What is wedging and how do you start the process of vitrification. The last edition of the Dinnerware Ceramics Glossary. The letters V to Z.

Sagger

Vitreous

The state of a ceramic body which has been rendered non-porous by firing in an oven without the addition of a glaze.

Vitrification

When clay is fired one of the constituents-silica-is changed into glass and bonds all the other ingredients together. As vitrification proceeds the proportion of glassy bond increases and its porosity becomes lower. China is fully vitrified.

Ware

The general term for pottery. See also Flatware, Hollowware, Dinnerware etc.

Waster

A vessel or fragment which has been damaged during firing or later in the process of manufacture, and has been abandoned as waste.

Wedging

A method of kneading clay to make it homogenous by cutting and rolling.

Wet Sgraffito

Crude style of slipware where a pattern is drawn through a trailed slip while it is still wet.

Whirler

A piece of flatware in which the centre has fallen below the level of the foot rim. This manufacturing fault results and a ware that wobbles or whirls when set on a flat surface.

White ware

Undecorated glost ware. Also used to refer to white-bodied earthenware decorated or undecorated and white salt-glazed stoneware of the eighteenth century.