BALANCE
ca: BALANÇA
es: BALANZA
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A Balance is an instrument for determining weight using suspended scales. It consists of a bar with a fulcrum in the center and at each end a scale hook or pan is suspended, one holding the object to be weighed and the other holding an object or weights. When weights are the same on both sides the point or support falls into place and is shown as a straight line or 90º. The following photos show two types of balances to weigh different material of different proportions.
The last balance has a rigid horizontal beam supported at its center, with weighing plates hung at both ends and perfectly balanced. A weight is put on one side, the substance being weighed on the other and when the beam is level, the amount is correct. This balance is used for measuring small quantities of up to 10g.
Read more about: Bean scales / Spring scales
Ball Mill is used for finely grinding and mixing colors with clay and pigments with glazes. It is a steel horizontal drum, supported by legs, with a door at the side and a small motor that rotates it at one end. The inside is lined with a strong material and contains loose pebbles or manufactured balls, so when the mill turns the pebbles fall to the bottom of the curve and grind down the materials. The cascading effect reduces the materials to a fine powder and mixes them. Different materials are used for grinding, including ceramic balls, pebbles and flint.
Bamboo tools in the first photo they have sharp points and a great variety of beveled edges with a smooth finish. The second is modeling tool and they are all ideal for hand-building projects as it help get to the difficult places to reach. The strength of bamboo allows the tools to be very strong, delicately shaped with a smooth surface. 
Band refers to lines of different widths marked around circular ceramic utensils, plates, jars or lids so both ends meet exactly. Any method, such as painting, drawing, scratching etc. can be used and it can be done at all stages: freshly thrown work, leather dry, bisque, unfired glaze-base, as well as on a glazed surface. 
This section explains how to band and it applies to the different ways of working that follow
Banding with a bridge. To make a bridge, put a bar of wood over two supports. When working on a plate or a lid, the bridge must be the height of the wheel plus the object being decorated, and for jars, it should be the same height as the lines that are to be painted around them. Put the wheel with the plate half way under the bridge, rest your right hand on the wood to steady it and turn the wheel. Put the jar on the wheel, build the bridge up to the height needed and band round the jar.
Banding by hand. Hold the neck of the wheel with your left hand and the tool with your right one at the required height and rest your arm against the edge of the table, to steady it. Turn the wheel, with the brush touching the pot, until the line has gone right round and joins the starting point. 
Bars can be round, rectangular, square, narrow and of any length. Made with different materials; wood, metal, chocolate etc. The following sections show two ways in which they are used and through the links many more are explained.
Base: is the underneath part of object. In pottery it can be of various shapes, flat, round or pointed. The footing is a protruding ring, which the object stands on. It can be made, when being turned on the wheel as part of it or added. If a base is pointed a separate footing in metal or wood has to be made.
a) Basin; used for washing hands and faces It is a half circular bowl, made with a ceramic or metal material. They are attached to a wall or table, with taps, drain and made to hold water. Also known as hand-basins and if large and used to clean objects and known as sinks. 
Bats are flat, rectangular pieces of wood with a handle that can be with or without indented textures. Used to hit clay to flatten it out and leave textures.
Beads can be made of different products, valuable stones, metal, wood or anything round you can bore a hole through. Ceramic beads have been developed through thousands of years and have been used in many different ways, body decoration and methods for calculating and also for religious prayers. They are made in clay, fired and decorated using different methods. A bead is usually round, but can be any shape on the outside and always has a hole through the middle big enough to pass a cord through the center, so it can be hung up.
Beading is when a fired glaze does not adhere to the surface to which it is applied. It separates, shrinks and rolls back leaving patches showing the bisque body. It can be seen round the edges, in small individual patches or all over the surface. Before the firing the decorated piece seemed perfect. 
Beaker is a large, straight, high-sided cup used for drinking. It can be with or without a handle and is also known as a mug.
Bean balance scales are to weigh small quantities, from 0.01 grams to about 10 grams and are used mainly for weighing colors. It is a measuring instrument that consists of a horizontal lever with arms of equal length called the beam with a weighing pan suspended from each arm. The object to be weighed is placed in one pan and standard weights in the other until the beam is as close to the equilibrium as possible, it compares weights using the standard weights for balances. 
To beat is to hit with a strong pressure using your hand or a tool and can apply to mixing a liquid or flattening clay.
Electric beaters; can be bought and are similar to those used with food, but are expensive. It is more economical to buy the arm designed for mixing liquids that can be attached and used with an electrical drill; this is shown in the first four photos (a–d). They are made with different lengths and head sizes to take into account the depth and heaviness of the liquid. Used for mixing colors, glaze-bases, etc. and are very good when a product has become dry and hard; first cover it with water, leave it for a short period and then beat it. 
Beater: It is a metal tool with a long thin and strong handle, with an oval head made of wires. They are used in cooking for beating eggs, etc. Different sizes can be purchased. Very large ones are used for mixing glazes and other liquid products. 
Beaters and bats are different objects used to indent textures into a soft clay surface. The result is similar to impressed decoration but less planned, more spontaneous. It can be done with string, a butter pat, a meat hammer, in fact anything with rough surfaces, onto a prepared clay object or onto a separated piece of clay, which is then luted and attached to another piece. When glazed, the textures reflect the light and this accentuates the uneven surface.
Beating forms is to beat clay when it is soft to form a shape, to change a shape, for leveling and thinning a work. It is often used on coiling to level it out, forming very thin, strong walls. This is also known as paddling.
Bevel: It is also known as Bevel Square and is an adjustable tool for marking out dovetails and joints with angles greater or smaller than 90 degrees. 
Bicolor is the name given to a style of decorating ceramics only with two colors and any can be used, the most classic being manganese and copper green. The plate on the left is copied from a photo; the original is in the Ceramic Museum of Barcelona. It was painted after 1400 AD in Paterna, a town in Valencia. The next two are new ones, which are done using and mixing designs from the past.
Biscuit cutters are thin metal walls forming many different shapes and are made for cutting shapes out of pastry to make biscuits. They are used to cut clay in the same way.
Bisque is the name given to all types of clay which have been fired without a glaze. The lower the temperature of firing, the greater the porosity the piece has as it burns away all carbonaceous matter. The temperature for firing clay into bisque is between 650° C and 1050° C. Refractory can be fired up to 1300° C. The higher the temperature of firing, the less porosity and the stronger it becomes but it is still absorbent to liquids. When you use products in the bisque state that have been industrially made or handmade they can vary in porosity so the drying time of a glaze-base can differ. 
Cleaning: before applying the glaze-base to bisque it must be sand-papered, cleaned by brushing. 
Tiles: if a tile is visibly cracked break it, holding it with both hands and forcing it downward. You might not be able to see the crack, but even so, if the sound is flat, it is advisable not to use this piece, as it could break from the heat of firing. If you are not sure it is broken, put it at the bottom of the kiln during firing, so that if it breaks there is nothing underneath it can fall on and damage. Use it for a one tils design, the replacement of one tile in a large design is too complicated to risk. 
Bisque dampened: if you are decorating hand-made bisque objects made from red clay, dampen them before applying the glaze-base. I always do this but it is not absolutely necessary; it helps eliminate air holes and makes the base run on cleaner and smoother. Quickly dip the bisque into clean water, so every part gets covered, take it out and let it sit for a short while before applying the glaze-base. Only dampen handmade objects in red clay, not white or industrially made ware.
Bits in pottery are small pieces of bisque made with different types of clay, shapes and sizes and can be hand or industrially made as shown in “a, b and c”. They are to support, heighten and balance objects when packing kilns. When not being used in firing, they can be made with any material. In screen printing, “game cards e” are used to heighten a screen to a very fine degree. 
Black is a complete color. You cannot have a light black, as it would be gray. Originally black was not used in the “Majolica” method, instead a color which looks like black was made up of other dark colors; brown, blue and red. Manganese, which is a very dark brown, was and is used for dark outlines. Black does not have the problems of manganese, but it gives a hard, modern, industrial finish and it is good when a powerful impact is needed, as shown in the following photo of “Piscis”, the name of a block of flats. In the design the outlines are made following the Dry-Cord method, the glaze-base is scraped away and then painted with black.
Blistering is caused by gases escaping during firing which cause faults in the process. Many things can cause blistering, over firing, too thick a coating of glaze or a color, inadequately dried clay. 
Blue was one of the first colors used in glazes, blue cobalt oxide has been found in Egyptian and Persian ceramics. In Spain, where Majolica ceramic method began in Europe, blue was one of the first colors and used in many different shades, as can be seen on plates, jars, floors and wall tiles. 
Blunger is a mechanical container with electrically rotated arms or paddles, made to mix certain products with water such as slip. Slip must be well mixed so the water penetrates between all particles. These machines are made in many different types and sizes for industrial use and for the small potter. 
Boards for mold walls: they are bars of wood of different widths, held together with clay and used to build up the outer walls to make molds. 
Boards – Ware boards are wooden, can be of any size and are used for carrying tiles, plates, pots and lids. When made for tiles, they should be about 10 cm wide so that the tiles can overlap them on each side, high enough to enable you to slip your fingers underneath to pick up the tile without touching the decoration and long enough to hold five or six units. They are used to move work from one place to another while the base is drying or decorated. Ensure that the boards are the correct length so they can slide into shelf stands.
Border is the decoration that goes round the edge of an object. With plates, jars and lids the border is always part of the piece but with work in relief and tiles it can be part of it or completely separated. In the following sections on borders, all types are covered. 
Borders shown in relief: If a large quantity has to be made, it is better to use a mold. The following is just to give you an idea for a quick and simple solution. Remember the mold must be bigger than the finished work, to allow the shrinking of clay during drying and firing. 
Plate borders; borders are spaces that go round the outer edge of an object. With plates the word is used when describing a design or part of its structure. In the structure of plates the border is at a higher level than the center and can be any size, straight or slanted. The photos show four plates, the first two do not have a structural border and the last two do. 
Borders of plates: the six photos are to show a few of the many possibilities there are for borders. They can be with banding lines of different widths and colors and with designs that are repeated or separate. There are so many, the same one can also be in different sizes, depending on the size of the plates you decorate and as they are all on transparent paper and pounced, this makes recognizing them difficult. You must file each one with a colored photo and the best way to do this is explained in filing borders. These plates are decorated with the Majolica method and in the section “plates” the whole method of working is explained. 
The following photos show border designs as part of the tile. 
Border tiles separate.
Bottle: We think of “bottle” as a glass object but you can also have a ceramic bottle. To be classified as a bottle it must have a narrow neck designed to control the volume of liquid as it is emptied. It can be any shape or size.
A bottle for containing water used to add to colors should be of colorless glass, so you can see that the water is clean and there is enough of it, with a narrow neck to prevent it being used to clean brushes. 
Bow – Cutter: has this name because it is of the same shape as a bow used by an archer. They are made in metal of different sizes and have a strong wire between both ends, used for slicing off pieces of clay.
Bowl is a round vessel with sides to hold liquid; it is always open and can be of any size. There are hundreds of shapes, always round but differing in size and used for different purposes. As the photos are not to scale, the diameter and height of each bowl is given. Many bowls such as a salad bowl, fruit bowl, soup bowl, pastry bowl are in everyday use. 
The photos show two bowls for making a “Cremat” which is a very enjoyable Catalan custom and very useful when a party starts to get boring. They always have legs and are sold with cups and a deep serving ladle. The first photo shows cups without handles and with legs and the second two show the opposite, cups without legs with handles that can be hung round the edge of the bowl. 
Boxes for dirty glazes: Three boxes, each one has a different color which is the same as the glaze containers, so you know which one is right. They measure about 30×25cms and are to keep all the dirty glaze of each type, which has been brushed and scraped off prepared pieces, this system avoids mixing one glaze-base with another. They can have water added, be cleaned by passing them through a sieve and put back into the container to be used again.
Boxing is packing bowls, cups and jars rim-to-rim and foot-to-foot while drying and when being bisque fired. This can be done when they are cheese-hard. It helps to stop warping while the clay is drying, as it slows down the process.
Boxwood tools are made in many different shapes and sizes to work with clay. The name comes from a tree which was given the name “Boxtree” when it started to be used to make boxes. 
Brush-hair; lengthening of the hair: if the hairs of a brush get very short and you want to continue using it, you can make them longer in the following way. With a match, heat the ferrule that is the metal band which holds the hairs. When it gets hot, the glue inside will melt and become a molten liquid, then use pliers to pull out the hair slightly. Read more about: 
a) Flat brush; b) Sumie; c) Fan brush; d) Pointed brush. Paint Brushes.
Brushes for decorating ceramics are made with many different types of hair and fibers. 
Bung is the name for the way of setting up saggars vertically, one on top of the other, into the kiln. 
Burning out occurs when a substance in a product being fired has a lower burning point than what it is being fired with and burns away. This can be damaging or used constructively.
Burnishing is to rub the surface of the leather-hard clay with a smooth tool to produce a smooth, polished surface. The finer the texture of the clay the more polished the surface can be. The color will depend on the color of the clay. For burnishing any curved tools can be used such as teaspoons, stone, etc. It can be decorated with slip or fired and then decorated in different ways or just covered with a glaze to show the polished surface over the color of the clay.