List of Pottery Terms - P

P

• Paper Clay Adding reconstituted paper pulp to ordinary plastic clay in proportions up to 50% of the total mass. The added paper gives an unfired material great strength, giving an advantage to hand builders and sculptors.

• Pinholes. Faults in the surface of a ceramic body or glaze which resemble pin pricks. (W)

• Plasticity is the quality of clay that allows it to be manipuated and still maintain its shape without cracking.

• Porcelain. A vitreous ceramic material. Traditionally considered to be white and if, of thin section, translucent. (W)

• Potsherd. (W)

• Potter. A person who makes pots or other ceramic art and wares. (W)

• Potter's clay. The clay used by the potter (W)

• (Potter's) Wheel.

• Pottery. All fired ceramic wares or materials which, when shaped, contain a significant amount of clay. Exceptions are those used for technical, structural or refractory applications. Pottery is also: (1) the art and wares made by potters; (2) a ceramic material (3) a place where pottery wares are made; and (4) the business of the potter. (W)

Published definitions of Pottery include:

-- "All fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products."

-- "China, earthenware and any article made from clay or from a mixture containing clay and other materials."

-- "A class of ceramic artifacts in which clay is formed into containers by hand or in molds or with a potter's wheel, often decorated, and fired"

-- "The term pottery includes many varieties of ware from the crudest vessels of prehistoric times to the most beautiful decorated porcelains, stoneware and earthenware; it also includes many articles such as large grain-jars used in ancient times for storing corn and other dry materials, wine-jars and modern sanitaryware and the large tanks for containing corrosive acids. Many kinds of earthenware, stoneware and porcelains are used for scientific and experimental purposes as well as electrical apparatus (insulators, switch-bases, sparking plugs and bases or frames for electrical heating appliances)."

• Pug. Also pug mill. A machine for consolidating plastic clay or body into a firm column. It consists of a barrel which tapers at one end to a die, through which the clay or body is forced by knives mounted on a shaft which rotates centrally to the barrel. A vacuum system may be installed to de-ier the clay or clay body. (W)

• Pyrometer a temperature indicator linked to a kiln via a thermocoupler.

• Pyrometric cones. (W)