SIDEBAR : PORCELAIN PAINTING 

 

Biscuit or bisque - unglazed porcelain or pottery. 

Bone china - standard English porcelain containing the ashes of bones, making it more chip-resistant. 

Ceramics - the process of making useful or ornamental objects from clay by shaping them and then firing at high 

temperatures. 

Clays - natural earthy materials that are plastic when wet, consisting usually of hydrates of silica. Different 

kinds and colors of clay account fro the differences in the finished products. Clay can be molded into almost 

any shape. 

Earthenware - pottery made of baked or hardened coarse and opaque clays. 

Glaze - a shiny coating, rendering porcelain impervious to liquids and imparting a surface brilliance. Glazes  

can be translucent, opaque, or colored. 

Kiln - a furnace or oven for drying something by exposing it to high heat.

Porcelain - a strong ceramic material that transmits light and that has developed vitreosity (the quality of brittle glass) by being exposed to heat. 

Pottery - any receptacle made of clay, but usually referring to 

earthenware fired at low temperature as distinguished from stoneware or porcelain, fired at higher temperatures. 

Stoneware - a hard, opaque, vitreous ceramic ware, usually  

"salt-glazed" by throwing common salt into the kiln when it reaches maximum temperature. The salt decomposes into sodium oxide and hydrochloric acid. 

The sodium oxide combines with the silica of the pottery to form a thin coating of glass.

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