Elementary Ceramics Vocabulary

Ceramics are:

• Objects made of clay hardened by heat

• objects made of wood

• objects made of metal

• objects made of ice

Clay

• pieces of wood which are floating on the sea or have been washed ashore.

• frozen water, a brittle transparent crystalline solid.

• rocks that have been broken down by weather and turned into particles; water in between these tiny particles allows clay to be formed and shaped.

Plasticene is

• clay with oil in it, which prevents the clay from drying out; it is reusable and will not fully harden.

• a malleable mixture of paper and glue, or paper, flour, and water, that becomes hard when dry

liquid clay used like glue to join pieces of clay together

• paper mache

• slip

• rubber cement

clay that has started to dry; it can still be carved, cut, and joined together, but it is hard like a block of cheese

• Leather Hard

• Glazeware

• Bisqueware

clay that has dried out and is ready to be fired in the kiln

• slip

• leather hard

• glossy glaze

• bone dry

an unglazed clay piece that has been fired in the kiln once at a low temperature and is ready to be glazed

• slip

• leather hard

• bisqueware

a thin glasslike coating that is applied to clay pieces; when fired in a kiln, the glaze melts, turning it into a ceramic surface

• glaze

• paper mache

• acrylic gloss

Modeling

• the act of creating 3D forms

• a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing.

• an artistic discipline in which sound is utilized as the primary material

the process of adding or joining pieces to create form

• additive sculpture techniques

• subtractive sculpture techniques