Sorkun Çömlekçiliği

Sorkun Çömlekçiliği

S o r k u n Po t t e r yS o r k u n Po t t e r y

Sorkun is a small village 12 km from Mihalıççık in the Eskişehir region with a population of 500 people with 80 dwellings. With the help of the loyal local people continuing their ancestors’ pottery craft tradition, Sorkun has attained an admirable position in terms of pottery production. The people of Sorkun have continued their interest in the craft of pottery throughout history. Without being affected by the Industry Age, they have become aware of their own value, and turned soil into golden pottery using authentic methods. Living mainly on livestock farming and the cultivation of potatoes, the people of Sorkun have dabbled in pottery from the youngest to the oldest. You can readily witness the pottery craft with almost every house working as a domestic workshop. Because of the climatic conditions pottery is produced in summer in the village. Being accustomed to native and foreign tourists visiting their village, the villagers of Sorkun welcome their guests in the usual friendly manner of Turkish hospitality.

Roughly defined and fired at 600 - 800°C, the pottery of the prehistoric period was primarily made either by expanding and thinning the clay mud outwards or by rounding the clay mud in faggot shapes and piling it later, pressing from both sides and adding more clay to cavities to flatten and produce a smooth surface (Kangal Method). The first method was used to make bowl-like open forms. As for the second method, it was used to make lager pots and earthenware jars. It is known that in some regions pottery was made in moulds. As an important innovation in pottery-making, the potter’s wheel was used primarily in Mesopotamia and neighbouring areas towards the end of the Obeyd Period. This wheel is a kind of slowly-turning mechanism called ‘a turnet’. In the Uruk period which followed, most pottery was made on rapid-turning wheels. The wheel affected pottery form, decoration types and motifs, and the contours of pots became more constant. In addition, parallel to the development of urbanization and labour division, a gradual increase in mass production commenced. It took approximately 1500 years for the wheel to reach the western parts of Anatolia, and was first used in the middle 3rd millennium BC in the pottery process. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium, with the start of mass production, the Anatolian Peninsula begins to show uniformity in making pottery. A ‘transition period pottery’, which was

Önce, yere kuru saman ve odun talaşı serilir. Çömlekler ağzı yere gelecek şekilde yatırılır. Bir sıra odun bir sıra çömlek dizilir. Odunlar rüzgarın estiği yönde sıralanıp yakılır. “ Çeykel ” denen iki ucu kancalı uzun sopa yardımıyla ateş çiğ çömleklere doğru itilir. Ateşin kontrolü çok önemlidir. Bir taraftan dataşıma sırasında kırılan ya da çatlayan çömlekler onarılır. Pişirme sırasında sıcaklık yaklaşık olarak 750 - 800 °C ’ ye kadar çıkar. Çömleğin koyu kırmızı renk alması piştiği anlamına gelir. Çömlekler “ çeykel ” ile çekilerek soğumaya bırakılır. Soğuyan ve kontrol edilen çömlekler “ küllüğün ” yanına 5’li sıralar halinde istiflenir. Toptancılar çömlekleri gazete kağıtlarına sararak nakliye araçlarına yerleştirirler ve tüketiciye ulaştırırlar. Sorkun köylüleri bir yıl içinde 200.000 ’ i aşkın çömlek üretir ve satarlar. Bu sayının yüzde 60 ’ı çömlek, yüzde 30 ’u balık tavası, yüzde 10 ’u bazlama tavasıdır.

At first, dry straw and sawdust are spread on the ground. The pottery is laid upside down on it. Wood and pottery is arranged in rows including one row from each size. Then the wood is set alight from the direction of the blowing wind. A long stick with two hooks at one end is called a ‘çeykel’ and is used to push the fire towards the fresh pottery. Control of the fire is very impor-tant. Meanwhile, pottery broken whilst being carried is repaired. Heat is increased to approximately 600-700 °C during firing. Having become a dark red, the pottery is now fired. Fired pottery is pulled from the fire using a ‘çeykel’ and left to cool. Cooled and checked pottery is stacked in rows of five near the ‘küllük’ where it was fired. Wholesalers wrap the pottery in paper and transport it to customers. Sorkun villagers produce more than 200,000 items of pottery a year and sell them. 60 % of this number is made up of basic pottery, 30 % fish pans, and 10 % bread pans.

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