Making an Earthen Oil Lamp
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2024
- In which I revisit the oil lamp and show how to make, fire, seal and use an earthenware oil lamp.
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If you are curious about milk sealing, I did a whole video about it here th-cam.com/video/YuKn76tSU-Q/w-d-xo.html
Ooh! Next video to watch. Much curiosity! Thanks, Andy!
Ah. Interesting. Given that casein is pH-sensitive, I wonder how the sealing effectiveness and penetration would change based on its water ratio and pH. Acudity makes casein curdle and clump together. Alkalinity makes it separate and flow. If you curdled it with some vinegar (or by allowing it to sour on its own... eww), then maybe used fire ash or quicklime to turn it basic, then you, might be able to paint it, like a goo, onto the inside of the pot. I am not sure how well it would infiltrate the clay though. What about a casein slip, using the casein as a binder? Many ideas.
That's a great video. Iv always liked those lamps. I wonder if it would be easier to make it upside-down. Idk iv never done it B4 but ...
Melk?
I use these type of oil lamps to make kajal for the eye. Thank you for giving me a solution!!!
It's an absolute travesty that TH-cam left you off the pottery playlist on the homepage right now. For my money, this is the best pottery content on the platform!
Way too technical, intelligent and [intersectional politics here] for youtube. Wouldn't want anyone to actually learn anything useful, and god forbid they actually put down the phone and work with their hands. YT only wants you to watch more YT.
Exactly, this channel is amazing!
too straight white and male
I love how you show your process and learning from trial and error. It's so imoortant to show that mistakes or unexpected outcomes are common, even for someone with so much experience and expertise.
Mistakes are literally a part of my process, LOL.
I don't normally comment, but i love how your mind works! So curious, that you dont get discouraged when things don't work! I tend to give up thank you
That's what got me where I am today, 30 years of "keep trying" Thanks..
I learned a long time ago that I usually have to make something about 7 times before I figure out how to do it right. For some reason we are always given the impression that people do things on the first try. That's never the case. People that are proficient in anything got rhat way by doing it a few thousand times. Just have fun with the process, no matter what you pursue.
It's people like you that do not like or comment that makes it difficult for content creators. It's easy and free but helps them
Ya gotta push through that discouragement or you won't be ready when something impossible comes along 😉
Ya gotta push through that discouragement or you won't be ready when something impossible comes along 😉
I love how this guy describes how difficult it is to make one single oil lamp, how many different minute details he has to pay attention to, demonstrating how to do something that I know would be impossible for me to do, and then he just flexes super hard and is like "actually I made three 😏." Absolute legend.
you are amazing! in india we get small oil lamps called diyas, they are notorious for leaking oil everywhere and its a mess to clean up! your video answered a question ive been having for ages as to how to prevent that. thank you so much!
what we do is get the diyas wet and then pour oil, that way we dont have the oily mess everywhere, just a little water which will dry off quickly from the heat
I don't even practice pottery. I'm in no way associated with this community.
The algorithm served me well today. You've earned a sub. Thanks for the awesome content.
Awesome! Thank you!
As a viewer, I can never thank you enough for delivering such an original and entertaining content completely for free.
I really appreciate your work. Thanks.
Glad you enjoy it!
A book would be great for people like me who live in an apartment that need to go camping to be able to build a fire. I can watch the video at home then take the book with me to reference ask the key points while I am actually able to try it in the woods.
I’m a modern potter, but I’m originally from West Texas, and I love your videos. They make me want to go out and find some wild clay and just play with it. 😁
Thanks, glad to inspire you a little.
I used to casein-seal primitive sawdust firings years back. I realized it would have variable results depending on whether i used whole milk or low-fat. My grocer would give me out-dated milk for free, and i discovered older milk actually worked better than fresh.
Did the whole or low fat work better?
Yes I was wondering the same.
Thanks good info. There is not much info on milk sealing online. I am still learning.
@@AncientPottery if you want to test fat content try sealing one with butter or heavy cream.
@@Grunttamer I wonder if milk fats in butter being polymerized would have the same issues as polymerizing the olive oil.
Just think, this was cutting edge technology at one point in time.
I can imagine someone looking at one of these in awe and thinking “omg, you can carry this around!”
Andys courses are definitely worth it. You can watch over and over again to pick up on the bits you didn't know you needed to pay attention to 😉.. its especially handy when you think "yeah I know how to do that", but when you do it yourself you realise there must have been some step you missed.. ahh I have re-watched them many times 😅
Thanks Nom!
I'm going to be investing... Any time limit? I know most online courses don't have cut-offs, but some do. Didn't see it mentioned on the page, but it's possible I missed it.
@@Ghost_Os no. Buy once and get access for as long as my website is on the internet.
I spent years planing my channel. when things didn't work with my hand dug clay, I searched and you were there. I have made nice simple things all owed to you.
That is awesome!
What I love most about your videos is how accessible almost everything you do is. And it's usually all made from stuff that can safely return to the environment. I love "new" as much as anyone but i'm coming to learn that in many ways the "old" held up for 1000s of years of human culture for a reason.
I actually made my first pottery last week during my post surgical recovery and it was so simple to do, to use and to fire in the woodstove which was already being used to heat the house. Your work brings me unending joy!
Clay, Milk, natural fabric, and oil. All primary materials which can return to the earth without hurting us or her. Thank you andy!
Sustainable products, just what the world needs more of. Someday we will return to that kind of life.
I watch these videos mostly because I like the concept of any random person being able to do something, preferably with materials taken from nature. People making stuff on TH-cam will generally tell you about which brand of material they're using, which specific item from that brand, and the idea is reproducibility - if the package you buy has all these words on it then, basically, any differences between my version and the one you make based on my instruction will be due to your skill level and how you choose to deviate from the instructions. But I'd like to know how to make things without having to spend a lot of money. I found this channel because I wondered about pottery glazes - people were glazing pottery thousands of years ago, but when I try to find information about glazing pottery online, all I see is chemicals and minerals like manganese or whatever which may be made in a lab or mined from deep underground for all I know. Turns out you can do it with literal salt (I would be curious to see a video on that).
Like I crochet and I buy my yarn from shops, but I know theoretically how to take a fleece of wool, a sheaf of flax or a bag of cotton and make yarn out of them, even dye them. I have a base knowlede of how to make knives out of rocks, baskets out of willow branches, and twine out of nettles. I like knowing how to make stuff literally from scratch. Just in case, I guess. I'm aware it's information I'm probably never going to use - I'm too lazy for homesteading or anything like that - but hey at least I can use this knowledge in my writing and my D&D games. Maybe one day I might even get into LARP.
I usually watch only part of a video and then save to finish later… and then usually don’t. But you’re so on point with your sharing and teaching, that I found myself watching til the end! Makes me want to - and feel like I totally could- make an oil lamp myself. I’ll be back.
If I don't have a lot of time, I speed a video up.
I didn't catch witch period of the roman era inspire you for this batch of lamps.
In imperial roman times, the production in fabricae was quite industrial.
They used mold to create lamps, in two parts, bottom and top. Decoration was integrated in it.
You pinch the two parts togather and flat the jonction with the finger.
The lamps were even flater than your new batch.
The hole for filling oil is usualy smaller and the zone around curved inward to guid the oil.
Thank you for the video !
These are not replicas. Just lamps.
Learned a lot about making pottery in this video. Thank you 🙏🏽 I am glad that these ancient arts aren't forgotten
🪔 one of my favorite projects 🪔
Thanks
Its lovely to see the lamp come together ❤. An great old traditional way of making an oil lamp
❤❤❤
I have built many oil lamps. The best size is 3 inch disks and 3/4 inch high. The best sealer is pine pitch. The roman oil lamps are the best.
This is crazy how you are able to work just wild unmodified clay like that, no cracking, no falling apart, just wow
The clay is slightly modified, I grind it and add sand temper. But yeah, thanks.
Use flax oil to season your clay. Then wax it with bees wax. Warm olive oil won't break the seal from the flax seed oil. The fine bees wax layer will protect the flax seed seal.
Milk is good too.
Also, you could paint a sealant on on made for pottery then do a second fire.
One thing I like about clay, is it doesn't matter how many mistakes you make while the clay is wet. Everything is fixable tilll it's fired.
Even if you let it airdry, the clay can be rehydrated to start again
One thing you might try if this doesn't work is to add a large portion of clean silica sand to your clay, and then fire at much hotter temperature. If you hit the right temp, the sand will vitrify and create a glass glazing.
The advantage of writing a book is that you can fill it with a lot of pictures of your beautiful work.
You could even take pictures of the landscape near where you found the different wild clays. Think more like a coffee table book of all your stunning colors and traveling american southwest.
Those Roman oil lamps are mostly moulded in several parts than attached together, that's how the relief decoration gets on them too. But there were oil lamps around in Prehistory too and those were certainly often coiled.
Yes, but this was not intended as a replica, just a hand made lamp.
keep us updated! Not just on any seeping, but I'm curious about burn time too. Thank you the video and your hard work!
I really appreciate how well you explain everything. I struggled understanding how milk sealing works because when I needed to use it when my crockpot cracked and couldn't afford to replace it. I ended up throwing it away because everything I found just said I could try milk sealing without explaining or showing how to actually do milk sealing. Right now, I've got your milk sealing video open in another tab, and I'm very interested to see what you teach there. I also homeschool my daughter, and I think this is going to be a great project for us to do together, especially since we've had a crazy winter full of power outages where we're left in the dark and not enough batteries. Thank you again for making this video for us.
There's actually already a book by this guy named Andy Ward...it's called Mud Puzzles! (Highly recommended!)
I'm inclined to think that the lamps were probably just pinch pots from start to finish, and that the curved shape of the bottom was due to them being held in the hand as they were formed. After all, ancient potters were cranking these out as quickly and as cheaply as possible. If they were making them for home use, they had better things to do, and if they were professional potters, they hand more interesting and lucrative stuff to make.
I think that your comment about the smaller oil reservoirs is probably spot on. I suspect that these lamps didn't sit around for long periods of time with oil in them. They probably just filled them with enough oil to burn through the night, and by morning they were empty. Fire was a huge and deadly risk, so if the lamp got overturned, you would want to be able to put it out quickly--and if the kids or the dog knocked it over or broke it during the day, you wouldn't want the extra oil to go to waste.
The wicking property probably affected the pot itself, too--as the oil burned down, the wick would draw some of what was absorbed into the pot back out again. So a combination of polymerized oil, a small reservoir, and not having the lamp sit around full of oil probably meant that oil seepage wasn't a major factor.
Another great vid!
I made one of these for an object lesson to use while teaching about the parable of the 10 virgins at a religious meeting.
I discovered your vids many years ago. I teach pottery in Brigham City. I show a Maria Martinez video to my students when we do coil vases. I digitized a vhs from 19 years ago so i could keep showing it in post vcr times but the video i show is now on youtube.
I have shown your recent Mata Ortiz video to some 9th graders as well.
Thank you for keeping ancient traditions alive.
I know Brigham City, I used to live in Logan. I love that old video on Maria, I also have a good video about Lucy Lewis that is as good. Thanks
Several years ago I bought a Genesis Visions oil lamp replica that was made based on 2000 yr old design from the holy land. Mine was sold with a candle inside. I wish I could post a picture here of it.
In particular I would reckon the reason for squat designs on ancient lamps would come down to scarce use (due to cost of oil) causing rancidity in larger vessels. Learned a lot here, and they're so pleasant to look at. I'm no potter but you definitely make me want to try making one of these.
Took a couple of pottery classes in college, but I have learned more in a near fifteen-minute video than I did in two years! Read about old oil lamps all my life, but never knew much about how they're made, or the best kinds of clay to make them, just that people then used whatever they had on hand. Yours look AMAZING! Sure, the spilled milk burned the final result, but they gave them a nice 'aged' look! NEVER heard of milk being used as a sealant before, so learned something new, today! Does the difference in milk-percentage really help or hinder the result? Made a new subscriber out of me! ^^
I really liked your video and it’s inspired me to start working with clay again. I always loved clay in class but didn’t continue after school bc I didn’t have access to a Kiln, but now I’ve seen enough home made kilns that I’m sure I can do it myself ☺️ the only thing that drove me crazy was when you started to pronounce MILK as M E L K 😂 there’s no E in it.
I love making pottery. I haven't made an oil lamp before and it looks so interesting.
Melk. The way you pronounce it reminds me of my own Yup’ik Eskimo people saying milk, “melk.” I love your work!
Interesting, "melk" is also the Dutch word for milk 😮
Didn't expect to be learning about pottery from Bubble's American uncle, but I'm pretty hooked.
😂 I fucking lost it man. Thought it was bubbles myself
Thanks for very good, intresting video !
With Love from Siberia, Russia !
Ancients were so clever, i bet they made molds to form the small oil lamp. top and bottom half then slipped them together.
I'm glad you made another video about this! I've been wanting to try to make these as gifts for the ladies in my Bible study. I'll be looking forward to the update video 😊
A frivolous tip: I use a pour spout for alcohol bottles in my olive oil bottle. Makes pouring much easier - for cooking and otherwise 😊
Thanks for the tip.
I poor my olive oil into a Sriracha bottle that works nicely
I can hardly wait to watch another one of your videos 😊
Andy, thank you so much for making videos that are easy to watch, easier to learn from and are very incredibly focused. About 3 weeks ago I started my interest in pottery again and I’ve learned so much and inspired my daughter to collect clay with me. I hope to have my first project done in a week or so and have only you to thank. Please keep making these videos as your teaching style is perfect.
I just came across your channel and i can honestly say im quite pleased 🌻
How cool Andy! Wow, I literally just made and fired one of these for my Church the other day. Great tip on the milk, I'll give that a try before we test this thing out on Sunday.
Wow, that's cool Will.
Very cool and a lot of great information. I really like the one with the yellow slip that didn't turn out how you wanted.
Been watching a couple of weeks now, where i live is basically a small river valley and the house i grew up in the kitchen is in a slope, it wasn't wheb it was built but because of all the clay, like under the topsoil is just loads of blue clay, the houses set after a while, now its stable, but there about a ten centimeter difference in height over three meters, anyways I've always been interested in ancient practical things such as pottery, gonna try and find some clay and try it out, thanks for all your amazing videos
Now im no potter, but I do love how you are looking at the pottery techniques of antiquity. The history of how humans have been lighting their homes for centuries are all caputured right here, and its fascinating. Youve earned yourself a new subscriber, hope to see more from you soon!
Thanks
Teapot 🫖!
They are definitely a more oil lamp shape than your original and fwiw I like the milk markings. It will be interesting to see how they hold up but it may be that back in the day they would have been regularly reheated to polymerise the oil. There were a lot of very repetitive tasks within the household and maybe this process would have been one of them. Thanks for the video and the time you spent trying things out.
Yes thanks, you are right, it may have just been one of those things you did every so often. I would like to learn just how durable and long lasting a seal like this is.
Wow this was a spectacular watch
Thanks
I need one in 40w, for reading.
I love your oil lamps! This is definitely a project I want to do.
I've learned quite a bit just from your regular TH-cam videos actually, those lamps are cool!
Thanks
I have all my family experimenting with clay thanks to you
That's great
Somehow either my searching the youtube has caused the algorythm to pull your video up, or something. I tend to search how to make this and that, survival stuff, and basically anything someone of my gen could care less about learning but I want to learn because it's important to know "the basics". Because otherwise how we going to make it when the world comes to a screeching hault? And if it doesn't happen, and my time comes to an end, I can at least say "Well, I had a good amount of hobbies, and was a jack of all trades." (sorry if that's a small rant) But anyhow, I've learned a lot about pottery in just one video. I can only imagine what the paid for videos would do for someone. I live in Texas, and can only imagine the pottery possibilities that I could come up with using the dirt we have out here. If only the rest of youtube was as informative and well put together as this... *sigh* Thank you for the outstanding video, and you may have very well turned me on to doing pottery. Which may become contagious to my 3 children. We shall see in time. :) Going to take some time (and money) to build up the stuff necessary for this I assume.
Love your videos :) One benefit of a book would be having that information in a grid down situation, or in a place that just generally doesn't have internet :)
I recently found you and you are amazing. Now I just sit and watch most my day.
AmaZing! Thank You for Creating this! 🌈🦄🌹🤗💖🌹🦄🌈
You are so welcome!
Lovely video Andy!
I like the added interest of the discoloration. To me it gives added depth to the appearance of these pieces. You do such excellent videos that make your processes accessible. I’ll buy you book.
Those are a really nice shape. Too bad about the color not working out, but your facility with the brush is really cool to watch. I love your little bench top doodles!
Thanks!
Wow cool! I'll check out the original video too. I didnt know that was a thing.
I'm so glad i found this channel again.
You’re very informative and seem genuine. I appreciate your knowledge and hard work. Thank you.
amazing videos!! you are so passionate about this topic
I just made an oil lamp and then saw your video.
Awesome
I'm having so much fun watching you.😮; and I've been looking on TH-cam and tictoc to find a channel just like this. You're a wonderful person and a good teacher ❤️. Thanks so very much for sharing yourself and your talent. 😊
After watching a other channels video about how one could weld with an oil lamp flame, I find myself wanting to make an oil lamp.
Thanks for your insights on a very important ancient technology.
You bet!
Just wanted to say I really appreciate your videos! I've been interested in pottery ever since early Primitive Technology's videos on their pottery making. Fast-forward and now I've gotten into traditional Chinese tea brewing (gongfu cha) which inadvertently reignited my interest in simple stoneware pottery.
I live on the east coast of America and thankfully red clay is super abundant near me. Regardless, I followed your methods in other videos on identifying good and pure sources of clay and succeeded in finding some! I plan on making simple tea pets (small figurines to pour tea waste on).
Amazing video like allways, thanks from Spain
Andy. Love your style.... keep up the good work Mr ✌️💪👍😉
Thank You! LUV this very much!
Honestly never done or thought about pottery, but I love lamps of all kinds. Definitely an interesting watch. thank the random recommendations. Would definitely be interested in checking back later to see how the milk sealing holds out
Thank you for this video. It is inline with my heart’s desire. I am going to look into the video instruction also.
Wonderful!
I'd be interested in that book, too.
Ok, you're on my list.
I will buy a book but it must have many glossy color photos. But I buy old pottery books and archeology books that focus on pottery. Video is truly the best way to learn to make pottery. Books are better for an academic study of the craft
Lighting is not the only application but also about the air in closed or covered spaces. Try it.
I appreciate books for instances where video isn't available for a variety of reasons.
It's nice to have reference books to check something you may not be sure you remember correctly from the video instruction
Definitely I do the same
thank you for filming and editing this video
agree on the point that many people just casually ask someone (to push you) to write a book
I can see that you spend a lot of time and effort and heart to film and edit the video, to make it easy to understand the topic
I also agree that words and pictures might not be the best way to show movements of hands, tools. text is also not very good at telling texture or consistency of material.
only write that book when you feel necessary, but not write it because you are "asked" to do so.
Wonderful Video, Thank you 🥰
You’re welcome 😊
wow ! i love this video you are so entertaining and informative i will be subscribing!
Thank you
These are so cute! You did such an amazing job
How wonderfully fabulous! I love these, and I never thought about firing pottery in my own yard with charcoal. This is the first time I have seen your channel, and I HAD to subscribe! Thank you so much, I am sharing too!
Thanks. Welcome to my channel I have many other similar videos you might like.
on the topic of the slip coloring, since its specifically oxidation...
the way you had your setup looks like it wouldn't have allowed for a whole lot of airflow
consider the path of least resistance for the majority of the volume: around and out
the volume under the bucket is the most important, as that's the one that would feed airflow to your ceramics...
but with only either a longer or restricted path available, it's tough to say which would flue.
a test run you could try with the same slips: slap a hole in the top of the bucket...
stick some mesh or weld a tube on top if you'd be concerned about debris.
hope it helps; first i'm seeing of you on here, and i'd put you up there with my top pottery educational channels
The way I've seen casein sealing done in the past in tibet is to get a low fat milk and bring it to the boil before giving each piece a dunk or two. This would of course ruin the looks of your particular lamps. I ran into the same problem when I made oil lamps a few years ago, I have yet to actually get around to trying casein sealing but this video is good encouragement to give it a go.
Thanks for the info. I am still learning how to get a good milk seal.
Andy I absolutely love your channel. I've never even attempted to make anything with clay, but nonetheless, your content is fascinating and captivating. You present all of your info clearly and well thought out. Thank you from Chicago.
Awesome, thank you!
For what it's worth, I think weeping oil is just something lamps will do no matter what. I've made unglazed, and glazed earthenware lamps. Even when completely glazed inside and out they still wept oil. They'd seem fine for a while, and then suddenly be sitting in a gooey mess.
I have often wondered about that. Maybe ancient people just accepted the oozing as the way it was with lamps.
I love hand building pieces, but I can certainly see why the Romans used molds!
Well it's a great if you are churning out lamps all day every day like Roman oil lamp producers no doubt were. But for your average potter a lamp mold seems like a big investment for one small project. But there are a million ways to do this like.
You need to design a sintering furnace that is itself made out of clay!
Your slip. If I recall correctly, you should be able to use a liquid-wettable piece of fabric to drain liquid. Wet the fabric with the liquid, place part of it in the container, and hang the other side out below the liquid in the container. The surface tension and capillary action causes it to act like a siphon. It can also filter out larger particles. Still not as fast as your boiling of the slip.
Milk as a sealant? Interesting. I would have assumed that the casein would be oil-permeable. Perhaps I am wrong, given that it is a suspension in water.
Pretty lamps when lit. Perhaps you can increase their combustion efficiency with a perforated/slotted chimney of sorts. Just speculating.
Muy bonito video, Gracias
Bello...siempre me han gustado las lamparas de aceite
Wow！好漂亮的陶器，我應該能試看看自己做一個
the overhead stirrer is cool.
Thanks
Great video. Looking forward to the follow-up
Thanks 👍
Thanks for sharing this video
My pleasure
Great video! Thanks
Glad you liked it!
thank you
Querido tío Andy, justo esta mañana he comprobado el sellado con leche de mi lámpara, tras 24 horas, no ha dejado rastro en una servilleta de papel; el método utilizado fue hervirla durante 20 minutos, introduciéndola en el pote con la leche fría. Secado inmediato de la superficie exterior con un paño, dejar secar la cerámica y rellenar de aceite. Dejaré pasar semanas para observar la efectividad en el tiempo. Gracias por tus vídeos.
Interesting. Did you not heat it up after you soaked it in milk?
@@AncientPottery No, el calor lo recibió mientras hervía sumergido en leche. Introduje la lámpara en la olla con la leche fría y la herví a fuego lento durante 20 m. Sacar, limpiar la superficie exterior, dejar secar y rellenar con aceite de girasol, por favor no desperdicies el aceite de oliva, oro líquido, en estos menesteres; úsalo en tus comidas, te será más provechoso. La lámpara sigue llena y sin dejar marca en la servilleta de papel. Gracias por contestar, Tío Andy.
No, the heat greeted him as he boiled immersed in milk. I placed the lamp in the pot with the cold milk and boiled it over low heat for 20 m. Take out, clean the outer surface, let it dry and fill with sunflower oil, please do not waste the olive oil, liquid gold, on these needs; Use it in your meals, it will be more beneficial for you. The lamp is still full and without leaving a mark on the paper napkin. Thanks for answering, Uncle Andy.
I have used one of these in tandem with a copper blowpipe to make a very hot torch flame! It's useful for soldering and melting down small amounts of silver for jewelry making.
That's pretty cool
Makes sense why they didn't oxidize, by covering them like that then surrounding it with charcoal basically burned off most of the oxygen under the covering and the surrounding flames would have prevented most new oxygen from getting in.
It's actually how we make our own charcoal here, fill up a large metal trash can with the wood, cover it with a larger metal barrel, flip them upside down and fill in the gaps with charcoal/saw dust and finally build a bonfire around it. The dust helps burn off the oxygen inside creating an anaerobic environment which is what helps the wood become charcoal rather than turning to ash.