Content Vocabulary

Pattern - A repeated decorative design.

Terra Cotta Clay - A type of Low Fire Earthenware clay that comes in colors of rich red-brown and orange.

Pinch Pot Technique - A pinch pot is a simple form of hand-made pottery produced from ancient times to the present. The process begins with a ball of clay. Your thumb is pushed into the center, and then the walls of the form are created by pinching the clay with your thumbs and fingers as you turn the pot. This technique is good for forms that are round and balloon-like.

Underglaze - A method of decorating pottery in which painted decoration is applied to the surface before it is covered with a transparent ceramic glaze and fired in a kiln. Think of it like the ceramic version of paint. They tend to be highly pigmented for strong colors and stay where you put them on the clay, meaning they won't flow OR melt like a glaze will. They are typically applied to un-fired clay or greenware.

Glaze - An impervious layer or coating of a vitreous (glass like) substance which has been fused to a ceramic body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding liquids, sealing the inherent porosity of un-glazed biscuit (fired) earthenware.

Ribbon Tool - Also called Loop Tools because they are made out of flattened metal ribbons with sharpened edges attached to a wooden handle. They are used mainly to trim the bases of thrown pots, but also to hollow out handmade shapes, especially sculptural forms and to carve the surface if pieces.

Sgraffito Tool - An Italian word that means "to scratch". This is a decorative pottery technique produced by applying layers of color or colors (underglazes or colored slips) to leather hard pottery and then scratching off parts of the layer(s) to create contrasting images, patterns and texture and reveal the clay color underneath.

Incised Design - To cut or carve a pattern, word, decoration into something, using a sharp tool.

Functional - Some that is meant to be used or useful.

Vessel - a hollow container used to hold things.

Foot - The bottom or base of a ceramic vessel.

Body - The widest part of the ceramic vessel.

Lip - The top edge or opening of the ceramic vessel.

Wedging - What we do to prepare our clay to work with it. It removes air pockets, unifies the clay, and can dry it up some if it's too wet. You will learn 3 types -Bull Nose, Spiral, and Drop.

Reclaiming - The process of recycling clay so that it is Cheese Hard again and ready to make more art work.