Basic Pottery 1.1-1.10 2.1-2.10

Front 1

banding wheel

Back 1

rotating, flat wheel on a small stand that is spun by hand to apply bands of parallel lines to round pots. also useful when coiling or making pots by handbuilding methods. The heavier the wheel head, the more momentum possible in the wheel.

Front 2

bat

Back 2

slat tile made from refractory clay and used as a kiln shel; also the name for plaster slabs used for drying clay slurry.

Front 3

coiling

Back 3

handbuilding pottery using ropes, or coils, of clay placed on top of eachother and smoothed together with the fingers or a scraper.

Front 4

extruder

Back 4

the equipment used to produce lengths of shaped clay by squeezing soft clay through a die plate or template

Front 5

handbuilding

Back 5

making pottery without the use of a potters wheel, either by coiling, stabbing, pinching, or a combination of all three.

Front 6

leatherhard

Back 6

clay that is stiff and damo but no longer plastic. It can be trimmed, cut, and joined without being damaged. Also known as "cheese-hard" because of its consistency and feel.

Front 7

slabs

Back 7

clay sheets rolled to a specific thickness and allowed to harden before assembly; soft slabs can be draped over formers to reproduce a specific shape and allowed to stiffen

Front 8

wedging

Back 8

kneading and mixing clay into an even consistency and removing air, prior to throwing or handbuilding.

Front 9

greenware

Back 9

unfired pottery

Front 10

lute

Back 10

to join leather-hard clay surfaces together, with slip or slurry

Front 11

bisque- or biscuit-firing

Back 11

the first firing of any clay pottery, the transforms it to ceramic and renders it to porous to absorb

Front 12

kidney

Back 12

kidney shaped scraper, made in metal, plastic, or rubber

Front 13

plasticity

Back 13

term for how pliable a piece of clay is, and how easily it can be formed without cracking

Front 14

press molding

Back 14

pressing flat sheets of clay into, or over, molds, to let the clay dry in that shape

Front 15

short

Back 15

term used to describe a soft clay lacking in plasticity

Front 16

terracotta

Back 16

rich brown, low firing clay with a high iron content. Also called red eartheware. Fired at C 04- 1945F

Front 17

biscuit or bisque

Back 17

ware which is fired to a state hard enough to facilitate handling in glazing. In many cases it also makes some decorative techniques simpler to achieve.

Front 18

earthenware

Back 18

one of the three main types of pottery, the others being stoneware and porcelain. It is opaque, relatively soft, and porous unless covered with an uncrazed glaze. The firing temps can be as low as 800C or as high as 1200 C, before it starts to vitrify, and technically becomes stoneware

Front 19

fettle

Back 19

to finish the surface of leather-hard or dry clay by removing unwanted marks, especially seams made by casting molds

Front 20

pulling (handles)

Back 20

plastic clay is stroked with water by hand to shape handles, either directly on the pot from a lump stuck on the side, or by pulling (shaping) a rudimentary handle which is completed later, once attached to the pot.