Troop 806 Pottery Merit Badge

1. Troop 806Pottery Merit Badge

2. Requirement 1 • 1. Explain to your counselor the precautions that must be followed for the safe use and operation of a potter’s tools, equipment, and other materials.

3. Safety • Clay dust can be a serious health hazard. A deadly lung disease called silicosis can be contracted from breathing in fine clay particles. • When using dry, bagged clay, wear a protective mask. • Do NOT sweep a dusty studio. ALWAYS wet-mop to prevent clay dust from flying into the air. • Do NOT use sandpaper or other materials to refine a pot unless wearing a mask. • Work outside when possible. • Do NOT eat or drink in an area where clay dust might be in the air. • Take care when using knives, needles, carving tools, scissors, and other sharp or pointed tools to cut and shape clay.

4. Firing Safety • Wear full sturdy shoes, that won’t catch fire or melt easily • Always keep the room in which you are firing well ventilated- clay and glazes give off vapors that can be poisonous. • Wear protective insulating gloves and safety glasses or welding goggles when checking the through the peepholes. • Do NOT try to open the kiln or remove pieces from the kiln when it is still hot.

5. Requirement 2 • Do the following: • A. Explain the properties and ingredients of a good clay body for the following: • 1 Making Sculpture • 2 Throwing Sculpture • B. Tell how three different kinds of potter’s wheels work.

6. Properties of Clay • Pure clay is made of chemically combined silica, alumina, and water. In its natural state, it is rarely pure and usually contains impurities such as sand, limestone, pebbles, iron oxide, and traces of other elements it has accumulated over the long period of time it has taken to become clay. These impurities-in any combination-provide the clay with a unique set of properties that make different types of clay useful for different purposes. Pure clay, with little or no impurities, lacks some of the properties that a potter needs.

7. Properties of Clay • One of these properties is plasticity, which refers to how well the clay holds a shape when bent or molded. • Shrinkage-during firing, shrinkage occurs when the clay particles undergo chemical changes that cause them to fuse into a solid material. • Hardness or strength-refers to how well the clay stays together when it is leather hard, bone dry and in the fired state. • Color or Texture-what color is it, and is it coarse, rough, or fine-grained and smooth

8. Qualities of Clay Body • Clay is a naturally occurring material, but a clay body has been mixed from several clays and other ingredients. • The clay must be appropriate for the kiln being used. Some kilns will not produce the high temperatures required for the clay to mature. Also, Flux is added to help the clay melt into a solid when fired. The final material is the filler. Fillers lend fired strength, determine porosity and affect shrinkage. Very porous clay bodies usually contain sand or grog. Porous clay bodies can be used to make bigger, thicker pots that will not crack, warp, or burst when dry or fired.

9. 3 Major Types of Clay Pottery • Earthenware-oldest, simplest form of pottery, full of impurities, color ranges from red, gray to black, low temperatures • Terra-Cotta-common orange color, flowerpots • Stoneware-higher temperature, very hard and nonporous, opaque, easier to use in throwing on the wheel or hand-building. Grog (sand) can be added for strength. • Porcelain-beautiful, smooth, white surface when fired, fine china, plumbing, fixtures, toilets, sinks, glazed at lower temperatures.

10. Ingredients of Clay White-Colored Earthenware 30% plastic kaolin, 30% ball clay, 40% talc Terra-Cotta 15% ball clay, 15% stoneware, 40% earthenware, 10% nephelinesyenite, 10% talc, 10% borax frit Stoneware 18%ball clay, 55%stoneware clay, 12% fireclay, 10% potassium feldspar, 5% silica Porcelain 55% plastic kaolin, 25% potassium feldspar, 20% silica

11. What am I?(Porcelain, Stoneware,Terra-Cotta)

12. History of the Pottery Wheel & the 3 Types • The original pottery wheel didn't spin constantly. I was just a round surface that could be rotated as the pot was being built by hand. About 5000 years ago the pottery wheel was invented. There have been many versions of it over the centuries, including hand powered and foot powered wheels. • There are wheels that are spun using a stick which is inserted into a notch on the wheel. There are foot powered treadle wheels. There are also pottery kick wheelsin which a heavy fly wheel is kicked to maintain the spinning motion (this is the type of kick wheel most commonly used today). • A majority of potters today, however, use an electric pottery wheel.The electric wheel provides continuous spinning without the effort of kicking or pushing. • Regardless of the type of wheel you use, you are participating in possibly the oldest documented art form. The history of pottery dates back over 10,000 years and is still thriving and evolving as you read this.

13. What am I?(electric, kick, or treadle)

14. Requirement 3 • Make two drawings of pottery forms, each on an 8 ½ by 11 inch sheet of paper. One must be a historical pottery style. The other must be of your own design.

15. Requirement 4 • Explain the meaning of the following pottery terms: bat, wedging, throwing, leather hard, bone dry, greenware, bisque, terra-cotta, grog, slip, score, earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, pyrometric cone, and glaze. • --some were previously explained…

16. Additional Terms • Bat-discs on the potters wheel • Wedging-cut clay with wire in multiple areas, to evenly distribute moisture, then knead clay • Throwing-making pots on a potter’s wheel • Slip-painting colored slip (clay and water) onto the surface of the unfired pot (decorative and strength) • Score-scratch hatch marks into • Pyrometric Cone-little pyramids made of clay and glaze that melt and bend at specific temperatures to signal the end of a firing • Glaze- is a mixture of minerals suspended in water. When pottery is coated in glaze and fired, the glaze fuses into a glass-like surface, adding decoration and durability to the pottery. • Greenware-unfired pottery

17. Requirement 5 • Do the following. Each piece is to be painted, glazed or otherwise decorated by you: • A. Make a slab pot, a coil pot, and a pinch pot. • B. Make a human or animal figurine or sculpture. • C. Throw a functional form on a potter’s wheel. • D. Help to fire a kiln.

18. Requirement 6 • Explain the scope of the ceramic industry in the United States. Tell some things made other than craft pottery.

19. Ceramic Industry • The ceramics industry is one of the largest industries in the USA. Ceramics are useful because of their chemical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, magnetic, and structural properties. • Other Examples: kiln furniture and firebrick refractories are basic components of the steel industry. Abrasive materials made from silica are essential to machine-tool & automotive industry. Glass products are essential to automotive industry, architectural, electronic, medical, and agricultural industries. The chips in every computer are ceramic and the tiles that cover the NASA space shuttles.

20. Requirement 7 • Do ONE of the following: • A. Visit a kiln yard. Learn how the different kinds of kilns work, including low fire electric, gas or propane high fire, wood or salt/soda, and raku. • B. Visit a museum, art exhibit, are gallery, artist’s co-op, or artist’s studio that features pottery. • C. Using resources from the library, magazines, the Internet, or other outlets, learn about the historical and cultural importance of pottery.

21. A History of Ceramics & Pottery • Ceramics Timeline of Pots from Bowls to Glaze • The history of ceramics is a long timeline. Homemade clay pottery is one of the oldest known art forms. The history of pottery and ceramics dates back over 10,000 years to shards of clay pots found in a cave in China. Ceramics in India, in Italy, in Mexico, in China, and in Japan have all followed their own paths through history. Some of the timelines exist parallel to each other and some intertwine. • The first homemade pottery clay pots were hand built. They were unglazed and were fired on open bonfires. Pottery glazes weren't actually invented until several thousand years later. • Over the centuries, pot making technology advanced. Wheels and ceramic kilns were invented, and they increased in efficiency and performance

22. Where am I from?(North America, China, Greece, England, Africa)

23. Requirement 8 • Find out about career opportunities in pottery, education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss and explain why this profession might interest you.

24. Pottery Careers • Many people make a career of being a potter. Thousand of people across the country and around the world work as potters. Many of them own their own studios and create functional and/or artistic work which they sell in galleries, at craft shows, and on the internet. Other work in ceramics factories creating production scale handmade pottery. Many potters teach, either in local settings, at secondary schools, or at colleges. • Training to become a potter ranges from self-taught to apprenticeships with experienced potters to University degrees. Classes, organizations, and educational materials abound for the person interested in learning to make pottery as a career.

25. In Review: • ___ 1. Safety Precautions • ___ 2.a. Properties of Clay • ___ 2.b. 3 different kinds of potter’s wheels • ___ 3. Make 2 drawings • ___ 4. Pottery Terms • ___ 5. a. Make Slab pot, coil pot, pinch pot • ___ 5. b. Make Human/Animal Sculpture • ___ 5. c. Functional form on wheel • ___ 5. d. Help to fire a kiln • ___ 6. Scope of Ceramic Industry • ___ 7. Do One (a. visit kiln, b. visit museum orc. learn historical/cultural importance) • ___ 8. Career Opportunities • ___ Completed in Class

26. Resources • Pottery Merit Badge Series Boy Scouts of America, 2010 Don’t Forget: