Ceramics in the McClung Museum

On Tuesday our class had a small fieldtrip to the University of Tennessee Campus Frank H. McClung Museum, which is a museum with large variety of art and findings from different areas and eras specializing in archeology, anthropology, decorative arts and natural history. We went there to learn about local history - the first people of Tennessee, the Cherokee. As we had a guided tour around the native American side of the museum, everyone of us got an assignment to collect facts about a certain object or material. I chose Ceramics as my material since I have been doing pottery and sculpting ceramics for several years now. The rise of ceramics and pottery was one of the most succesful milestones in the history of Finnish design. Still today it is one of the biggest design exports in Finland, so I feel like I have a close connection to it.

Teema dishware from Iittala, Finland

Pieces of Cherokee pottery from the Woodland Period

What I found intriguing was that the sculpting of clay pots is still using the same kinds of techniques as the people of Arcaid and Woodland Periods. I found it very delighting how the Cherokee were able to make their life so functional only by using objects made by hand. To me the visit to the museum was incredibly enriching since in my home country I do not get to learn about Native American culture and decorative arts as a piece of local history.

Wood

Our trip to the McClung Museum was very interesting and I learned much about the past of our great nation. The way culture has changed is extraordinary and mindblowing. But I think my favorite part about the trip was seeing how the design of things had changed and expanded. In the earlier days, design did not seem very important, but later became more prominent in thier works.

I picked out wood as my choice of material to examine and relate to something that I have seen in modern times. There weren't very many pieces of wood but, ironically, the biggest exhibit was a wooden canoe. It is somewhat skinny but also quite long. The picture of the canoe is shown below:

The ruggedness of the canoe and the hole in it immediately made me think of how we use old things in a modern place to give a sense of the vintage look to things. Driftwood or old wood is sometimes hung on a wall for the vintage look as shown below.

Or, in the case shown below, used as the headboard of the bed.

Even though all of the pieces of wood are of different colors, shapes, and forms, they still work in this situation.

The distressed look has really caught on in interior design. Damaged pieces of wood can still be pretty when used under the right circumstances like in the two above. Holes, chipped paint, rugged edges - all can, fascinatingly enough, give an edge and twist to the modern trends.

Ceramics

The McClung Museum is home to an exhibit showcasing the past of Native Tennesseans. The museum had information about the materials the Native Americans used to survive thousands of years ago. One of the materials they started to use in the late 1700's was ceramics. The Natives used ceramics mainly to make dishes. For the most part they made plates and bowls to be used for meals. Today ceramics are put to the same uses. We see ceramics being used mainly for dishes or vases just like the Native Americans did thousands of years ago.

Jewelry: Past and Present

This past Tuesday, I was given the opportunity to explore East Tennessee's past through the University of Tennessee's Frank H. McClung Museum. While the museum holds many different interesting artifacts, I particularly enjoyed researching the history and many uses of seashells. Although shells were used during the Historic period, they are mostly found to be used during the Mississippian and Woodland Periods (500-2000 BC). Having jewelry made of shells during this time frame was a great luxury; it ultimately showed power and wealth among the people. Seashells became more available as trading to and from Florida progressed and became more prevalent. I thought one of the most interesting parts of their jewelry making process was the steps taken to produce the intricate design on each "bead". While jewelry today can be very beautiful, this kind of craftsmanship is unfortunately not seen very often in today's society.

Stone Jewels

There at the museum, we learned many intresting facts about the Native American time period. This all included information about the materials they used and the tools they made to be able to maintain life durring this time. In paticular, stone was one of those materials they used. The Native Americans found various ways to craft stone so that they could use it to whatever extent they needed. Jewelry was one of the few ways that they used this stone. They made many different kinds of jewelry out of stone for the entire body, but one piece of jewelry they specifically made to wear was the ear gage loops. It is festinating how they decided to use stone to make this jewelry and yet today we still have gages for earings.