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Hand Building Methods
Tools
Pottery Techniques
Firing Terminology
Ceramic Terms
100
The process of turning a lump of clay in your hand and pressing it into a little bowl.
What is the Pinch method of forming clay?
100
The knife that is used in the ceramics class to cut and smooth pottery.
What is the fettling knife?
100
Roughening the surface of two pieces of clay before they are attached to each other.
What is scoring?
100
This term refers to the process of heating the clay in the kiln.
What is fired?
100
The principle of design that means oneness or unity.
What is Harmony?
200
Laying thin ropes of clay on top of each other then smoothing them to create a flowing piece of pottery.
What is the coil method of forming pottery?
200
A portable turntable used to rotate pottery while it is being worked on.
What is the Banding wheel?
200
A guide cut from cardboard to hold next to the coil pottery while it is being constructed so that the pot will be symmetrical.
What is a template?
200
The final firing to vitrify the clay body and melt the glass covering onto the project.
What is Glaze Fire?
200

The technique of applying fine particled slip, to a clay surface that means "sealed earth"

What is Terra Sigillata?

300

In order to get two pieces of clay to stick together you must do these 3 things.

What is score, slip (water) and blend?

300
A wooden tool used to blend clay together.
What is the modeling tool?
300
The process of cleaning the glaze off of the bottom of a pot before it is fired.
What is Dry foot?
300
The oven used to heat pottery to extreme temperatures.
What is the kiln?
300

This word means "to polish".

What is "burnish"?

400

Rolling a flat piece of clay and then quickly forming it while it is still soft, into more rounded shapes.

What is soft Slab construction?

400
Used to slice large slabs of clay and to cut pots off of the potter's wheel.
What is the wire cutter?
400
The names given to a piece of pottery: the top, the middle and the bottom.
What is LIP, BODY, FOOT?
400
The first firing in which the water molecules in the clay are burned off and the clay is left hard but still porous.
What is bisque firing?
400
A critical analysis of a work of art.
What is a critique?
500

This must be done if a clay sculpture has air trapped inside any part of the sculpture.

What is create a vent by pushing a needle tool into the air pocket?

500

Used for carving or incising a design into clay and sgraffito work.

What is the carving or loop tool used for?

500
Kneading clay to dispel air bubbles and to unify the moisture content and consistency of the clay body.
What is Wedging?
500

These are small triangular pieces made to melt at a specific temperature. Potters use these inside of a kiln to know the temperature.

What is a "Pyrometric Cone"?

500

Sometimes clay or other sculptural material needs a structure to help it stand or holds its form. The structure can be made out of wood, wire or paper.

What is an "Armature"?