PACKING (a) Kilns
Packing kilns: Firing is one of the big expenses in ceramics and it’s important not to waste space or time. Kilns can be rectangular, round, octagonal, square or oval and they either open from the top or at the front. Large industrial ones are very well designed, they are square or rectangle and the inside is a trolley on wheels that can be packed outside the kiln. This allows you to work on all four sides and mount the floors one by one. When completely packed it is pushed back into the kiln.
All kilns have their good and bad points and you have to consider the shape and size you buy in relation to what you work with. Kilns that open at the top have some advantages; you can see the whole floor from above, which allows you to arrange and change the layout and check that the decorated pieces do not touch.
Kiln furniture is very important, there are many different pieces. You need enough to build and fill up your kilns well and quickly. The furniture you buy can be customized to special sizes. With an electric drill, as explained in the section “Tile – Electric cutter”, you can cut and file furniture and industrially made bisque tiles are cheap and can be cut down to make shelves to the sizes you need.
It is good to have your work separated by floors. This helps to limit the damage that can occur, should a piece explode or colors run. Such an accident can cause the scattering of bits of clay, which can break, damaging the kiln and all the work inside it.
If your kiln uses a cones, make sure they are not touching anything.
See: Kiln – Furniture
Packing Plates
Packing Pots and Lids When decorated to move them is difficult to do without touching and damaging the decoration and some lids are designed so that the flange is high enough to put your fingers under the lip to move. If picked up and a part that is decorated is touched it will have to be repaired when it is in the kiln. 
Packing Tiles Tile stands also known as cranks; the illustration shows two types of tile stands
i) Small separate wall-stands: These are handmade to hold from two to four tiles of any size. They are short because they are separate and have to be held together securely when being moved. They are used mainly for packing borders 7,5 × 15cm, corners 7,5 × 7,5cm.to fill up the leftover spaces when packing. In the section on molds it is explained how to make them.
Packing kilns that open at the top, use tile stands which are one piece and hold 14 tiles of 15 × 15cm, and wall-stands holding corner tiles of 7,5 x 7,5cm and borders of 7,5 × 15 cm, they are short and mounted one on top of another. One floor holds seven tile stands, 98 tiles; two corner stands, 8 corners, two border stands with 8 borders. Try and place the tile stand so the wall of one is against the edges of the tiles of another, this allows them to touch as they are both clean of glazes and the small wall-stands can rest against the big stands, it makes them safer.
Paddle (and anvil):
Palette knife: the word knife leads to a misunderstanding as it means it can cut and a palette knife cannot. It is metal, has a flat, thin, flexible blade with a half circular end, which is attached to a handle. The drawings on the right show ones with different shapes and the only part that is curved is the neck that connects the handle to the blade. They are made in different sizes and used for mixing, blending, cleaning, grinding down colors and stains and other products.
Paper cutters are machines to chop unwanted paper onto small pieces. There are many types and a small electric one is easy to use and not expensive. Cut down paper is very useful for packing delicate ceramic objects.
Pestle is a tool used for breaking down solid products by hand. Some are made of wood but the best have a wooden handle and stone head. They are usually sold together with a mortar which is a bowl, either in china or stone, made ro hold the products while they are being broken down.
Pierced decoration refers to holes cut into jars and plates as a decoration. Once the clay is leather-hard it can be pierced. Strong, sharp bladed tools and hole boring implements are needed for pierced decoration. The pattern should be worked out in advance and marked onto the dry clay.
Piggy bank is used to save money; it is a ceramic money box which is hollow and made in the shape of a pig. On the top there is a narrow, open space through which coins can be dropped. Nowadays, they can be bought with a hole underneath and a cork to block it, so they can be emptied. In the past they were made without this and had to be broken to be emptied.
Pin-pencil is used to make holes into the drawing you want to mark onto ceramic ware. The method of marking these holes is known as 
Pinching is one of the oldest methods of giving shape to clay and is cover in two sections, this is the first and there are many illustrations;
Pinching a bowl that has been started with coils.
Pip: is a piece of kiln furniture made to support plates and other pieces, so they do not touch the floor while being glaze-fired. They are made in clay with very fine points and bisque-fired. The fine point is because they have to touch a part that is decorated during firing which may adhere to it. When taken out of the kiln the pip has to be twisted very sharply to separate it from the main piece, as the point is so fine this is easy but it always leave a small mark in the glaze. 
This photo shows two pips, the one on the right is industrially made and used as a model for making a mold. The one on the left was casted from the mold. They are in front of a pen-drive that is 1,5 cm wide and 5,5 cm long. This is to show how small they are and how much the one on the left has shrunk after being fired.
Pitcher is the name for the jug that goes with a wash basin. Used in the past to provide washing facilities before modern water installation existed. 
Plate: Comes from the word “plata” which means silver in Latin. It originally described flat pieces of silver, which the rich ate off. When ceramics became commercial, it changed and became “plate”. The word plate has many different meaning but when use in ceramics it applies to dishes made to use in relation to food, side plate, serving plate, soup plate, etc. and they can be of earthenware or porcelain.
Plate setters are table stands, made industrially to hold decorated plates when being fired. They have three legs and are designed to stand one on top of the other.
Plate shelves: are made with a curve to hold plates, these save space and are good if you work with many plates that have the same shape. They are built up, using tube props to form bridges one on top of another 
The designs are kept in two sections, border and center, then each section is organized by sizes and subjects. The center designs of plates can be used for the walls of jars, chalices, orzas and tiles. 
Plunge Pots is to press a solid object into a block of clay, like a round or square pole of wood. This froms the center then the outer part can be shaped by slicing, beating, etc.
Porosity: is the amount of water fired clay can absorb. Clay in the plastic state has different particles filled with water, when fired to the height 600ºC it goes through the changes and becomes ceramic and is known as bisque. The spaces left where the particles have burnt away make the bisque very porous. 
Pot lifts provide an easy method for removing thrown pots from the wheel without damage. They are made from, rust-free, high-strength aircraft aluminum alloy and are available in three sizes to fit a wide range of pottery shapes. 
Pot, also known as jar, is a ceramic product made to hold many different products such as earth, flowers, herbs, food, sugar and salt. It can be any size, from a large flower pot for a garden to a small salt pot for the table. It always has an opening at the top and can be with or without a lid. 
Pots for colors are small glass ones made for yoghurt that are used for keeping prepared colors. These pots are marked with a red electric tap and each painter has a different colored so you know which one is yours and if there are colors that are very similar they are named. 
A pot or jar for cleaning paint brushes should be made of glass, large and with a wide opening. The walls inside it should be kept very clean so you can see how dirty the water is. As the dirty water adheres and dries on the glass inside it becomes impossible to see if the water is clean or dirty. Water carried by the brushes can affect the colors you are using. 
Potter: the word originally referred to the person who made ceramic pots and now applies to a person who works in any form of handmade ceramics, working with clay, decorating in one of the hundreds of different methods there are. The illustration has six hand painted tiles showing the process of working.
Pouncing is to prick holes through the outlines of a design so it can be marked on to another object. Lay a thin piece of cloth over a hard surface. The cloth should be just thick enough to let the point of the pin go through the paper. Flip the tracing paper with the design so the backside is facing up and lay it on top of the cloth. Pounce holes through the outlines with a 
1) Pouring To cover a piece of clay or bisque by tipping a glaze-color over it. This method is used for jars and deep bowls.
Protractor is a flat, semicircular made of transparent plastic with graduating degrees marked onto it and used for measuring and drawing angles. 
Pulling hold the clay in both hands; pull it downwards with you right hand, slowly and evenly to make it into a long round cylinder, then press and indent it for shape and form. This can then be attached to the main body to form a handle. Another way is to attach the clay to the jar first and then pull it. See Clay Handles.