Use of clay in pottery Essay English
What is clay? Clay is an exceedingly fine-grained mixture of mineral fragments. Clay is made up of organic matter. None of these are larger than 0.0001 of an inch, and they are held together by water. Dry clay is soft and greasy.
It is the wet clay that is shaped easily and moulded. Pure clay is white in colour, but most clays contain carbon that make them grey to black. Iron in the clay can cause it to look orange, red or green clay is formed by the natural weathering of rock.
The deposits occur in layers and are often found at the mouth of the rivers. Under pressure and passage of time, clay hardens to became shale. Clay is used to make China ware, and pottery. It is shaped at the 'potter's wheel and filled with exotic colours of orange, red, blue and green.
Pottery is extremely popular today and all sorts of things are made from it such as dinner sets, decorative pieces, vases, serving dishes and a whole range of beautiful accessories. When clay is baked or fired, it hardens and retains the shape of the vessel into which it is moulded. The bricks that are not 'pure', are then used to make bricks, tiles and pipes. Clay is mixed with limestone in the manufacture of Portland Cement.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the 'potter's wheel?' 2. What is impure clay used for'? 3. What can be made from clay? Name a few things. 4. Where is clay found?