Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing - Japanese Ceramics

Below you will find rough definitions for a number of words commonly used in discussions of Japanese ceramics. I suggest using English equivalents whenever possible. If neccessary, give the Japanese term in italics with an English definition in parentheses.NOTE: Accent marks over vowels indicate long vowels. For example, the "ô" in "ôgama" indicates that the "oh" sound is two times longer than the normal "oh" vowel. Otherwise each syllable should be given equal weight.Sources include Louise Cort, Seto and Mino Ceramics (University of Hawaii Press, 1992); Louise Cort. Shigaraki, Potters' Valley (Kodansha,
1979); Sekai tôji zenshû [Catalog of world ceramics] (Shôgakukan, 1975); Penny Simpson, Lucy Kitto, and Kanji Sodeoka, The Japanese Pottery Handbook(Kodansha, 1979); Tôki daijiten [Great dictionary of ceramics] Tôki Zenshû Kankôkai, ed. (Gogatsu Shobô, 1980; reprint of 1934 edition); Richard Wilson, Inside Japanese Ceramics (Weatherhill, 1995)

• Agano: Japanese ceramic ware produced in Fukuchiyama on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Fukuoka Prefecture); begun by Korean potters in late 16th to early 17th centuries; easily confused with Karatsu ware; see "Takatori"
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  ame: amber glaze
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  anagama: sloping tunnel kiln; imported from China, first used in Japan around fifth century
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  Arita: Japanese porcelain ware produced in Arita on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Saga Prefecture); location of discovery of first porcelain deposit in Japan, by Korean potters in 17th century; center of the porcelain industry in Japan
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  Asahi: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in the city of Uji, south of Kyoto; originated in late 16th to early 17th centuries
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  Bizen: Japanese unglazed, high-fired ceramic ware produced in the city of Bizen (town of Imbe, present-day Okayama Prefecture); known for long firings in climbing kilns, with resulting heavy ash deposits and other effects; originated in 12th century
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  cha: tea
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  chadamari: "tea pool" in the bottom of a tea bowl
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  chadô: the way of tea
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  chaire: tea caddy; small container used to hold powdered tea (matcha)
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  chanoyu: the tea ceremony
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  chatô: tea ceramics
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  chawan: tea bowl
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  Echizen: Japanese unglazed, high-fired ceramic ware produced in Echizen domain (present-day Fukui Prefecture), influenced by the Sue wares of the Heian Period (794-1192)
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  fude: brush
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  gosu: natural cobalt, or asbolite
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  guinomi: sake cup
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  Hagi: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in Hagi in southwestern Japan (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture); famous for milky, white-glazed teawares; originated in late 16th to early 17th centuries with Korean potters
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  hakeme: slip brushing
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  hanaire: flower vase
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  haniwa: ceramic figurines produced during the 4th to 7th centuries, C.E.; these figurines marked the surface of above-ground tombs; see "kofun"
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  hebigama: snake kiln (also called "jagama")
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  Hizen: broad term for Japanese ceramics and porcelains produced in the Hizen domain on the island of Kyushu (present-day Nagasaki and Saga Prefectures) during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868)
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  Iga: Japanese unglazed, high-fired ceramic ware produced in the Iga domain (present-day Mie Prefecture) beginning in the 16th century
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  ikebana: flower arranging
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  Imari: Japanese porcelain wares produced in Arita, named "Imari" after the port from which they were shipped to other Japanese cities, Southeast Asia, and Europe during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868); see "Arita" and "Hizen"
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  jiki: porcelain
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  Jômon: coil/slab-built, cord-marked, low-fired ceramic wares of prehistoric Japan; first made on Japanese archipelago around 10,000 years
  ago
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  Karatsu: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in Karatsu and surrounding areas on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures); originated in 16th century with Korean potters
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  Kenzan: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced largely in Kyoto; founded by Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) a poet, painter, calligrapher, and potter who specialized in elegant brushwork on ceramic forms; see "Kyôyaki"
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  ke-rokuro: kick wheel
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  ki-seto: "yellow seto"; Japanese high-fired ceramic ware; glaze is yellowish in color, perhaps began as an attempt to produce celadon glaze; originated in 16th century; see "seto"
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  ko: "old," "historical." Used as a prefix, as in Kogaratsu (old Karatsu ware), Koseto (old Seto ware) Koimari (old Imari ware), and so on.
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  Koishiwara: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in Koishiwara on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Fukuoka Prefecture); originated in Agano wares and Takatori wares in 17th century; see "Agano," Takatori," and "Onta"
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  Kutani: Japanese porcelain ware produced in the Kaga domain (present day Ishikawa Prefecture) beginning in the 17th century
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  Kyôyaki: "Kyoto ceramics"; Japanese high-fired and porcelain wares produced in Kyoto; originated in 17th century; see "Kenzan"
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  maki: firewood, pieces of wood
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  Mashiko: name of a town outside of Tokyo that has become famous as a folk-craft village, pottery community, and home of Hamada Shoji,
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  matcha: powdered green tea for the tea ceremony; see "sencha"
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  mingei: folk craft or folk art; the Folk Craft Movement (Mingei undô) was started by Yanagi Sôetsu (1889-1961; also Yanagi Muneyoshi)
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  Mino: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in the Seto and ino domains (Gifu Prefecture); famous for production of shino, yellow seto, black seto, and oribe; originated in late 16th century
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  mishima: slip inlay
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  mizusashi: water jar; a lidded fresh water container used in the tea ceremony
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  neriage: patterned loaves of colored clays
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  nerikomi: marbling with colored clays
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  noborigama: multichambered climbing kiln; appropriated from Korea or China in early seventeenth century
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  ôgama: "great kiln"; wide, sloped, single-chamber kiln with side door; originated in Seto/Mino region in early 16th century
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  Ôhi: Japanese low-fired ceramic ware produced in Ôhi, near Kanazawa, in the Kaga domain (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) by the Ôhi family; founded in 1666 by the potter Chôzaemon, a worker in the Raku workshop in Kyoto; wares (mostly tea bowls and other tea ceramics) are
  similar to those produced by the Raku family, but are famous for their amber (ame) glaze
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  Onta: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in the town of Onta on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Fukuoka Prefecture); origins in Agano wares and Takatori wares in 17th century; see "Koishiwara"
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  oribe: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware; this term (named after the tea master and warrior, Furuta Oribe, 1545-1615) has come to be applied to a wide range of ceramics; general characteristics include rectangular and circular shapes, use of clear glaze, white slip, underglaze brush work, and
  a dark green copper glaze; originated around 1600; see "seto"
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  Raku: Japanese low-fired ceramic ware produced in Kyoto by the Raku family; famous for tea bowls and food dishes for use in the tea ceremony; originated in the late 16th century; this term also applies to wares made by a wide variety of amateur and professional potters in the tea community
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  rokuro: wheel (for making pots); see kerokuro and terokuro
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  sake: a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice; this term also refers to alcoholic beverages in general
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  Sanage: a Japanese ash-glazed, high-fired ceramic ware produced in Sanage, Aichi Prefecture; inspired by Chinese celadons; originated around the 9th century; see "Tokoname"
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  sansai: three-color ware; originated in China aro and the 8th century, A.D.
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  sara: plate
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  Satsuma: a Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in southern Kyushu (southern Japan); originated in 17th century with Korean potters
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  seiji: celadon; loosely refers to a wide range of blue and green feldspathic glazed wares; originated in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1270), and spread throughout East and Southeast Asia
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  sencha: steeped tea (as opposed to the powdered tea of the tea ceremony); see "matcha"
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  Seto: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in the Seto and Mino domains (Gifu Prefecture); famous for production of shino, yellow seto, black seto, and oribe; originated in late 16th century
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  seto-guro: black seto; Japanese high-fired ceramic ware; Japan's first truly black glaze, made when iron glazed pots were removed when red-hot; originated in late 16th century; see "seto"
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  Shigaraki: Japanese high-fired, unglazed ceramic ware produced in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture; famous for ash deposits and distinctive forms; originated around 12th century, spread from Tokoname and Atsumi
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  shino: Japanese high-fired ceramic ware produced in the Seto and Mino domains (Gifu prefecture); consists of a white, secondary clay body covered by a milky-translucent ash/feldspar glaze; the term eshino (picture shino) indicates wares with iron-oxide designs applied under the shino glaze; nezumi shino (grey shino) indicates wares with designs carved into an iron slip, with the entire piece covered in the shino glaze.
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  Sueki: high-fired ceramic ware produced in Japan by potters who immigrated from Korea (and possibly China?); originated around the 4th century, B.C.; led to the spread of high-fired ceramic production throughout Japan; early wares were not glazed, but blackened; later glaze technology
  arrived from Tang China, leading to the use of lead-based glazes on low-fire wares, and feldspar-based glazes on high-fire wares
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  sûyaki: bisque firing
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  Takatori: Japanese ceramic ware produced in Chikuzen domain on the island of Kyushu (southern Japan, present-day Fukuoka Prefecture); begun by Korean potters in late 16th to early 17th centuries; see "Agano"
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  takebai: bamboo ash
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  Tamba: Japanese ceramic ware
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  temmoku: Japanese term for a type of tea bowl produced in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279); known for a variety of black, brown, tan, and blue glazes, and a distinctive shape with a flaring mouth and narrow base; these tea bowls were also produced in Japan beginning in the Kamakura Period (1192-1336)
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  teppôgama: rifle kiln
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  te-rokuro: hand wheel
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  tôgei: ceramic arts
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  tôji: ceramics, clay
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  tôjiki: ceramics (literally ceramic and porcelain objects; see also jiki)
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  tôki: ceramics (specifically, ceramic objects)
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  tokkuri: bottle, flask: usually used to hold sake
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  Tokoname: a Japanese high-fired, ash-glazed ceramic ware produced in the region of Sanage, (present-day Aichi Prefecture); inspired by Chinese celadons; originated around the 9th century; see Sanage and Atsumi
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  tsubo: storage jar
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  yakimono: pottery
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  Yayoi: low-fired ceramic wares made on the Japanese archipelago during the period ca 300 B.C.E. to ca 300 C.E.; differentiated from Jômon ceramics on the basis of a finer-grained clay body, a smooth, thin, symmetrical, and less ornamented style, the aesthetic influence of cast metal, and the appearance of gendered production patterns
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  yunomi: tea cup

What is the difference between the following terms: yunomi, guinomi, chawan, senchawan, banchawan, and matchawan?

The basic problem is that three separate tea drinking traditions exist in contemporary Japan, and they do not employ the same labels for ceramics. This causes a great deal of confusion among foreign collectors and potters.

The most common tea tradition in Japan is not really a codified, organized tradition at all: the daily consumption of tea in almost every household in the country. On a daily basis, most Japanese drink steeped green tea (sencha), course tea (bancha), or some form of roasted tea (hojicha) or stem tea (kukicha). More and more also drink coffee, black tea with milk or lemon, or Chinese fermented tea such as Oolong tea. These distinctions are described in more detail in the introduction of my book Japanese Tea Culture. The point is, although most people drink these teas out of what we would call a “cup” in English, a variety of Japanese terms are used to describe these vessels, and they are not standardized in any way. The best term is probably “yunomi,” which basically means tea cup.

The second most important tea tradition in Japan is chanoyu, also referred to (particularly by practitioners) as Chado or Sado (homophones meaning “the way of tea”). This ritualized, performative tradition is the one most potters know something about, because it is the source of so many of the styles and aesthetic innovations that influence American and global ceramics today. Chanoyu practitioners drink powdered green tea from a medium to large bowl. These are NOT cups: they are distinctly shaped liked bowls.

The third tea tradition in Japan is sencha or “steeped tea.” This tradition became popular in the 18th century, when a small group of Japanese artists and intellectuals appropriated literati customs from China and invented a tea-drinking ritual to rival chanoyu. The vessels in this tradition are called “chawan” or “meiwan,” but are often smaller than chanoyu’s tea bowls and look more like cups.

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  Yunomi (literally “[for] drinking hot water”): tea cup, usually taller than wide and smaller in diameter than the smallest of tea bowls. Often mistakenly called “tea bowl” by American potters.
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  Guinomi (literally one gulp): a small cup, often wide with a narrow base, used exclusively for drinking sake. Sometimes imitates the shape of a tea bowl.
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  Chawan (literally tea bowl): a small to medium sized bowl used for drinking hot tea (usually powdered green tea or “matcha”). Historically, shapes were limited to the following forms: conical (like temmoku tea bowls imported to Japan from China, and their Japanese reproductions); half-cylindrical (the vertical walls are not as tall as the bowl’s diameter); and cylindrical (the vertical walls are taller than the diameter of the bowl).
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  In Japanese, tea practitioners frequently refer to more than 26 different shapes of tea bowls, but these are difficult to translate into English and not very meaningful in a non-chanoyu cultural context.

The important fact to note is that historically, most tea bowls were not smaller than 9 cm and not larger than 14 cm in the diameter of the mouth.

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  Senchawan (bowl for steeped tea): Chinese literati-style steeped tea drinking became very popular in Japan in the 18th century and continues to have a small following in contemporary Japan. To learn more about Sencha, see Pat Graham’s book Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha.
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  Matchawan (bowl for powdered tea): The term “chawan” almost always refers to a tea bowl to be used to consume powdered green tea or “matcha,” so I have always found the term “matchawan” to be highly redundant.
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  Banchawan (bowl for coarse tea): Course tea (bancha) is usually drunk out of a tea cup (yunomi) rather than a tea bowl, so this term also seems a bit strange. I have noticed that some potters in Japan use this term to describe their tea bowls, but the difference escapes me

Decorating and glazing

Additives can be worked into the clay body prior to forming, to produce desired effects in the fired wares. Coarse additives, such as sand and grog (fired clay which has been finely ground) are sometimes used to give the final product a required texture. Contrasting colored clays and grogs are sometimes used to produce patterns in the finished wares. Colorants, usually metal oxides and carbonates, are added singly or in combination to achieve a desired color. Combustible particles can be mixed with the body or pressed into the surface to produce texture.

Agateware: So-named after its resemblance to the quartz mineral agate which has bands or layers of color that are blended together. Agatewares are made by blending clays of differing colors together, but not mixing them to the extent that they lose their individual identities. The wares have a distinctive veined or mottled appearance. The term 'agateware' is used to describe such wares in the United Kingdom; in Japan the term neriage is used and in China, where such things have been made since at least the Tang Dynasty, they are called marbled wares. Great care is required in the selection of clays to be used for making agatewares as the clays used must have matching thermal movement characteristics.

Banding: This is the application, by hand or by machine, of a band of color to the edge of a plate or cup. Also known as lining, this operation is often carried out on a potter's wheel.

Burnishing: The surface of pottery wares may be burnished prior to firing by rubbing with a suitable instrument of wood, steel or stone, to produce a polished finish that survives firing. It is possible to produce very highly polished wares when fine clays are used, or when the polishing is carried out on wares that have been partially dried and contain little water, though wares in this condition are extremely fragile and the risk of breakage is high.

An ancient Armenian urn.

Engobe: This is a clay slip, often white or cream in color that is used to coat the surface of pottery, usually before firing. Its purpose is often decorative, though it can also be used to mask undesirable features in the clay to which it is applied. Engobe slip may be applied by painting or by dipping, to provide a uniform, smooth, coating. Engobe has been used by potters from pre-historic times until the present day, and is sometimes combined with sgraffito decoration, where a layer of engobe is scratched through to reveal the color of the underlying clay. With care it is possible to apply a second coat of engobe of a different color to the first and to incise decoration through the second coat to expose the color of the underlying coat. Engobes used in this way often contain substantial amounts of silica, sometimes approaching the composition of a glaze.

Litho: This is a commonly used abbreviation for lithography, although the alternative names of transfer print or decal are also common. These are used to apply designs to articles. The litho comprises three layers: the color, or image, layer which comprises the decorative design; the cover coat, a clear protective layer, which may incorporate a low-melting glass; and the backing paper on which the design is printed by screen printing or lithography. There are various methods of transferring the design while removing the backing-paper, some of which are suited to machine application

Gold: Decoration with gold is used on some high quality ware. Different methods exist for its application, including:

• Best gold - a suspension of gold powder in essential oils mixed with a flux and a mercury salt extended. This can be applied by a painting technique. From the kiln the decoration is dull and requires burnishing to reveal the full color
• Acid Gold – a form of gold decoration developed in the early 1860s at the English factory of Mintons Ltd, Stoke-on-Trent. The glazed surface is etched with diluted hydrofluoric acid prior to application of the gold. The process demands great skill and is used for the decoration only of ware of the highest class.
• Bright Gold – consists of a solution of gold sulphoresinate together with other metal resonates and a flux. The name derives from the appearance of the decoration immediately after removal from the kiln as it requires no burnishing
• Mussel Gold – an old method of gold decoration. It was made by rubbing together gold leaf, sugar and salt, followed by washing to remove solubles

[edit] Glazing

Main article: Ceramic glaze

Glaze is a glassy coating applied to pottery, the primary purposes of which include decoration and protection. Glazes are highly variable in composition but usually comprise a mixture of ingredients that generally, but not always, mature at kiln temperatures lower than that of the pottery that it coats. One important use of glaze is in rendering pottery vessels impermeable to water and other liquids. Glaze may be applied by dusting it over the clay, spraying, dipping, trailing or brushing on a thin slurry composed of glaze minerals and water. Brushing tends not to give an even covering but can be effective as a decorative technique. The color of a glaze before it has been fired may be significantly different than afterwards. To prevent glazed wares sticking to kiln furniture during firing, either a small part of the object being fired (for example, the foot) is left unglazed or, alternatively, special refractory spurs are used as supports. These are removed and discarded after the firing. Special methods of glazing are sometimes carried out in the kiln. One example is salt-glazing, where common salt is introduced to the kiln to produce a glaze of mottled, orange peel texture. Materials other than salt are also used to glaze wares in the kiln, including sulfur. In wood-fired kilns fly-ash from the fuel can produce ash-glazing on the surface of wares, and the use of an ash and clay mix can result in alkaline glazes, as used in Catawba Valley Pottery in the eastern United States.

[edit] Firing

Firing produces irreversible changes in the body. It is only after firing that the article can be called pottery. In lower-fired pottery the changes include sintering, the fusing together of coarser particles in the body at their points of contact with each other. In the case of porcelain, where different materials and higher firing-temperatures are used the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of the constituents in the body are greatly altered. In all cases the object of firing is to permanently harden the wares and the firing regime must be appropriate to the materials used to make them. As a rough guide, earthenwares are normally fired at temperatures in the range of about 1000 to 1200 degrees Celsius; stonewares at between about 1100 to 1300 degrees Celsius; and porcelains at between about 1200 to 1400 degrees Celsius. However, the way that ceramics mature in the kiln is influenced not only by the peak temperature achieved, but also by the duration of the period of firing. Thus, the maximum temperature within a kiln is often held constant for a period of time to soak the wares, to produce the maturity required in the body of the wares.

The atmosphere within a kiln during firing can affect the appearance of the finished wares. An oxidising atmosphere, produced by allowing air to enter the kiln, can cause the oxidation of clays and glazes. A reducing atmosphere, produced by limiting the flow of air into the kiln, can strip oxygen from the surface of clays and glazes. This can affect the appearance of the wares being fired and, for example, some glazes containing iron fire brown in an oxidising atmosphere, but green in a reducing atmosphere. The atmosphere within a kiln can be adjusted to produce complex effects in glaze.

Kilns may be heated by burning wood, coal and gas, or by electricity. When used as fuels, coal and wood can introduce smoke, soot and ash into the kiln which can affect the appearance of unprotected wares. For this reason wares fired in wood- or coal-fired kilns are often placed in the kiln in saggars; lidded ceramic boxes, to protect them. Modern kilns powered by gas or electricity are cleaner and more easily controlled than older wood- or coal-fired kilns and often allow shorter firing times to be used. In a Western adaptation of traditional Japanese Raku ware firing, wares are removed from the kiln while hot and smothered in ashes, paper or woodchips, which produces a distinctive, carbonised, appearance. This technique is also used in Malaysia in creating traditional labu sayung.

Methods of shaping

The potter's most basic tool is the hand. However, many additional tools have been developed over the long history of pottery manufacturing, including the potter's wheel and turntable, shaping tools (paddles, anvils, ribs), rolling tools (roulettes, slab rollers, rolling pins), cutting/piercing tools (knives, fluting tools, wires) and finishing tools (burnishing stones, rasps, chamois).

Pottery can be shaped by a range of methods that include:

Handwork pottery in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Handwork or hand building. This is the earliest and the most individualized and direct forming method. Wares can be constructed by hand from coils of clay, from flat slabs of clay, from solid balls of clay — or some combination of these. Parts of hand-built vessels are often joined together with the aid of slurry or slip, a runny mixture of clay and water. Hand building is slower and more gradual than wheel-throwing, but it offers the potter a high degree of control over the size and shape of wares. While it isn't difficult for an experienced potter to make identical pieces of hand-built pottery, the speed and repetitiveness of wheel-throwing is more suitable for making precisely matched sets of wares such as table wares. Some studio potters find hand building more conducive to fully using the imagination to create one-of-a-kind works of art, while others find this with the wheel.

A potter shapes a piece of pottery on an electric-powered potter's wheel

Classic potter's kick wheel in Erfurt, Germany

The potter's wheel. In the process that is called "throwing" (coming from the Old English word thrawan, which means to twist or turn ^[1]) , a ball of clay is placed in the center of a turntable, called the wheel-head, which the potter rotates with a stick, or with foot power (a kick wheel or treadle wheel) or with a variable speed electric motor. (Often, a disk of plastic, wood or plaster — called a bat — is first set on the wheel-head, and the ball of clay is thrown on the bat rather than the wheel-head so that the finished piece can be removed intact with its bat, without distortion.)

During the process of throwing the wheel rotates rapidly while the solid ball of soft clay is pressed, squeezed, and pulled gently upwards and outwards into a hollow shape. The first step, of pressing the rough ball of clay downward and inward into perfect rotational symmetry, is called centering the clay, a most important (and often most difficult) skill to master before the next steps: opening (making a centered hollow into the solid ball of clay), flooring (making the flat or rounded bottom inside the pot), throwing or pulling (drawing up and shaping the walls to an even thickness), and trimming or turning (removing excess clay to refine the shape or to create a foot).

From around 7th century BC until the introduction of slip casting in the 18th century AD, the potter's wheel was the most effective method of mass producing pottery, although it is also often employed to make individual pieces. Wheel-work makes great demands on the skill of the potter, but an accomplished operator can make many near-identical plates, vases, or bowls in the course of a day's work. Because of its inherent limitations, wheel-work can only be used to create wares with radial symmetry on a vertical axis. These can then be altered by impressing, bulging, carving, fluting, faceting, incising, and by other methods making the wares more visually interesting. Often, thrown pieces are further modified by having handles, lids, feet, spouts, and other functional aspects added using the techniques of handworking.

Jiggering and jolleying: These operations are carried out on the potter's wheel and allow the time taken to bring wares to a standardized form to be reduced. Jiggering is the operation of bringing a shaped tool into contact with the plastic clay of a piece under construction, the piece itself being set on a rotating plaster mould on the wheel. The jigger tool shapes one face whilst the mould shapes the other. Jiggering is used only in the production of flat wares, such as plates, but a similar operation, jolleying, is used in the production of hollow-wares, such as cups. Jiggering and jolleying have been used in the production of pottery since at least the 18th century. In large-scale factory production jiggering and jolleying are usually automated, which allows the operations to be carried out by semi-skilled labor.

Shaping on a potter's kick wheel; Gülşehir, Turkey

Roller-head machine: This machine is for shaping wares on a rotating mould, as in jiggering and jolleying, but with a rotary shaping tool replacing the fixed profile. The rotary shaping tool is a shallow cone having the same diameter as the ware being formed and shaped to the desired form of the back of the article being made. Wares may in this way be shaped, using relatively unskilled labor, in one operation at a rate of about twelve pieces per minute, though this varies with the size of the articles being produced. The roller-head machine is now used in factories worldwide.

RAM pressing: A factory process for shaping table wares and decorative ware by pressing a bat of prepared clay body into a required shape between two porous molding plates. After pressing, compressed air is blown through the porous mould plates to release the shaped wares.

Granulate pressing: As the name suggests, this is the operation of shaping pottery by pressing clay in a semi-dry and granulated condition in a mould. The clay is pressed into the mould by a porous die through which water is pumped at high pressure. The granulated clay is prepared by spray-drying to produce a fine and free flowing material having a moisture content of between about five and six per cent. Granulate pressing, also known as dust pressing, is widely used in the manufacture of ceramic tiles and, increasingly, of plates.

Slipcasting: is often used in the mass-production of ceramics and is ideally suited to the making of wares that cannot be formed by other methods of shaping. A slip, made by mixing clay body with water, is poured into a highly absorbent plaster mold. Water from the slip is absorbed into the mould leaving a layer of clay body covering its internal surfaces and taking its internal shape. Excess slip is poured out of the mold, which is then split open and the molded object removed. Slipcasting is widely used in the production of sanitary wares and is also used for making smaller articles, such as intricately-detailed figurines.