This slide show include stages of clay, hand building techniques, basic clay vocabulary, several warm ups, types of kilns, etc. It is classroom safe and good by itself or to add to and amend with your own slides. It can be delivered in about 20-40 minutes including time to talk a little, ask questions, converse with students about slides. Vocabulary: handbuilding, slip, leather hard, dryfoot, electric kiln, gas kiln, woodfire kiln, bone dry, wet clay, slab building, coil building, pinch pot, utilitarian, slip, score, bisque fire, bisque ware, stone ware, fire, throw, toploader, frontloader, walk-in, kiln furniture, glaze, glazeware, matte, gloss, functional,

2. Warm Up
In your notebook…
Write down 3-4 things that you
already know about clay.
Then, write down something that you
want to know about clay.

3. Ceramics/Pottery/Clay

4. Stages of Clay

5. Greenware: clay that has not been fired
• Stage 1: Wet Clay - Flexible clay. Can be
formed, modeled, pinched, rolled into slabs or
coils at this stage.
• Stage 2: Leather Hard - Second stage. Clay is
stiff, but workable. Best stage to join slabs, carve
and burnish (smooth using plastic or hard slick
surface).
• Stage 3: Bone Dry - All physical water has
evaporated. VERY fragile at this point. Ready to
be fired.

6. Warm-Up
In your notebook…Without looking
at your notes, try to name the
stages of clay in correct order.
Give a brief description of each.
Now, check your notes to see if you
are right. Make any corrections
necessary.

7. Next you will fire the clay
fire: “cooking” clay, this makes the clay very
hard. Once the clay is fired it will be in the
same shape permanently.
There are clay pots that are 1000s of years
old still around today.
kiln: the device used to fire the clay. Similar
to how an oven cooks a cake.

8. Other clay terms
Slip: clay that has been thinned down with
water and can be used between pieces to
help hold them together (like glue)
Score: scratching the clay to increase the
surface area of 2 pieces you are joining
together

9. Here is an example of someone collaring clay on
the wheel. What stage is the clay in?
Answer: Wet

10. Clay is fired for the first time
• This firing is called a bisque firing.
• In a bisque firing the pieces can touch.
• A bisque firing is slower than a glaze
firing. This allows time for all of the water
to escape.

11. What comes out of the kiln is
called…
• Stage 4: Bisque ware - Clay that has
been fired once. All chemical water is
gone. Absorbs water and feels
rough/chalky.
• Clay has not gone through vitrification, this
is why water will pass through it. It is
porous.

12. There are many types of kilns. Some
factors that vary from kiln to kiln are…
• How it is heated. Some kilns are heated with
electricity, others are heated by gas, or various
types of natural materials.
• How it is loaded. Some are loaded from the top
(toploaders). Others are loaded from the front
(frontloaders). Some are large enough to walk
into carrying your pottery (walk-in kilns).
• The type of glaze it produces: Raku, Soda,
Salt…

14. Notice the kiln furniture 
Frontloade
r

16. Gas Gages

18. Certain types of kilns
create tornadic fire
storms inside. The
fire will come
through any
openings including
cracks and peep
holes.

25. Electric kiln
The advantages associated with the electric
kiln are the following...
• 1. the kiln is easy to fire, requiring little
attention.
• 2. the temperature in the kiln is easy to
regulate
• 3. It is a clean, non-polluting process
• 4. It produces bright colored glazes

26. 3 handbuilding techniques
• Pinch pot-push thumb into a ball of clay
and pinch into desired shape
• Slab-roll clay out and cut out pieces.
Attach pieces together by scoring,
slipping, and smoothing over the seem
• Coil-roll out snake like pieces of clay and
attach them one on top of another

27. The Second firing is
• the glaze firing
• A piece of pottery may be fired more than
2 times (it will not damage the clay), but
usually 2 times is enough.
• Stage 5: Glazeware-pottery that has
been fired with glaze on it. This is the last
stage.

28. Glaze
• a continuous layer of glass or glassy
crystals fused to the surface of fired clay.
• provides a surface impervious to liquids
and easy to clean.
• can be smooth or textured, shiny or dull

30. More on glaze…
• matte- not shiny, dull
• gloss- shiny
• Glazes do not mix like paint. Yellow and
Blue do not necessarily make green.
• Glaze is made up of glass and clay
molecules along with various chemicals
which produce color.
• Glaze colors are produced by the
chemicals’ reaction to heat.

31. Functional…describes pottery that
has been designed and produced with
a use in mind, “everyday ware” or the
term UTILITARIAN might be used to
describe the same. Usually very
simple or basic.

32. Without looking at your
notes, Write down as many
things as you can remember
about sculpting utilitarian
(usable) objects.

35. Utilitarian Work
Plates, saucers, mugs, casserole dishes,
pencil holders, hotpads, etc.
If you plan to eat from the work…
• be sure to use a lead free glaze
• don’t use paint
• thoroughly coat all surfaces with glaze
• avoid “nooks and crannies” when sculpting

36. Dryfoot…to clean the bottom of any
piece of glazed ware before it is
fired so that it is free of glaze. Wax,
either heated or liquid resist, is
frequently used.

37. Warm Ups
and Reviews

38. Warm-Up
Write down as much
information about this kiln
as you can. How is it
fueled?
How do you “close the
door”?
What is the man about to
do?
How can you tell how hot
it is in this kiln?
Is this the same type of
kiln we have?

39. Draw 3 ideas for the cup you
would like to make out of clay.

40. Warm Up
Answer in your notebook:
What are the stages of clay?
Which of the stages are greenware?

41. Warm-Up: Answer in your notebook
What are the 3 handbuilding techniques?
Which technique(s) are you using in your
work?
How could you use a different technique to
complete your project?

42. Look back at your
warm up from Monday.
What have you learned
about clay this week?