Ceramics Vocabulary

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CeramicsVocabulary

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Black figure

• A style of vase painted used in ancient Greece.
  Figures and decoration were painted with a clay
  slip that turned black when the piece was
  subjected first to reducing, then to an oxidizing
  firing. The black decoration contrasts with the
  red background.

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deflocculant

• A substance that acts chemically on clay
  mixtures, causing them to become liquid with very
  little water, and causing the clay particles to
  separate and stay in suspension. Sodium silicate
  and sodium carbonate are two of these substances.

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engobe

• A colored decorating slip, often opaque.
  Concentrated color is added to liquid slip and
  then applied to greenware before firing.

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ash

• In general, produced from fire-wood, straw, etc.
  Used as a glaze material at high temperatures.

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casting

• The process of forming pottery or sculpture by
  pouring clay slip into absorbent plaster molds.