OUGD603 / Research-led Brief / Ceramics / STEP BY STEP PROCESS

1. Clay Preparation: This first step involves finding the right clay body for your work. Most modern potters usually just buy their clay from manufactures. The Native Americans and more traditional potters dig their clay from the earth, which gives them a feeling of being more with the earth and closer to their work.

2. Wedging: This is the process of missing the clay by pressing it into itself in a ball. This process is also VERY important to get out all the air bubbles, which can cause the pieces to break during the firing process later.

3. Forming: After the clay is thoroughly wedged, it can then be formed using a variety of methods: Slab, Wheel, Coil, Pinch, Mold, or a combination thereof.

4. Drying: As the clay dries, it loses its water content, it becomes stiffer, and shrinkage begins. As the piece is worked and put away at the end of the day, it should be wrapped in plastic to slow down the drying process and make it so when you come back your piece is still workable.

5. Leatherhard: After the clay has dried a few days, they will reach a stage call leatherhard. This is the stage where the clay has lost most of its water through evaporation and loses some flexibility. This is an excellent time to refine the final piece and add handles, and other decorative items.

6. Greenware: This is when the piece has lost all of its water through evaporation and has no flexibility. The only thing you can do to it is break it. This is a passive state where it’s just waiting on its first firing.

7. Bisque Firing: After the piece has dried completely and it’s ready to be fired, it’s loaded into a kiln and fired. This firing is at approximately 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. This is usually a three day process. Day one the kiln is loaded and the fire started but kept low to finish drying the pieces. Day two the fire is turned up until the target temperature is reached the fire is turned off and the kiln is let cool down. Day three the pieces are then removed from the kiln.

8. Glazing: The glaze is a mixture of ground glass, clays, coloring materials, and water. It is applied by dipping, pouring, spraying, brushing, sponging, or any combination of these.

9. Glaze Firing: This firing is also a three day affair but the temperature is up to 2350 degrees Fahrenheit.

10. Overglaze Firing: This is an optional step. This step involves a lower temperature (1300 degrees) and can include lusters, china paints, and decals. This glaze goes over the higher temperature glaze, but the biggest disadvantage to this is that it is semi-permanent.