Pottery Terms

Here's some of the terms used in pottery. For you to help familiarize yourself if you want to try it:)

Slab- Slabs are flat, thin 1/8" to 1/4" sections of clay which are produced by hand
or with a mechanical device called a slab roller.

Slab construction- Roll out clay to uniform thickness on canvas cloth. Lay template on slab and
cut with needle. Gently lift so as not to warp the clay. To assemble, score
and slip sides to base.

Slip – Clay that has been thinned by the adding water to the clay. Slip can be used
as a binder for joining slabs of clay , adding handles to vessels, or any time
two pieces of clay are being joined together.

Pinch Pots – Pottery pots made by forming a ball of clay, and with just the pottery worker's
hands pushing one thumb down into the center of the ball and pinching up
the wall while rotating the pot.

Wedging – To knead or mix clay by hand. A hand process used to homogenize the clay
and remove air bubbles, thus making it workable. The techniques for
wedging are called Spiral, Chrysanthemum wedging, Rams head, Monkey
face wedging and wire/slab wedging.

Throwing – To make pottery by hand on a kickwheel or electric potters wheel.. A delicate
balance, which defies gravity and centrifugal force as clay is coaxed up by
hand from a spinning turntable.

Leather Hard – This is a stage midway between wet and dry clay. The clay will be stiff
enough to support it’s own weight, but pliable enough to be bent and worked
with.

Greenware – Unfired pottery that is dryer and harder than the leather hard stage.

Bisque – A greenware piece of pottery that is fired at a high temperature and is porous
and unglazed.

Glaze – A layer of ceramic or glass that is a mix of dolomite, frit, flint, feldspar,
sodium borate, clay and whiting. It can be applied by dusting, dipping or
brushing a thin coat on the surface of a pottery or ceramic piece. Glaze is
used to seal the piece, decorate it, or both.