WORD OF THE WEEK - 24 Nov 2014 - SLIP KILN

SLIP KILN Equipment. For de-watering slip. A large, shallow, brick tank is heated from below, by fire, to drive off the excess water from the clay slip contained in it. The process 'de-waters' the slip to make it 'plastic.' J.W.Mellor, D.Sc,  in his book Collected Papers from the County Pottery Laboratory, Staffordshire, 1905, states that 'slip which has been dried in the old-fashioned slip kilns furnishes more plastic materials than when slip is dried in the modern filter press'

Slip Kiln at C&E Millers,
King Street, Fenton (Bordering Longton,) Stoke-on-Trent.
Picture taken by the author of Potbank Dictionary, May 1970
Still in use at that date. 

WORD OF THE WEEK - 10 Nov 2014 - PALER

PALER Equipment. Tool. Used in the decorating end. Type of pencil (potter's name for a small brush) in which the soft camel hair bristles are spread out to allow the painter or paintress to create a shaded effect when painting the piece.