The language of pottery

Do you know your clobbering and bats from your coiling and grog?

Like many activities pottery has its own raft of words, and some may not be quite what they seem!

The lingo may be confusing if you’re a beginner, but even after years in the pottery studio there’s always something to learn.

Here we share just a few terms associated with pottery from the everyday to the more unusual.

Bats

While this is a common word in pottery, it has many meanings. It implies a flat surface and is also used to describe a kiln shelf, a pot board, and a detachable wheel head.

Bat wash

This is a mixture of refractory materials mixed with water and painted onto kiln shelves. This protects the kiln from wear and tear while preventing pots from fusing to the shelves.

Biscuit, or bisque

This refers to the first kiln firing. It applies to any piece of pottery that has been fired in the kiln unglazed. The piece will be durable at this point but porous. While it’s an overall term, some potters imply the temperature used for this firing is lower than the glaze firing that follows.

Clobbering

This is the practice of adding extra decoration to someone else’s pottery. With or without permission! Popular in the 18th and 19th century, it often increased the market value of the piece. The Bowes Museum have some great examples.

Crawling

This is a problem usually caused when the glaze shrinks too much during firing. It causes cracking and leaves bare patches of clay. The cracks are called the crawl points.

Coiling

This is one of the oldest methods to create a pot by hand instead of on the wheel. The technique involves rolling a small piece of clay on a flat surface until it forms a rope or snake-like shape, called a coil. Each coil is usually blended with the previous one from the base upwards.

Cones

Sometimes called Orton Cones, a cone is used in the kiln during the firing process to help determine the temperature. With heat, the cone softens and eventually bends; the degree to which it collapses can be used as a guide to how hot a firing has been.

Flashing

The interesting and sometimes annoying colouration and fusion that occurs when volatile particles settle on pots and produce unexpected ceramic combinations during the firing.

Grog

Grog is clay that’s been grounded, or powdered, then added to clay to provide tactile and visual texture. Grog helps the clay dry uniformly and, because it’s already fired, it reduces shrinkage, cracking, or warping.  

Slip

A slip is a liquid mixture of clay in water. Sometimes called clay slurry, it’s found in various textures and colours. It’s usually used as a coating or glaze on pottery and to help join slabs of clay.

Soak

Also known as the hold, this is the final stage of the kiln firing. The temperature is maintained, usually at the hottest setting, for a length of time. This gives time for the clay body and glaze to mature and reduce the chances of defects such as cracking or blistering. 

Throwing, or thrown

This is the whole process of shaping the clay on the potter's wheel.

The technique involves centring the clay on a quickly rotating wheel and forming it into a desired shape with your hands and water. When the piece is running true, it opens in the centre, an internal base is created, and the walls of the pot are lifted from the remainder of clay using upward movement.

Turning

Also known as trimming, this is a finishing technique used to finish the pot by removing excess clay on the lower part that couldn’t be accessed during the throwing process.

It’s usually done on the wheel when the pot is at leather hard stage. Unwanted clay is removed in a series of long shavings – a bit like sharpening a pencil.

The main reasons for turning are to ensure the pot bottom and walls have consistent thickness or to create a foot ring for the piece’s stability or function.

Wedging

This ensures the clay is in proper working condition. It’s a bit like kneading bread, but the aim is to remove air bubbles and even out the clay’s consistency. This makes the clay softer and easier to work with and helps ensure the best results. Air pockets or bubbles can cause the clay to crack, or even explode, in the kiln.

It’s important to wedge older, recycled, reclaimed, or mixed clay. You probably won’t need to wedge clay that is fresh from a supplier, but Amy always does!

These are just some of the words used in the world of pottery. Why not attend a workshop and see for yourself how they are applied, and you may even learn a few more!