Hot Trip to Homer Laughlin

As Tony Cavalier is fond of saying, today was hazy, hot and humid. We started our day with a trip to The Museum of Ceramics in East Liverpool, Ohio. What we found was the history of ceramics in northern West Virginia, primarily Homer Laughlin and its subsidiaries.

Until modern times, pottery and ceramics were hand spun on a wheel as Chris is demonstrating here.

This is an original and complete set of Homer Laughlin Fiesta Dinnerware.

A display in the museum of a family throwing clay and creating china.

A reenactment of a sagger carrying china on his head to the kiln.

Betsy Chetwynd of the Ceramics Museum giving us the history of the pieces on display.

A display of ceramic mugs from a barber shop. Barber shops were the center of a town's life through the mid-Twentieth Century. Regular customers often had their own personalized  shaving mugs. 

After the museum we took a trip to Homer Laughlin, home of Fiesta Dinnerware. While there we toured the factory and saw how china is made. A video is linked here that shows the process in the 1930's. While it is more modernized and mechanized today, the process remains the same.

Questions:
1. Jiggers and others in ceramics manufacturing worked piecework. What do you think piecework means?
2. The picture above shows an entire family working to make china. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using an entire family?
3. Look around your house and talk to you guardians. Ask them where they use china and if they have any Fiesta Dinnerware.