Ceramic Vocabulary 2/3 Flashcards
Incising
Is a decoration technique, created by carving lines into the clay or carving small areas out of the clay but not preforating it.
Kiln
A furnace designed specifically for heating clay to 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 efeects of the firing. Famed ceramist Beatrice Wood achieved a luster effect by throwing moth balls into the kiln.
Element
The heating coils of an electric kiln (tired or burned-out elements refer to elements which carry too littl or no electrical current for producing heat.
Footing
the bottom of a piece that rests upon a surface (may be wheel thrown or hand-built). There are two kinds: raised and flushed.
Firing
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 effiecient use of materials and more control over the atmosphere during a fring. Firing has two basic atmospheres. Oxidation and Reduction, these two atmosphers will affect the color of the final piece.
Glaze
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, transclucent or matte.
Slip Clay
Clay in liquid form
Bat
A plaster disk or slab for clay work.
Casting
A clay form made from a mold. May also be referred to “plaster castings”
Casting Slip
Is liquid clay used in the process of forming objects with molds. Also referred to as “slip”
China
A term which usually refers to the bone china of England, but also associated with vitreous white wares or porcelain.
Conditioning Coat
(glaze or underglaze) Is a thin coat of color that will soak into the greenware or bisqueware.
Cone
A mixture of ceramic materials that is designed to soften and bend when the proper mixture of time and temperature is reached in the interior of the kiln.
Cone plaque
Is a small clay cone holder used when cones are placed on the shelf of the kiln to stand.
Cone temperature
Is the mixture of time and temperature at which the cone will bend to show to kilns temperature in the shelf.
