Three and a half boards worth made now.
Half a dozen small beakers, three tankards, half a dozen plates that will hopefully be turned into graters, a couple of small cheese plates with lids, and a larger one too.
The clay (Potclays 1142) is just not drying, and is getting very difficult to throw. It is reclaim, possibly it needs a longer rest before being used again.
So I have opened a fresh bag of what I ordered as 1142/30 (the same but grogged) but has different numbers- White Special Stoneware 157-1142, 157-4230 I think they have changed their numbering system since I bought the last batch nearly ten years ago!!
The idea of getting a sanded body is to get improved thermal shock resistance. We'll see if it takes to a salt firing better too!
I made a bowl to be turned and pierced as a colander too. Perhaps it will be easier to stick with ungrogged clay for that, but we will see how it cuts and how fast it wears out my tools.
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3 comments:
3 and a half boards worth made, sounds lovely and makes me want to get into my studio.
I hope that the sanded body works well for you... My clay won't be the same as yours, but I use a very open, sandy clay for my wood fired work. It certainly drys very well, even in winter, which is one reason I like it. I do find that it does have some problems, the worst being that it is sometimes far too porous even if I fire well past cone 11 in reduction, and I do make vases that would make good water filters if I only go to cone 10! The other issue I have with the clay is that I think the rims of my pots can be more brittle than they should be and chip too easily. So I am having a rethink at the moment. I wonder if a clay that had fine grog in it, rather than sand, would be even better than one that is sandy?? The clay does take salt well though, I have a nice cup and saucer done by a salt glaze potter who uses the same clay as me.
I know I shouldn't, but I had a bit of a chuckle about the photos of Mynydd Llangynidr at about 7.15 am... You'll be needing radar to get around when it is as dark as that out there!
Stay warm and cozy. Good luck with the potting, you make lovely work. P.
HI - I reclaim all my trimmings and throwing water and thought that I wasn't loosing any of the fine particles but occasionally would have a "short"batch that wouldn't throw well because it wasn't very plastic. I have started adding a small amount of ball clay, about 2 rounded tablespoons to about 20 to 25 lbs of recycle and haven't had any problems since. Some people add an acid such as vinegar to their reclaim for improving plasticity.
One of the advantages of living in a desert, when I could still throw. Everything dried out very quickly, keeping it wet enough was more of an issue, solved with plastic bagging.
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