Stages of clay Plastic Leather hard Bone dry

Stages of clay • Plastic • Leather hard • Bone dry Greenware • Bisque • Glazeware

Plastic/Working Clay – Clay that is in a workable form. It can be formed and retain its shape.

Leather Hard – The stage where the clay is soft enough to carve or cut yet hard enough to stand on its own or support itself. Two pieces can be joined together. (Slip and Score)

Bone Dry – This is the most fragile stage of clay. All or most of the water has evaporated. It looks and feels dry. – no cold to touch

Greenware – Unfired pottery; still being cleaned or sanded. Clay is fragile at this stage, but not as fragile as bone dry.

Bisqueware – Unglazed clay that has gone through the First Firing!! By bisque firing, the clay becomes stronger.

Glazeware – Pottery that has been coated with a glaze and refired

Clay Construction – Slip and Score How do you join to pieces of clay? Slip/Liquid Clay – Clay + water = Slip Used as a glue to join clay. Score. Cross Hatching Marks made where Clay will touch

Clay Maintenance – Wedging remove air bubbles, achieve uniform consistency, and to line up the particles of clay

Additive – When you add material to a sculpture to build up the form Subtractive- When you subtract material from the sculpture to build up the form

Main construction methods. . -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinch- made with the pinching of fingers and thumb. Coil- gently rolling clay back and forth to create coils and using those coils to build up a form. This process is great for large asymmetrical forms. Slab- Using a slab roller or guide sticks to form slabs and cut and join with other stiffened slabs to create the form. Best for tall straight cylinders

Pinch Pots

Coil Pots

Slab Pots

Kiln- Furnace in which Clay is fired The First firing of a clay object is called the Bisque firing. The second Firing of a clay object is called the Glaze firing.

Glaze- Liquid suspension of material that melts in the kiln and produces a glasslike surface provides Beauty, Strength, and Waterproofs the piece Brushed on at the Bisque stage

Glaze Before kiln-------After Kiln