Ceramics I

Question 1

Workability of the clay that allows it to bend without breaking or cracking.

Answer 1

Plasticity

Question 1

Unglazed but fired ware, usually accomplished in a low temperature firing prior to the glaze fire.

Answer 1

Bisque or
Biscuit

Question 2

When all the moisture has left the clay body.

Answer 2

Bone dry

Question 3

Any slab or disk used as a base for throwing or hand building clay.

Answer 3

Bat

Question 4

Finished leather-hard or bone-dry clay pieces not yet fired; raw ware.

Answer 4

Greenware

Question 5

A combination of natural clays and non-plastics, especially formulated to have certain workability and firing characteristics.

Answer 5

Clay body

Question 6

Clay that is in liquid suspension.

Answer 6

Slip

Question 7

A furnace for firing clay, slumping glass, or melting enamels.

Answer 7

Kiln

Question 8

Heat treatment of ceramic materials.

Answer 8

Firing

Question 9

The stage the clay reaches from wet to dry when most of the moisture has evaporated but when carved the clay will come off in long strips, like cutting cheese. Also referred to as cheese hard

Answer 9

Leather hard

Question 10

A crosshatch method of putting together coils, slabs, or other clay forms in the leather-hard stage; the same as luting.

Answer 10

Scoring

Question 11

Kneading a mass of clay to expel air and make the mass homogeneous.

Answer 11

Wedging

Question 12

Preliminary firing usually around cone 06 to harden the clay in preparation for the glaze application.

Answer 12

Bisque fire

Question 13

A prepared slip that is a different color than the clay body, that is applied when the clay is wet, leather hard, bone dry or bisque.

Answer 13

Engobe

Question 14

To clean the bottom of a glazed piece before firing.

Answer 14

Dry foot

Question 15

A liquid suspension of finely ground minerals that is applied by brushing, pouring, dipping, or spraying, forming a glassy surface when melted in the kiln.

Answer 15

Glaze

Question 16

The top edge of the vessel.

Answer 16

Lip

Question 17

Another word for pottery in the raw, bisque or glaze state.

Answer 17

Ware

Question 18

The art and science of forming objects of earth materials that contain alumna, silica and water all chemically combined, produced with heat.

Answer 18

Ceramics

Question 19

To assume the nature of glass, particles of clay begin to melt and fuse together.

Answer 19

Vitreous

Question 20

A decomposed granite-type rock with fine particles so that it will be plastic.

Answer 20

Clay

Question 21

Clay lacking in plasticity.

Answer 21

Short

Question 22

Hard dense, durable ware generally fired to 2150 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, with zero to five percent absorption.

Answer 22

Stoneware

Question 23

The firing of a kiln with an atmosphere of insufficient oxygen, where combustion of the fuel used in firing is incomplete.

Answer 23

Reduction

Question 24

Opposite of reducing fire; the firing of a kiln where combustion of the fuel is complete.

Answer 24

Oxidation

Question 25

Small triangular objects compounded of clays to bend and melt at specific temperatures.

Answer 25

Pyrometric Cones

Question 26

A loosely used term often means earthenware or just any clay vessel that has been fired.

Answer 26

Pottery

Question 27

Hard, dense, and durable ware generally fired to 2350 degrees Fahrenheit or above; white in color and when thin translucent, with zero percent absorption.

Answer 27

Porcelain

Question 28

A tool used in throwing a pot to shape or straighten it: made of rubber, wood, plastic, or metal.

Answer 28

Rib

Question 29

Breaking down clay or other ceramic materials in water.

Answer 29

Slaking

Question 30

Refractory slabs, posts, and setters for supporting ware in the kiln.

Answer 30

Kiln furniture

Question 31

Texture or quality of coarseness in a clay body; necessary in clay to make it lift and support weight in hand building; results from the addition of fine grog, and or any slightly coarse particles.

Answer 31

Tooth

Question 32

The ring like base on a ceramic piece, bottom of the vessel.

Answer 32

Foot

Question 33

A protective coating of 50% kaolin and 50% silica, applied to kiln furniture to keep excess glaze from fusing.

Answer 33

Kiln Wash

Question 34

A dull surfaced glaze with no gloss that is smooth and pleasant to the touch.

Answer 34

Mat or matt

Question 35

An instrument for measuring high temperatures.

Answer 35

Pyrometer

Question 36

The quality of resisting the effects of high temperatures.

Answer 36

Refractory

Question 37

Two-pronged devise used to measure inside and outside diameters.

Answer 37

Calipers

Question 38

A kiln where the flue gases exit at the bottom of the kiln.

Answer 38

Down draft

Question 39

A kiln where the flue gases exit at the top of the kiln.

Answer 39

Up draft

Question 40

A term used for any free spinning circular turntable.

Answer 40

Banding wheel

Question 41

A low temperature clay body with a permeable or porous body after firing to its maturity with 10 to 15 percent absorption.

Answer 41

Earthenware

Question 42

A hand method of forming pottery by building up the walls with rope like rolls of clay.

Answer 42

Coiling

Question 43

The temperature and time that a clay body develops the desirable characteristics of maximum nonporosity and hardness.

Answer 43

Maturity

Question 44

A hole placed in the kiln through which one can observe the cones or the process of combustion.

Answer 44

Peephole

Question 45

A horizontal machine with blades for mixing clay.

Answer 45

Pug mill

Question 46

A broken fragment of pottery.

Answer 46

Shard

Question 47

Decoration achieved by scratching through a colored slip to show the contrasting body color beneath.

Answer 47

Sgraffito

Question 48

The widest part of the vessel that is above the foot and below the shoulder.

Answer 48

Belly

Question 49

Polishing with a smooth stone or tool on leather-hard clay or slip to make a surface sheen. Low-fired (the surface will not stay shiny at temperatures above 2000 degrees F)

Answer 49

Burnishing

Question 50

A method of decorating, using a slip or glaze squeezed out of a rubber syringe.

Answer 50

Trailing

Question 51

Pure clay also known as china clay. Al O3 2SiO2 6H2O

Answer 51

Kaolin

Question 52

Tube like single chamber hill climbing kiln.

Answer 52

Anagama

Question 53

Pushing a mass of clay on center with the centrifugal motion of a potter's wheel.

Answer 53

Centering

Question 54

Depressed surface decoration, the reverse of bas-relief.

Answer 54

Intaglio

Question 55

Multi-chambered hill climbing kiln.

Answer 55

Noborigama

Question 56

Carved decoration in leather-hard clay, covered with an engobe and ribbed off when drier, leaving engobe inlaid in the carving.

Answer 56

Mishima

Question 57

In his book "A Potters Book" he presents an argument that pottery is a fine art.

Answer 57

Bernard Leach

Question 58

He used the medium of clay to make his abstract expressionistic art. This liberated many functional potters to express themselves without the consideration of function.

Answer 58

Peter Voulkos

Question 59

A group of Indians in Southwestern U.S.A. who made a unique contribution to clay art from A.D.900 to 1200.

Answer 59

Mimbres

Question 60

The cutting of rhythmical grooves in a vessel.

Answer 60

Fluting

Question 61

Cut or paddled vessels with flat sides.

Answer 61

Faceting

Question 62

Cutting holes in a design on a vessel.

Answer 62

Piercing

Question 63

Extraordinarily fine clay particles suspended in water that shines when applied as a coating and fired at low temperatures.

Answer 63

Terra Sigillata

Question 64

The oxide that gives the color green.

Answer 64

Chrome

Question 65

The oxide that gives the color blue.

Answer 65

Cobalt

Question 66

The oxide that gives the color brown and sometimes green.

Answer 66

Red iron oxide

Question 67

The oxide that gives the color green or red.

Answer 67

Copper

Question 68

A tin opacified glaze with a glossy surface, usually white, a base for colored stain overglaze decoration originating in Spain on the isle Majolica in the 15* century and later copied by the Dutch in the 16h century and the French in the 181 century.

Answer 68

Majolica, Delft, Faience ware

Question 69

A firing or a type of ware; porous groggy ware, with or without a glaze, put into and pulled out of a hot fire.

Answer 69

Raku

Question 70

Wax, varnish, latex, or other substance applied in pattern on a surface to cover an area while the background is treated with another material or color.

Answer 70

Resist

Question 71

Traditionally, rock salt is thrown into the fire at the maturing temperature of the clay until an orange-peel textured clear glaze appears.

Answer 71

Salt glaze

Question 72

"Deceptive" portrayal of an objecting; making something unreal look as real as possible. Literally means to fool the

Answer 72

Trompe L'Oeil

Question 73

An art historian's term for low-fired, unglazed generally red-colored ware.

Answer 73

Terracotta

Question 74

Trimming a piece in leather-hard condition on a wheel. Term used for throwing in some cultures and in the southern United States.

Answer 74

Turning

Question 75

The process of forming pieces on a revolving potter's wheel from solid lumps of clay into hollow forms.

Answer 75

Throwing

Question 76

A material that lowers the melting point of Alumina and Silica.

Answer 76

Flux

Question 77

Extremely fine-grained, plastic, sedimentary clay that is added to clay bodies to make them more plastic.

Answer 77

Ball clay

Question 78

Separation of glaze coating during firing, which exposes areas of unglazed clay caused by too heavy of an application.

Answer 78

Crawling

Question 79

An undesirable and excessive crackle in the glaze, which penetrates through the glaze to the clay body.

Answer 79

Crazing