Pottery terms

Aesthetics

The branch of philosophy that deals with issues of beauty such as what is considered to be beautiful and what us considered to be art

Applique/Additive

Applying one piece of clay onto another. Can be coils or cut-out pieces of clay.

Banding wheel

A wheel head mounted on a pedestal base and turned by hand, used in the formation and decoration of pots

Bat

A base for throwing, hand-building, or drying: usually made of plastic, pressboard, plywood, or plaster

Bisque (ware)

Has gone through the first firing at a relatively low temperature and still maintains its porous state

Bone dry

Stage of drying when moisture in the clay body has evaporated so the cay surface no longer feels cold

Burnishing

Polishing the surface of a leather-hard pot to compact it and produce and maintains a sheen at low firing temperatures

Centering

The process of applying pressure to a lump of clay on a spinning wheel head to position it for even rotation

Ceramics

objects made from clay that permanently retain their shape after they have been heated to specific temperatures

Clay body

Mixture of clay, minerals, and other ingredients that make up the composition of a clay type

Coiling

attaching rolls of clay together to form pottery

Collaring

Squeezing the upper part of a thrown form as it rotates on the wheel, in order to decrease the size of its diameter

Conceptual art

An artwork in which the idea or concept is considered more important tan the finished product

Coning

Part of the centering process; raising clay to form a cone as it spins on the wheel head

Drying

The elimination of water from clay pieces before firing

Earthenware

Glazed pottery that remains porous when fired at low temperatures

Fettling knife

A long tapered knife used for cutting and trimming clay

Firing

Heating pottery or clay sculpture to a temperature high enough to render it hard and durable

Flux

A material that promotes melting or increases the glass-making qualities of glaze

Foot

The base of a pot upon which it can stand

Frit

a mixture of materials that has been fused by heating, reground into a fine powder, and used as an ingredient in a glaze

Glaze (ware)

a coating of glass that is fused to the surface of a ceramic piece

Greenware

Unfired pottery or sculpture

Grog

Crushed fired clay used as an additive to clay body to reduce shrinkage

Hand-building

making clay forms by a non-mechanical process, such as pinching, coiling, and slab building

High-fire

clay or glazes that are fired from cone 8 to cone 12

Hump mold

Any object over which a slab of clay can be laid to stiffen in that shape

Incise/Subtractive

Cutting into the surface of the clay for carving or removing

Installation art

three-dimensional artwork designed to change one’s awareness of a specific site or space

Kiln

a structure built to fire clay at high temperatures

Kiln furniture

heat resistant shelves and posts used to hold ware during firing

Kneading

the process of mixing plastic clay to distribute minerals, organic materials, and water evenly throughout the body and to eliminate air bubbles

Leather-hard

the stage between plastic and bone dry when clay has dried, but may still be carved or joined to other pieces

Lip

the rim opening of a pot

Low-fire

clays or glazes that are fired within the kiln temperature range of cone 015 to cone 02

Loop tool

used to trim, remove excess clay, or carve designs into clay

Luster

a type of decoration made when metallic salts fired at low temperatures give a metallic sheen to a body or glaze surface

Majolica

earthenware covered with a tin glaze and painted with oxides also known as faience

Maquette

small, quick, preliminary sculptural “sketches” in clay

Matte or matt

dull surface, not shiny

Melting point

when a clay fuses and turns into a fluid glasslike substance during the firing

Mid fire

clay or glazes fired within the kiln temperature range of cone 4 to cone 7

Mishima

a surface decoration technique whereby an impressed design is filled with a different colored clay slip

Mixed media

Artwork made with a combination of materials or techniques

Mold

Any form used to shape clay

Mosaic

a mural technique accomplished by placing colored pieces of marble, glass, stone, or ceramic in a layer of adhesive material

Neck

the part of a vessel between the lip and shoulder

Needle tool

a sharp, pointed tool used for various tasks like cutting, piercing, trimming, and adding fine details to clay pieces used to mark

Negative space

the unoccupied areas within a piece, often used to create openings, voids, or shapes that define the overall form

Opening the dome

Making a hollow in the centered clay on the wheel then creating a base and shaping the clay into its intended basic form

Organic

a shape or form that is curved or irregular, not geometric

Organic material

Vegetable or animal material present in natural clay

Overfiring

increasing the temperature or length of firing beyond the ideal for a particular clay body or glaze

Overglaze

A glaze designed to be applied and fired at a lower temperature after the first glaze firing

Oxidation

A firing when the amount of oxygen present is more than necessary to combust the fuel

Oxide

a compound containing oxygen with other elements, used in making and coloring glazes or clay bodies

Paddling

Beating clay with a flat stick to strengthen the joins, thin walls, alter shape, or create texture

Paperclay

mix of clay, paper pulp and water that is very strong and flexible and has an extremely low shrinkage rate

Pedestal

Any base or foundation; a support

Piercing

Can be used to create dramatic effects by playing with light and the contrast between inside and outside surfaces

Pigment

A mixture of minerals painted on clayware before or after the firing to produce color

Pinching

A technique that involves squeezing the clay, usually between the fingers and thumb

Plastic/plasticity

refers to the property of clay that allows it to change shape without tearing or breaking.

Polymer clay

a synthetic version of organic clay that is manufactured in various colors and baked in an oven rather than fired. It has only been in existence for a few decades

Pop art

Characterized by clear imagery of popular culture, mass media, and consumer items like comic strips, soup cans, and celebrities

Porcelain

A white high-firing clay body that is usually translucent.

Porosity

The amount of empty space in the structure of the fired clay that makes it capable of absorbing liquids.

Pulling

Using the hands to raise and shape the walls of a clay pot while throwing it on a pottery wheel

Raw clay

Unfired clay

Reduction

A firing in which there is insufficient air in the kiln for complete combustion. The metal oxides in the clay body and glaze releases oxygen because there is not enough present in the atmosphere. This changes the color of the clay body and glaze.

Relief

Sculptural or decorative forms that project from a flat background.

Rib

A flat curbed tool made of wood, metal, or plastic used to refine shapes

Scoring

Scratching the edgers of clay before joining them together

Sgraffito

A decorating technique where a layer of slip applied to a clay body is scratched through to reveal the clay color

Shard

A fragment of pottery

Shrinkage

The reduction in size of the clay mass that occurs when water in the clay evaporates during drying and firing.

Silica

A white or colorless crystalline compound occurring abundantly as quartz, sand, flint, agate, and many other minerals. It is the sparkly material in sand.

Silicosis

occupational lung disease marked by inflammation and scarring of lungs

Slabbing

a hand-building technique that involves shaping clay into a broad, flat, thick piece

Slab roller

A mechanical device used to prepare clay slabs

Slip

a fluid suspension of clay in water used to join clay pieces and for surface decoration

Slurry

a clay-like paste in consistency

Stoneware

Dense, non-porous hard pottery that matures from cone 5-11

Surrealism

a cultural movement began in the early 1920s known for artworks and writings featuring the element of surprise, unexpected juxtaposition and non sequitur

Template

A pattern used to shape the profile of a piece

Terracotta

An iron-bearing earthenware clay that fires to an earth red color

Textile

a woven fabric

Throwing

The process of shaping plastic clay on the pottery wheel

Thumbnail (sketch)

small preliminary sketches usually done within an outlined frame

Toxic

any material that is poisonous or injurious to health

Traditional pottery

hand-built ceramics, decorated with natural pigments and fired with organic fuel

Translucency

a glaze quality that allows the passage of diffused light

Transparent glaze

A clear glaze

Trimming

The process of refining a leather hard shape with cutting tools

Underglaze

Any coloring element, such as oxides or commercial colorants, applied prior to glaze application

Vitrification

The stage during firing when clay or glaze loses its porosity and transforms into a hard, nonabsorbent, glasslike state

Ware

A term for any ceramic

Wax resist

a decorative technique where liquid wax is applied to a fired or unfired clay body. The waxed portion resists the surface treatment

Wedging

A way of improving the workability of clay by reforming the mixture to make it homogeneous and even in texture while eliminating air bubbles

Wheel head

The flat circular revolving plate of the potter's wheel upon which the pot is formed