What Are Pottery and Ceramics?
What are pottery and ceramics? Is there a difference? Is everything that is made out of clay pottery? Are all ceramics made out of clay? Pottery and ceramics have been an important part of human culture for thousands of years. From prehistoric storage jars to tiles on the space shuttles, pottery and ceramics have played a key role in innumerable human endeavors. But how do we define them?What Are Ceramics?Images Courtesy of Quinnums and Bernt Rostad (Flickr) and Beth Peterson Technically, ceramics are those things made from materials which are permanently changed when heated. For example, clay has chemically-bonded water in it which will cause it to slake down (disintegrate) when a dried clay object is put in water. Once heated (fired) to between 660⁰ and 1470⁰F (350⁰ and 800⁰C), the
