Ceramics Vocabulary Flashcards
Terra cotta
A brownish-orange earthenware clay body commonly used for ceramic sculpture.
Wheel thrown
The term throw comes from Old English meaning spin. A piece of clay is placed on a potter’s wheel head which spins. The clay is shaped by compression while it is in motion. Often the potter will use several thrown shapes together to form one piece (a teapot can be constructed from three or four thrown forms).
Casting
A clay form made from a mold. May also be referred to “plaster castings”
Slip/Score Technique
method used in hand building to connect two pieces of clay together.
Incising
Is a decoration technique, created by carving lines into tje clay or carving small areas out in the clay but not perforating it.
Leather-hard
Greenware that is allowed to become firm but still retains its wet look.
Bat
A plaster disk or slab for clay work.
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, treanslucent or matte.
Transparent (T)
Clear base colors which are free from cloudiness or distortion.
Footing
the bottom of a piece that rests upon a surface (may be wheel thrown or hard-built). There are two kinds: raised and flush.
Matte (M)
A soft finish with little or no shine.
Conditioning Coat (glaze or underglaze)
Is a thin coat of color that will soak into the greenware or bisque ware.
Score
to draw or make line into clay.
Slab
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 inro 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 firing, leaving a network of tiny holes.
Vent Holes
Small holes made by puncturing the wet greenware with a needle tool when two pieces of ware have been attached. These small holes allow the air and gases to escape during firing. Also refers to the peep holes in the side of the kiln.
Bisque Ware
Clay objects that have been fired for the first time and without any glaze applied to them.
Casting Slip
Is the liquid clay used in the process of forming objects with molds. Also referred to as “slip”
Cone (Pyrometric 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.
Semi-Transparent (ST)
Slightly colored and/or speckled colors which allow most colors to show through with only slight distortions.
Shelf Cone Temperature
The cone temperature that is fired on the shelf of a kiln. The amount of heating the ware actually receives.
Kiln
A furnace designed specifically for heating clay to the temperatures necessary to make it premanently hard and stone like. Kilns can be electric, natural gas, wood, coal, fuel oil or propane. Materials used to heat the kilen 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 cermist Beatrice Wood achieved a luster effect by throwing moth balls into the kiln.
