Ceramics and Pottery Vocabulary

1. - A flat disc made out of plaster, wood, or plastic which is affixed to the wheel head with clay or pins.
4. - Clay mixed with water with a mayonnaise consistency. Used in casting and decoration.
7. - A piece of clay rolled like a rope, used in making pottery.
9. - A thin coating of glass. An impervious silicate coating, which is developed in clay ware by the fusion under heat of inorganic materials.
10. Wheel - A revolving wheelhead which sits on a pedestal base. It is turned by hand and used for finishing or decorating pottery.
11. - Technique to move the clay in to a symmetrical rotating axis in the middle of a wheel head so you can throw it.
12. - Pottery which has been fired once, without glaze, to a temperature just before vitrification.

1. Fire - First firing, without glaze. Slips can be used in a bisque firing.
2. - Manipulate clay with you fingers in your palm to a hollow shape. Pinch pots are a popular beginners project.
3. - A method of kneading clay to make it homogenous by cutting and rolling.
5. - Pressed or rolled flat sections of clay used in hand building.
6. - Building a clay structure using only your hands.
8. Hard - Stage of the clay between plastic and bone dry. Clay is still damp enough to join it to other pieces using slip. For example, this is the stage handles are applied to mugs.