A Potter’s Dictionary
The long history of pottery has allowed it to evolve its own jargon. Each culture has established their own pottery terms to refer to tools and ingredients or define processes and techniques. These terms are extremely varied and extensive. If you are soon planning to enter into pottery, knowing these terms might be very helpful. What follows is a list of the most common pottery terms.
Greenware: This refers to unfired clay piece.
Biscuit or Bisque: These terms refer to pottery that has been fired once, but still lacks glaze.
Bloating: This refers to the swelling of ceramic pots during firing because of the expansion of trapped gases. Bloating can be prevented by kneading the clay very well to expel out trapped air.
Blunging: This is the process of wetting clay or ceramics when it becomes too dry.
Glaze: Is a finishing material applied to ceramics and pots to achieve a glass-like finish.
Enamel: This refers to the colored decorations with glass-like appearance applied to ceramics. Because of its shiny appearance, it is also called on-glaze decoration.
Crawling: This is the parting of the glaze during drying or firing. The glaze shrinks and cause unglazed areas to appear onto the surface of the pots.
Shivering: Refers to the flaking of glaze during firing. The worst case scenario in glazing happens when crawling and shivering happen together.
Terracotta: Red-colored clay body. Commonly found in China and other parts of Asia
Lawn: A potter’s sieve used to sift out fine and coarse clay or ceramic particles.
Grog: Is a collective term for coarse ceramic particles usually produced after pounded ceramic is sifted in a lawn.
The list doesn’t stop there, however. The collection of pottery terms is rich and very extensive it can come up with its own dictionary. But don’t be intimidated. You’ll quickly learn the jargon of pottery as you go through learning its techniques and its art.
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