Ceramics and Pottery Flashcards
Grade 10 · Art · Flashcards
Essential vocabulary, techniques, and cultural traditions in ceramics and pottery for advanced study.
Flashcards
- Greenware
- Unfired, bone-dry clay work that is extremely fragile; this is the state of a piece before its first (bisque) firing.
- Vitrification
- The process by which clay particles fuse together during high-temperature firing, making the ceramic body dense, hard, and non-porous.
- Earthenware
- The oldest and most common clay body, fired at low temperatures (below ~1200°C); remains slightly porous and requires glazing for use with liquids.
- Stoneware
- A durable, high-fire clay body (1200–1300°C) that vitrifies fully; used for functional ware, dinnerware, and architectural ceramics.
- Porcelain
- Refined white clay (primary ingredient: kaolin) fired above 1260°C; produces translucent, extremely hard pieces; originated in Tang Dynasty China.
- Throwing
- Shaping clay on a rotating potter's wheel; involves centering, opening, pulling walls upward, and collaring — all done with wet hands.
- Coiling
- Hand-building by rolling clay into long ropes and stacking them; one of the oldest forming methods used by indigenous pottery traditions worldwide.
- Slab Construction
- Rolling clay into flat sheets and joining them to create angular or geometric forms; allows for more architectural shapes than wheel-throwing.
- Bisque Firing
- First kiln firing that permanently hardens clay without melting glaze; bisqueware is porous enough to absorb glaze before a second, glaze firing.
- Reduction Atmosphere
- A kiln environment with limited oxygen that chemically transforms iron-bearing glazes and clay bodies, producing muted, earthy, or metallic effects.
- Raku
- Low-fire Japanese pottery tradition linked to the tea ceremony; pieces are removed from the kiln while hot, cooled rapidly, creating dramatic carbon markings and crackled surfaces.
- Celadon
- A glaze style originating in China and refined in Korea; produces jade-green or sea-green tones via iron oxide in a reduction firing; prized for its refined beauty.
- Sgraffito
- A surface decoration technique in which slip or glaze is applied to leather-hard clay and then scratched away to reveal contrasting colors or the clay body beneath.
- Lucie Rie
- Austrian-British ceramicist (1902–1995) considered one of the most important studio potters of the 20th century, known for her refined wheel-thrown vessels with inventive glazes.
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