Kumhar

A Potter Kumhar Making a Pot Ghada with Clay Mud

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• published: 30 Jun 2014
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Pottery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Pot" and "Pots" redirect here. For other uses of "pot", see Pot (disambiguation). For other uses of "pots", see POTS. A potter at work in Jaura, Madhya Pradesh, India. Unfired "green ware" pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum Traditional Pottery workshop reconstruction in the Museum of traditional crafts and applied arts, Troyan, Bulgaria Pottery is the ceramic act of making pottery wares,[1] of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery (plural "potteries"). Pottery also refers to the art or craft of a potter or the manufacture of pottery.[2][3] The definition of pottery used by ASTM is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products."[4] Some archaeologists use a different understanding of this definition by excluding ceramic objects such as figurines which are made by similar processes and of similar materials but are not vessels.[5] Pottery originates during the Neolithic period. Ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic date back to 29,000--25,000 BC,[6] and pottery vessels discovered in Jiangxi, China date back to 20,000 BP.[7] Early Neolithic pottery has also been found in Jomon Japan (10,500 BC),[8] the Russian Far East (14,000 BC),[9] Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln which removes all the water from the clay, which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing. Prior to some shaping processes, clay must be prepared. Kneading helps to ensure an even moisture content throughout the body. Air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished by a machine called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can also help produce an even moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, it is shaped by a variety of techniques. After shaping it is dried and then fired. Physical stages of clay[edit] Tajine potter, making tajines Clay ware takes on varying physical characteristics during the making of pottery. Greenware refers to unfired objects. At sufficient moisture content, bodies at this stage are in their most plastic form: they are soft and malleable, and hence can be easily deformed by handling. Leather-hard refers to a clay body that has been dried partially. At this stage the clay object has approximately 15% moisture content. Clay bodies at this stage are very firm and only slightly pliable. Trimming and handle attachment often occurs at the leather-hard state. Bone-dry refers to clay bodies when they reach a moisture content at or near 0%. It is now ready to be bisque fired. Bisque [10][11] refers to the clay after the object is shaped to the desired form and fired in the kiln for the first time, known as "bisque fired" or "biscuit fired". This firing changes the clay body in several ways. Mineral components of the clay body will undergo chemical changes that will change the colour of the clay. Glaze fired is the final stage of some pottery making. A glaze may be applied to the bisque form and the object can be decorated in several ways. After this the object is "glazed fired", which causes the glaze material to melt, then adhere to the object. The glaze firing will also harden the body still more as chemical processes can continue to occur in the body. In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as artifacts in archaeology. They may be made by one individual or in a factory where a group of people design, make and decorate the ware. Decorative ceramics are sometimes called "art pottery".[1] The word "ceramics" comes from the Greek keramikos (κεραμικος), meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from keramos (κεραμος), meaning "potter's clay."[2] Most traditional ceramic products were made from clay (or clay mixed with other materials), shaped and subjected to heat, and tableware and decorative ceramics are generally still made this way. In modern ceramic engineering usage, ceramics is the art and science of making objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials by the action of heat. It excludes glass and mosaic made from glass tesserae.