Ceramics: A hard brittle heat-resistant material made by
firing a mixture of clay and chemicals at high temperature.
Pottery: Objects that are made by molding or shaping
moist clay and hardening it by heating in a kiln, e.g.
vases, pots, plates, or sculptured articles.
Vessel: A hollow receptacle, can be used as a container
for liquids.
Clay Bodies: Clay mixture formulated of clays and other
ceramic raw materials to give desired working
characteristics. These include earthenware, stoneware,
and porcelain.
Earthenware: Natural low-fire secondary clay - fluxed
with iron, fires porous. Often called "common" clay, found
almost everywhere, matures below 2000 degrees F.
Stoneware: Naturally occurring refractory clays with
adequate fluxes to fire in stoneware temperature range.
Porcelain: High fired vitreous claybody containing kaolin,
silica, fluxes, and often ball clay to increase plasticity, with
total clay component not more than 50%. Usually pure
white or “eggshell” in color, some porcelains may fire
translucent where thin.
Wedging: Process of kneading the clay with the hands to
remove air-bubbles and insure homogenous mass.
Slip: Clay suspended in water, usually the consistency of
thick cream. May be colored and used to decorate
surfaces, or may be cast into plaster molds to create
ceramic forms.
Score: Process of incising shallow grooves into surface of
wet or leather hard clay in cross-hatch pattern before
applying slurry and joining pieces.
Pinch pot: A method of creating a small clay bowl by
pinching the clay with your hands.
Coil bowl: A method of creating a bowl using coils of clay
rolled by hand, then attaching the coils together by
scoring and adding slip to attach the pieces.
Slab: A pancake like, flat, piece of clay created by a
rolling pin or slay roller.
Leather hard: Condition of clay where it has stiffened
but is still damp. Point at which pieces are joined and
most surface modification and trimming are done. Softleather-hard ideal for forming, joining, thick slipdecoration. Medium-leather-hard good for thin slipdecorating, joining, incising, carving, piercing. Hardleather-hard good for thin slip-decorating, carving,
scraping.
Greenware: Any dry, unfired clay form.
Form: A three-dimensional object whose aesthetic
qualities are based by its appearance and the way the
form was created.
Function: A purposeful, useful action created by any
number of objects.