Ceramics, once fired process

As noted above, once shaped, the parts are fired or sintered. Sintering is the process by which a powder compact is transformed to a strong, dense ceramic body upon heating. In an alternate definition given by Herring. ... 

From time immemorial, ceramic has been the art of shaping - on the turntable or in moulds - a clay body (keramos, in Greek) and water in order to obtain a varied range of objects for practical, decorative or religious uses. Once formed, the object is dried, decorated or painted, then fired (sometimes several times). This process has gone on without substantial change for thousand years, all over the globe, from Mesopotamia to China, from Faenza to the Mojave desert... 

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