Merit Badge Requirements
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POTTERY
1. Explain to your counselor the precautions that must be followed for the safe use and operation of a potter's tools, equipment, and other materials.
2. Explain the properties and ingredients of a good clay body for the following:
(a) Making sculpture
(b) Throwing on the wheel
3. Make two drawings of pottery forms. Each on an 8 ?-by-11 inch
sheet of paper. One must be a historical pottery style. The other must be of your own design.
4. Explain the meaning of the following pottery terms: bat, wedging, throwing, leather
hard, bone dry, greenware, bisque, terra-cotta, grog, slip,
score, earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, pyrometric cone,
and glaze.
5. Do the following. Each piece is to be painted, glazed, or otherwise decorated by you:
(a) Make a slab pot, a coil pot, and a pinch pot.
(b) Make a human or animal figurine or decorative sculpture.
(c) Throw a functional form on a potter's wheel.
(d) Help to fire a kiln.
6. Tell how three different potter's wheels work.
7. Visit the kiln yard at a local college or other crafts
school. Learn how the different types of kilns work,
including low-fire electric, high-fire gas or propane,
wood or salt/soda, and raku.
8. Explain the scope of the ceramic industry in the United States. Tell some things made other than craft pottery.
List of Merit Badge Requirements