Long before West German pottery got the attention of the collecting world, eBay sellers sometimes described the thicker drip and volcanic glazes as fat lava. When Dr. Graham Cooley decided to put together an exhibition of mid-century German and Italian ceramics, he found the term too delightful to pass up, and when Mark Hill published the exhibition guide Fat Lava: West German Ceramics of the 1960s & '70s, the term really spread. In some ways, the phrase fat lava simply tumbles off the tongue all too well, and as so often happens, the more it has been used, the more unclear it becomes.
Defining Fat Lava
Not all W. German pottery glazes are fat lava, and not all fat lava glazes are W. German, even if a search on eBay sometimes makes it seem that way. Fat lava is a sub-category that includes the unusually thick drip glazes and the volcanic glazes. A drip glaze is simply when one glaze runs down over another. In earlier drip glazes, popular in the early 20th century and into the '30s, the thickness of the two glazes was essentially the same. The attraction was in the color relationships, as well as the flowing pattern of the drip.
On a fat lava drip vase, the top glaze is distinctly thicker than the under glaze, creating distinct textural differences in addition to any color variations. At some points, the drip glaze may stand out as much as 1/2” above the surrounding glaze. A vase may well have three or four layers of distinctly different thicknesses, and colors may contrast strongly or be so close that only the thickness clearly distinguishes them. When such glazes are done in yellows, oranges and reds, the lava connection is even stronger.
