Understanding Pottery is a series in production by Washington Street Studios. The video series is a digital textbook that will take you through the entire ceramic process from the raw material through the finished ceramic pieces. There are five sections and twenty-six chapters planned in the series and they are:
Section I: The Pottery Making Sequence
Chapter 1: What is Clay?
Chapter 2: Clay Properties and Drying
Chapter 3: Bisque Firing
Chapter 4: Tips for Successful Glazing
Chapter 5: Pyrometric Cones
Chapter 6: Glaze Firing
Section II: Use of Raw Materials
Chapter 7: Chemistry for Potters
Chapter 8: Glaze Chemistry
Chapter 9: Oxides, Washes, Underglazes and Stains
Chapter 10: Geology for Potters
Chapter 11: Use of Local Materials
Section III: Kilns and Firings
Chapter 12: Atmospheric Firings
Chapter 13: Wood-Fired Kilns
Chapter 14: Gas-Fired Kilns
Chapter 15: Electric Kilns
Chapter 16: Raku Kilns
Section IV: Solving Problems
Chapter 17: Kiln Performance Problems
Chapter 18: Clay Body Defects
Chapter 19: Glaze Defects
Section V: Practical Applications
Chapter 20: Pottery Myths, Errors and Misconceptions
Chapter 21: Thixotropy, Quartz Inversions and Other Pottery Mysteries
Chapter 22: Pottery and Physics
Chapter 23: Pottery Figurin’ (Math)
Chapter 24: Personal Safety with Pottery
Chapter 25: Critiquing Your Own Pottery: Design Principles You Can Use
Chapter 26: Tips for Buying Used Pottery Equipment
This product is an edited transcript of Chapter 1: What is Clay?
Understanding Pottery, Chapter 3: Bisque Firing - Transcript
This document was created by and is owned by Washington Street Studios. Distribution and reproduction of this document is prohibited without written consent from Washington Street Studios, Inc.
Hi, I'm Phil Berneburg. Welcome to another session of “The Potters’ Round Table” from Washington Street Studios. This is the third talk in our series of the different steps that occur during the normal pottery-making process. Last time, we talked about drying clay. Today we're going to talk about the next step, which is bisque firing.
The word bisque firing has been used in several different ways, but the main definition of it is primarily to strengthen the clay and secondarily to remove all the remaining water from the clay. There are two terms that have been applied to this firing historically.