1.
Banding wheel
2.
Bat
3.
Bisque (biscuit)
4.
Bisque firing
5.
Burnishing
6.
Ceramics
7.
Clay
8.
Coiling
9.
Crackle glaze
10.
Crawling
11.
Crazing
12.
Crystalline glazes
13.
Dipping
14.
Earthenware
15.
Enamels
16.
Engobe
17.
Feldspar
A turntable that can be revolved with one hand to turn a piece of
pottery or sculpture while decorating it with the other hand.
A plaster or wood disk or square slab on which a pot is thrown or
is placed to dry when removed from the wheel. Also used when
hand building.
Unglazed ceramic ware that has been fired at a low temperature to
remove all moisture from the clay body and to make handling
easier during glazing.
The process of firing ware at a low temperature, usually from
cone 010 to 05, to produce bisque ware
Rubbing leather hard or dry clay with any smooth tool to polish it,
tighten the clay surface, and compress the clay particles.
Objects made from earthy materials with the aid of heat, or the
process of making these objects.
A variety of earthy materials formed by the decomposition of
granite. In the process, these may have been combined with a
variety of other materials, forming clay bodies with differing
maturing points.
Method of forming pottery or sculpture from rolls of clay melded
together to create the walls.
A glaze with deliberate crazing that forms a decorative surface.
Color may be rubbed into the cracks to emphasize them or the
ware may be soaked in tea or coffee.
Crawling is characterized by bare, unglazed areas on fired
ceramic ware alternating with thickened glazed areas. Usually
caused by surface tension in the molten glaze pulling it away
from areas of grease or dust on the surface of the bisque ware.
Also may occur in glaze applied over under-glazed areas.
Unintentional cracks that occur over the entire glaze surface
because the glaze expands and contracts more than the clay body
to which is applied. Caused by improper fit of glaze to clay.
Glazes in which crystals are formed, causing the light to reflect
differently. Large crystals may be caused to grow, creating a
deliberately sought after decorative effect.
Applying glaze or slip to the body by immersing the piece and
shaking off excess glaze.
Pottery that has been fired at low temperature (below cone 2) and
is porous and relatively soft. Usually red or brown in color. Used
worldwide for domestic ware, glazed or unglazed.
Low temperature colors containing fluxes, usually applied on top
of a fired glaze. Enamels require a further firing to render them
permanent. Also know as on glaze colors or china paints.
Originally, the term referred to slip that is applied over the entire
surface of a piece of pottery or sculpture to change the color
and/or texture of the clay body. The term now often refers to slip
used for decoration.
Any of a group of common rock-forming minerals containing
silicates of aluminum, along with potassium, sodium, calcium,
and occasionally barium. Used extensively in stoneware and
porcelain bodies and in glazes as a flux. Feldspar melts at a range
of temperatures between 2192o F and 2372o F depending on their
18.
Firing
19.
Flux
20.
Foot
21.
Footring
22.
Glaze
23.
Glaze firing
24.
Greenware
25.
Grog
26.
High Fire
27.
Incise
28.
Kiln
29.
Kiln wash
30.
Lead
31.
Leather hard
32.
Low fire
33.
Plasticity
34.
Pottery
composition.
Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to bring the clay
or glaze to maturity, The temperature needed to mature a specific
clay or glaze varies.
A substance that lowers the melting point of another substance.
Oxides such as those of iron, sodium, potassium, calcium, zinc,
lead, boric oxide and others that combine with the silica and other
heat-resistant materials in a glaze, helping them to fuse.
The base of a piece of pottery, usually left unglazed in high-fired
ware on which the ware usually rest; occasionally glazed in lowfire, in which case the ware must be put on stilts to keep it from
sticking to the shelf.
The circle of clay at the base of a pot that raises the form from the
surface it is standing on.
Any vitreous coating that has been melted onto a clay surface by
the use of heat. Made of finely ground minerals that, when fired
to a certain temperature, fuse into a glassy coating. Glazes may
be matt or glossy, depending on their components.
The firing during which glaze materials melt and form a vitreous
coating on the clay body surface.
Unfired pottery or sculpture.
Crushed or ground particles of fired clay graded in various sizes
of particles. Added to the clay body to help in drying, to add
texture and to reduce shrinkage and warpage.
Describes clays or glazes that are fixed from cone 2 on up to cone
10 or 13. Ware fired at cone 2 and up is usually considered to be
stoneware.
The process of carving a design into a raw clay surface.
A furnace or oven built of heat resistant materials for firing
pottery or sculpture, sometimes referred to as a "Kil".
A coating of refractory material applied to kiln furniture to
prevent it from sticking during firing.
Until recently lead was used extensively in a variety of forms as a
flux for low or medium temperature glazes. Although the dangers
of handling toxic lead were known quite early, its solubility in
acid foods and liquids was not understood until comparatively
recently. Lead glazes should not be used on food containers.
The condition of a clay body when much of the moisture has
evaporated and shrinkage has just ended, but the clay is not totally
dry. Carving, burnishing or joining slabs are often done at this
stage.
The range of firing of clays and glazes in which the kiln
temperature reached is usually in the cone 015 to cone 1 range.
The ability of a damp clay body to yield under pressure without
cracking and to retain the formed shape after the pressure is
released.
Originally a term for earthenware, now loosely used to refer to
any type of ceramic ware, as well as to the workshop where it is
made.
1
35.
Pug Mill
36.
Pugging
37.
Pyrometric cones
38.
Raku
39.
Reducing atmosphere
40.
Resist
41.
Sgraffito
42.
Slab building
43.
Slip
44.
Stoneware
45.
Terra cotta
46.
Terra Sigillata
47.
Throwing
48.
Vitreous
49.
Wax resist
50.
Wedging
A machine used for mixing, de-airing and compressing clay into a
usable form.
Mixing and extruding clay from a pugmill.
A small pyramidal shaped bar of clay with fluxes added so that it
will melt and bend at a known temperature.
A firing technique in which pots are placed directly into a hot kiln
and removed when red hot, placed into combustible material and
covered to create a reduction atmosphere.
Deficiency of free oxygen in a kiln atmosphere that causes the
reduction of compounds rich in oxygen, which affects the glaze
and clay color.
A method of applying a covering material such as wax, latex, or
special luster resist to bisque or glazed ware, then coating the
piece with a glaze or a second glaze. The resist material will not
accept the glaze so that on firing, the color of the covered area
will remain intact.
Decoration of pottery made by scratching through a layer of
colored slip to the differently colored clay body underneath.
Making pottery from slabs of clay.
A suspension of clay in water used for casting pottery or sculpture
in molds. Slip (sometimes called engobe) can also be used for
painted decoration or for the sgraffito technique. Often used to
join two pieces of clay together.
A type of clay body fired to a temperature at which the body
becomes vitrified, dense and nonabsorptive, but not translucent.
Natural stoneware clay is usually brownish in color because of the
presence of iron, but there are formulated white stoneware bodies.
Usually matures at temperatures above 2192oF.
A low fire, porous, iron bearing reddish clay body, frequently
containing grog or other temper. Used throughout history for
common, utilitarian ware such as roof shingles; also used for
sculpture.
A very fine slip used as a surface coating for burnishing or other
decorative treatments.
Forming objects on the potter's wheel using a clay body with
plastic qualities.
Pertaining to or having the mature of glass. In ceramics, a
vitreous glaze or clay body has been fired to a dense, hard, and
nonabsorbant condition. High fire glazes vitrify and combine
with the glassy particles that form in the high fire clay body as it
approaches vitrification. This results in a glaze that is united with
the clay body as compared to a low fire glaze that merely coats
the surface of the fired clay.
A method of decoration in which melted wax or oil emulsion is
painted onto the clay body or onto a glazed piece.
Any one of various methods of kneading a mass of clay to expel
the air, get rid of lumps, and prepare a homogeneous material.