GLOSSARY
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Cabinet Rasps - Medium coarse rasps with teeth attached to a handle of wood; used for reducing and finishing wood and stone.
Cadmium - Ductile malleable material used as a protective coating on steel rasps.
Calcium - Silver-white metallic element of alkaline earth.
Calipers - A device of wood or aluminum, generally curved, used for measuring dimensions of a piece for reproduction.
Caped Chisel - A round end stone carving tool used to make gouges or furls like a cornfield.
Carbide - Binary element of carbon with a more electropositive element; extremely hard, brittle metal.
Carbide Tools - Tools with carbide cutting edges brazed and sharpened as tips for longer lasting use without repeated sharpening.
Carburize - To combine or impregnate with carbon; a flame produces the carbon effect on metal.
Carrara - A small town in Italy where the Carrara marble quarries are found.
Carrara Marble - An Italian stone, in varying grades of color, indigenous to Carrara, Italy; used by Michelangelo
Carving - The act of shaping stone, wood, and plaster by cutting with specially designed tools.
Carving Chisel - A flat, high carbon steel tool, with a flat sharp cutting surface used with a hammer or mallet to carve stone, wood, or plaster. Sweep and width vary with size of the tool and the bevel is at different angles for wood or stone tools.
Carving Tools - Tools used in forming wood, stone, wax, plaster, or clay pieces. Can be made from high carbon steel, most commonly used in wood carving and stone carving.
Case Mold - A mold usually constructed as a retaining mold for casting slip.
Cast - A reproduction of an original piece of sculpture in any number of casting materials, most commonly plaster, plastic, or bronze.
Casting - The process that duplicates a model or piece by pouring casting material into a pre- formed mold.
Casting, Investment - Process whereby a model is covered with a ceramic shell investment for the pouring of bronze. This investment or ceramic shell can withstand the high temperature of the molten bronze, whereas other materials cannot.
Casting Plaster - A gypsum product most commonly used in casting sculpture. Produced by U.S. Gypsum Co. specifically for casting. It is unlike plaster of Paris which is a commercial more porous plaster used in plasterboard in the housing industry.
Casting Rubber - A latex rubber that is cast into a plaster mold to achieve a positive cast. Flexibility (hardness) from rubber band flexible to wood hard rigid can be increased or decreased by using a filler in proportionate amounts.
Cast Stone - A powder containing marble aggregate and several types of gypsum. When mixed properly with water and cast into a mold, it resembles Noxus marble from Greece.
Cavity, Hollow Mold - A type of mold made with a mother mold with a retaining blanket over an original model. Once removed and the outer shell mold replaced, a hollow cavity is formed where a chemically activated rubber may be poured into the resulting hollow cavity thus creating a flexible rubber mold.
Cement - A powder of alumina, silica, lime, iron oxide, and magnesia burned together and pulverized to make mortar or concrete.
Centigrade - Temperature range from 0° (freezing) to 100° (boiling). Normally used when casting bronze or polyurethane plastic where temperature will affect the mold material when cast.
Centimeter - Unit of length within the metric system.
Centrifugal - Acting away from the center forcing material outward.
Centrifugal Casting - Small sculpture or castings made with a centrifugal mold by spinning molten material.
Ceramic - A clay material such as earthenware or porcelain made of a non-metallic mineral fired at high temperature.
Ceramic Shell - A slurry coating over a wax model; in the bronze casting process the wax is burned or melted out enabling bronze to be poured, while molten, creating the bronze cast.
Ceramist - A person engaging in ceramics, either casting greenware or making pottery.
Cesta - Nylon reinforced basket or pail with double handles, made of black rubber, used in mold making and casting.
Chasing - Hammering or shaping rough areas or seam lines. Usually associated with bronze work.
Checking - Cracking caused by the absorption or evaporation of moisture in wood products.
Cherry Red - Color of metal achieved in forging or heat treating steel.
Chimney - Flue of an exhaust vent in an oven to release gas and fumes.
Chip Carving - Type of wood working done with handheld palm grip tools.
Chipping- Striking a piece of wood or stone with a tool and/or hammer causing the basic geometric form to change.
Chisel - A stone, plaster, or wood working tool with a flat straight edge. Usually beveled at 45° on one or both sides.
Chromium - Chemical used in electroplating metals.
Chuck - Area that holds the shank or end of a grinding burr or handpiece.
Claw - In stone carving, a tooth chisel.
Clay - Earthen material that is plastic when moist and hard when fired, used in pottery and ceramics.
Clay Bodies - Formulas of different base clays and binders that create moist clays in specific colors, firing ranges, and consistency. Usually developed by ceramists as private formulas.
Clay Fence - A separating line usually 1 inch high by 1/8 inch wide, used to divide a model into sections for the mold making process.
Clay Flour - Dried and refined air floated natural clay in the dry state (powder). Gathered from primary indigenous regions of the world having specific characteristics particular to earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, etc.
Claystone - Trade name of Sculpture House, Inc. Self-hardening clay with cornstarch hardener and cotton fiber filler to decrease shrinkage and cracking while drying over an armature.
Clay Wall - A separating device in mold making. See Clay Fence.
Clay Water - A thin liquid mixture of clay flour and water used as a release in casting and mold making.
Clean Clay - A soft oil-base modeling clay without sulfur.
Clean Up Tools - Different shaped scraping tools used in the removal of seam lines on slip cast pieces.
Cobalt - Greenish blue pigment used in ceramics to color glazes. Contained in silver ore.
Cold Cast - Casting done with plastic polymers or resin. Also casting done with a mixture of bronze powder to simulate bronze.
Cold Pour Rubber - A casting rubber of urethane, usually mixed in three stages using a catalyst that chemically cures rather than air cures. Also known as Black Tuffy, or Cold Pour Mold Rubber.
Collet - Device used in securing the shank of different size burrs, either increasing availability or reducing availability, as needed, to fit a handpiece shaft.
Colorado Marble - A white crystalline marble, or Yule marble, of medium hardness with very little veining, indigenous to northern Colorado.
Compound - Mixture of different materials to form a mass used in buffing or polishing. Can be different degrees of coarseness.
Cone - A triangular-shaped heat testing device used in the ceramic firing process. Cones melt at different degrees of temperature indicating the internal temperature of the kiln, and sometimes activating a shut-off device within the kiln to turn the heat off at a specific temperature to prevent over-firing the contents.
Contamination - Occurs when foreign material is introduced to a given process. For example, plaster residue in a clay ceramic piece which causes an explosion in the kiln while firing.
Copper - Reddish metallic element that is malleable, and conducts heat and electricity well.
Core - The center of the mold.
Core Pin - Device that holds the core in place while making a casting.
Cornwall Stone - A type of clay flour used in private or special clay formulas for a specific effect.
Corrosion - A natural hemispheric effect caused by water and oxygen that may result in pitting or discoloration.
Crackle - A hairline cracking or shattering effect caused by the shrinkage of glaze from pottery and ceramic pieces during firing. Generally caused by incompatibility of the clay contents.
Crawling - Occurs when glaze has been over-applied and runs in pools during the firing process. Or spider web effect or cracking caused by the improper fit of glaze to the clay. Glaze does not shrink with the clay.
Crosshatch - Scoring with perpendicular cuts in a checker board fashion, commonly used in wood working or, at times, in stone carving.
Crucible - Container used to hold molten metal for pouring or centrifugal casting.
Crystallization - The act of becoming crystalline in form
Custom Tools - Tools made to individual specifications to fit a customer’s special needs or requirements, used with stone, clay, and/or plastilina.