A slip is a clay slurry used to produce

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

and other

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

wares. Liquified clay, in which there is no fixed ratio of water and clay, is called slip or clay slurry which is used either for joining

leather-hard In pottery, leather-hard is the condition of a clay or clay body when it has been partially dried to the point where all shrinkage has been completed, and it has a consistency similar to leather of the same thickness as the clay. At this stage, th ...

(semi-hardened) clay body (pieces of pottery) together by

slipcasting Slip casting, or slipcasting, is a ceramic forming technique for pottery and other ceramics, especially for shapes not easily made on a wheel. In this method, a liquid clay body slip (usually mixed in a blunger) is poured into plaster mo ...

with mould, glazing or decorating the pottery by painting or dipping the pottery with slip.What is slip in pottery
thepotterywheel.com, accessed 10 July 2021. Pottery on which slip has been applied either for glazing or decoration is called the

slipware Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...

. Engobe, from the French word for slip, is an

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

term for materials similar to a slip, though the definition seems variable. Some American sources say it is synonymous with slip, and use it in preference to "slip", while others draw distinctions, mainly in terms of engobe using materials other than clay. On one definition engobe, as compared to slip, has somewhat lower clay content, higher proportion of flux, and added filler, and in some cases a colorant. It is mostly used in relation to contemporary pottery, but sometimes for slip in historical contexts.

Usage of slip

Joining and molding

An additive with deflocculant properties, such as sodium silicate, can be added to the slip to disperse the raw material particles. This allows a higher solids content to be used, or allows a fluid slip to be produced with a minimal amount of water so that drying shrinkage is minimised, which is important during

. Usually the mixing of slip is undertaken in a blunger although it can be done using other types of mixers or even by hand. * To join sections of unfired ware or greenware, such as handles and spouts. * To fix into place pieces of

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

decoration produced separately, for example by moulding. This technique is known as '' sprigging''; an example is

Jasperware Jasperware, or jasper ware, is a type of pottery first developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. Usually described as stoneware, it has an unglazed matte "biscuit" finish and is produced in a number of different colours, of which the most com ...

. * When slip is used to join two pieces of greenware together, it is generally used with a technique known as scratch and slip, whereby the contact points on both pieces are scored with multiple criss-crossing lines and slip painted on one piece over the scores.

Decoration and protection

Charger of Charles II in the Boscobel Oak LACMA M

Slipware Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...

is pottery decorated by slip placed onto a wet or

clay body surface by dipping, painting or splashing. Some slips will also give a moderate degree of the hardening effect, and decreased permeability, that a

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...

would give. Often only pottery where the slip creates patterns or images will be described as slipware, as opposed to the many types where a plain slip is applied to the whole body, for example most fine wares in

Ancient Roman pottery Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond. Monte Testaccio is a huge waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken amphorae used fo ...

, such as African red slip ware (note: "slip ware" not "slipware"). Decorative slips may be a different colour than the underlying clay body or offer other decorative qualities such as a shiny surface. Selectively applying layers of colored slips can create the effect of a painted ceramic, such as in the

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...

or red-figure pottery styles of Ancient Greek pottery. Slip decoration is an ancient technique in

Chinese pottery Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construc ...

also, used to cover whole vessels over 4,000 years ago. Principal techniques include slip-painting, where the slip is treated like paint and used to create a design with brushes or other implements, and slip-trailing, where the slip, usually rather thick, is dripped onto the body. Slip-trailed wares, especially if Early Modern English, are called

. Chinese pottery also used techniques where patterns, images or calligraphy were created as part-dried slip was cut away to reveal a lower layer of slip or the main clay body in a contrasting colour. The latter of these is called the "cut-glaze" technique.Vainker, 116-117 Slipware may be carved or burnished to change the surface appearance of the ware. Specialized slip recipes may be applied to biscuit ware and then refired.

Barbotine Barbotine is the French for ceramic slip, or a mixture of clay and water used for moulding or decorating pottery. In English the term is used for three different techniques of decorating pottery, though in all cases mainly for historical works. ...

(another French word for slip) covers different techniques in English, but in the sense used of late 19th-century

art pottery Art pottery is a term for pottery with artistic aspirations, made in relatively small quantities, mostly between about 1870 and 1930. Typically, sets of the usual tableware items are excluded from the term; instead the objects produced are mostly ...

is a technique for painting wares in polychrome slips to make painting-like images on pottery.

Other uses in pottery

A slip may be made for various other purposes in the production and decoration of ceramics, such as slip can be used to mix the constituents of a clay body.

Gallery

File:MET DP274692.jpg, Chinese Cizhou ware vase with cut-glaze decoration File:Phenician plate with red slip 7th century BCE excavated in Mogador island.jpg,

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n plate with red slip, now wearing away, 7th century BC File:Miletus ware showig red clay base.jpg, Miletus ware showing a red body covered by white slip, then painted in blue, c. 1400,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

References