Wiring ceramic jugs in the past: protecting pots for everyday use

In the past, to protect jugs and other vessels from everyday wear and tear, they were wrapped in a mesh of metal wire. This wiring work was usually done by tinkers / metal workers. With this protective wire “net”, water jugs and other pots became much more resistant to knocks, rubbing and abrasion.

Typically, iron wire was used, with a smaller diameter than the staples mentioned in the previous post, so it was easier to handle and bend.

They would start by forming a ring of wire around the top of the vessel, just below or around the neck. From this top ring, several long strands of wire were attached and then gradually braided or twisted downwards.

As we said, the mesh was created slowly, bit by bit, with the help of pliers, until they reached the lower part of the vessel, where they finished with another ring. There were many different patterns and styles of this wire netting, which also varied by region or country. For example, the number of vertical strands coming down from the top ring depended on the tinker: the more strands, the denser the net and therefore the better the protection of the jug.

A large cooking pot or storage jar could be fully wired in about half an hour.

To make the wire more malleable, before starting the process described above, they would do the following: the wire was heated, and then allowed to cool slowly. This process releases internal stresses in the metal and increases its ductility, making it easier to work and bend without breaking.

At this point, practices varied quite a lot from one region to another – maximum temperature, total heating time, and so on – and it was usually done “by eye”, based on years of experience. In some places, instead of simply letting the wire air-cool, they would bury it in sand or lime after heating. With this slower cooling, the wire became even more flexible.

We find it really beautiful that many of these craftspeople didn’t know the scientific theory behind this annealing process (internal stresses in metals, specific temperature ranges for each metal, etc.), and yet through experience they often knew better than we do today how to do it just right in each case.

We hope you enjoyed this post. If you’d like us to add examples from other regions or different customs we might not know about, let us know and we’ll gladly include them.

Thank you so much for reading!