden or metal seals with incised decoration are used to stamp the wet clay.
Repeated decoration with cylinder seal and wheels
Incised cylinders and toothed wheels are used to stamp the potter’s chosen decoration on the wet clay.
Coloured
For biscuit ware, Crete has an ancient tradition using mainly a geometric form of decoration, or very rarely abstract motifs. These consist of fine-grained red clay, finely levigated and skimmed, which is applied to the wet pot with a brush or other instrument.
During firing, this slip becomes red to dark brown in colour, depending on the temperature of the kiln.
Glazed pottery
Glazing made its appearance in local Cretan pottery production in the 12th century, usually for very simple use ware such as rough cups. From the 14th century onwards, typically Cretan patterns (always geometric) and colours were established. The raw material for glaze is obtained by burning lead in a clay pot for many hours. In the end, the slag remains in the form of ash, which is pounded well and mixed with water. The biscuit ware is dipped in the mixture and after firing is covered with a fine layer of lead glaze.
Glazing and colouring
In medieval and Renaissance Crete, glaze was only applied to pots painted or incised with various geometric or symmetrical patterns. The following colours were used:
- the badanas, or basic white slip of the biscuit ware, on which
- the Cretan potter painted green and light yellow bands, with brighter brown spots between them.
Glazing and incising
The decoration typical of a period or a geographic area was applied by carefully incising through the slip to the clay of the pot itself.
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