Ceramic Vocabulary Flashcards
(53 cards)
Having to do with clay or glass or the making of objects from clay or glass.
Ceramic
Clay that has been watered down; acts as glue in slip/score technique. Slip a fine, liquid form of clay applied to the surface of a vessel prior to firing. Slip fills in pores and gives uniform color.
Slip
To draw or make lines into clay.
Score
Method used in hand building to connect two pieces of clay together.
Slip/score techinque
Is the process of kneading the clay so as to remove air pockets and create uniform consistency of clay.
Wedging
One of the oldest ways of forming pottery. Long strands of clay which are laid on top of each other and joined through blending coil to coil. Coil pieces can be almost any shape and any size.
Coil method
High-fire clay. Stoneware is waterproof even without glaze; the resulting ware is sturdier than earthenware.
Stoneware
A flattened out piece of clay; you may use a rolling pin or slab roller to achieve a slab of clay. Clay slabs are cut to shape and joined together using scoring and wet clay called slip. Slabs can be draped over or into forms, rolled around cylinders or built-up into geometric forms. Large forms are difficult because of stresses on the seams and because the slab naturally sags. Some potters get around this by working fibers into the clay body. The fibers burn out during the firing, leaving a network of tiny holes.
Slab
Clay that is completely dried but not yet fired.
Bone dry
A term used to describe unfired clay objects in general.
Greenware
Clay objects that have been fired for the first time and without any glaze applied to them.
Bisque ware
Bisque ware that has been glazed then fired.
Glaze ware
Is a special knife-like tool with a fairly flexible blade for cutting into moist and leather-hard clay.
Fettling knife
A special tool with a wooden handle and a wire loop at one or both ends, used for carving and hollowing out clay forms.
Loop tool
A term used to describe the technique of adding small clay forms as decoration on the surface of pottery forms; also called applied decoration.
Sprigging-on
Is a decoration technique, created by carving lines into the clay or carving small areas out of the clay but not perforating it.
Incising
A furnace designed specifically for heating clay to the temperatures necessary to make it permanently hard and stone like. Kilns can be electric, natural gas, wood, coal, fuel oil or propane. Materials used to heat the kiln can affect the work: wood ash can build up on the surfaces of a piece and form a glaze at high temperatures. Some potters introduce chemicals into the kiln to influence the effects of the firing. Famed ceramist Beatrice Wood achieved a luster effect by throwing moth balls into the kiln.
Kiln
The heating coils of an electric kiln. (Tired or burned-out elements refer to elements which carry too little or no electrical current for producing heat).
Element
The bottom of a piece that rests upon a surface (may be wheel thrown or hand-built). There are two kinds: raised and flush.
Footing
Clay is hardened by heating it to a high temperature, fusing the clay particles. Primitive pottery is usually fired on the ground or in pits with whatever flammable material is available. Kilns allow a more efficient use of materials and more control over the atmosphere during a firing. Firing has two basic atmospheres. Oxidation and Reduction, these two atmospheres will affect the color of the final piece.
Firing
Glass-forming chemicals, usually with colorants added, that applied in liquid form to bisque ware and fired in a kiln, form a pleasing, usually glossy coating to the surface of the clay. Glaze can be colored, opaque, translucent or matte.
Glaze
Clay in liquid form.
Slip clay
A plaster disk or slab for clay work.
Bat
A clay form made from a mold. May also be referred to “plaster castings”.
Casting
