Clay Terms
Overall
Cone: unit of measuring heat for ceramics.
Pottery: functional clay ceramic pieces
Ceramics: Art of making objects out of clay to produce pottery and sculpture.
Clay: decomposed granite, earth that is used in ceramics. It is wet, and it hardens after drying and/or heating.
Plastic stage: a stage when clay is workable, pliable clay.
Leather Hard: condition of raw clay where it has lost most of its moisture, but it is still able to be joined or carved.
Green Ware: Pottery that has not been fired.
Earthen Ware:
Techniques :Building/Forming
Wedging: Kneading the clay with hands to force out air pockets and create a uniform texture.
Pinch: a hand building technique which uses the fingers to gently pinch the clay to shape it into a bowl or other forms.
Coil building: a hand building technique, using the hands to roll out and rope shaped lengths of clay. The coils may be any size, but must be consistent with one another to build pottery. The coils are wrapped together on top of one another to form the sides of pottery.
Slab building: a hand building technique using rolling pins to roll out sheets of clay. These can be cut to form patterns and assemble into forms.
Score and Slip: a joining technique where the edges to be attached are roughened up and “glued” with liquid clay (slip).
Throwing:
Slip: watered down clay (becomes soft and slippery).
Finishing
Bisque Ware: Clay has been fired once in a kiln and is now stone
Glaze Ware Clay has been fired a second time in a kiln using glaze to cover the surface.
Kiln: a furnace or oven made of ceramic used to fire or “heat” ceramic objects. A kiln may be electric, gas, or wood-burning and reach temperatures in excess of 2,500 degrees.
Fire:
Glaze: In ceramics, a thin, glossy coating fired into pottery or vases.