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Dark Northeastern Clay--Preferably ^05 Range Or ^10


Mari

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Hello there--long-time lurker, first time poster.

 

I am a novice; I've been doing ceramic work for 3 years now (as it's my minor, art ed. is my major), and while my skills are mediocre at best, I feel I've started to think conceptually in clay, and would love to work on personal projects on top of my technical practicing.

 

I'm looking for either a ~^05 clay or a ^10 clay, and as dark as possible; I'm thinking of a dark brown/black. My school has gas and electric kilns, and do not fire mid-range (well, technically they do. But you need to sign out the kilns on your own and be a major, unfortunately).

 

I also live in the bay state, so I'm looking at the two clay suppliers in my state--Portland Pottery and Sheffield Pottery. So far, for dark clay within the range I need I found Laguna WC‑629, Laguna EM-111 (which is great in colour, but I would rather not, since we share these kilns and I don't want to be responsible for damage to anyone's work), and Sheffield #94600.

 

Since it's sometimes hard to trust colour online, and I'm a person of very limited money, I would love to know anything about these clays, and especially how they look. Are the colour chips relatively true to life? Any advice you can give me?

 

Any responses wouls be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Welcome to the forum! Glad to see another lurker come out on their own. When dealing with clay suppliers, if you can get to a local distributor, you can usually find test tiles of the clays in question. As I am in PA, I do not know the clays that you are talking about(mine come from Standard Ceramics). I am sure that some folks with knowledge can fill you in.

 

Good luck,

 

best,

Pres

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Guest JBaymore

Sheffield #42 is a nice dark stoneware.  Very "toothy".  They say it is for oxidation and to cone 8, as I remember.  I frequently fire it in a wood kiln (noborigama) to cone 10-11 and in reduction.  Mainly smaller pieces.... sake cups and bottles, teabowls, yunomi, and kyusu.  Looks fantastic with a nuka-type glaze on it.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

best,

 

....................john

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Pres, thanks for the welcome! Yeah, I will probably find some time in my schedule soon to make a visit. Don't know why I didn't think they wouldn't have test-tiles--seems so obvious now, that I think about it. Thanks for the idea!

 

John, thanks for the welcome. The pictures I found online suggests a lovely, very dark, shiny, purple-ish colour--is this true? I also see one or two pictures with a speckled variation in colour--is it common? Do you have any pictures of your work with this clay? I would really appreciate seeing some examples.

 

Also, does very toothy = very groggy? I'm not familiar with very groggy clay, so I have some questions about that. For example, how does the raw fired clay feel to the hands, and does the raw clay take to sanding or not? Thanks for the help!

 

bciskepottery, my closest suppliers don't carry Dark Brown, unfortunately, but I will definitely keep it in mind for the future for handbuilding.

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glad you found us and congratulations on deciding to work with clay.  

 

if you use groggy clay, be prepared to bleed.  centering can cut up your hand badly.  there are old posts about this, maybe you can find them. 

 

whenever possible, do not sand any clay.  if you finish a bowl rim with a sponge, you know the grog will be exposed.  finish with a soft rubber rib and push the grog back into the clay.  have never understood the need to sand anything.  removing a small bit of anything with a white stone, yes, overall sanding-never.

 

when you defined in your mind the kind of work you plan to do, does it look rough and rustic or refined?  the kind of work you plan will have a bearing on the kind of clay to use.  if the manufacturer will give you the list of ingredients, check for manganese and other materials which you might not want long term in your clay.

 

safety in your studio is paramount.  make sure you work in a clean environment and you understand why.  

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Guest JBaymore

The # 42 is not groggy.  It just has a generally large particle size.  It resembles a lot of the clay I use in Japan in what it handles like and what it looks like.  It has a lot of Lizella clay in it.

 

In strong reduction it can get "purple-ey" and in general is very dark in any reduction firing.  In oxidation... it has orangey-red tones.

 

I am out of my picture limit here (putting up the anagama images from the build last summer)... can't post more here now.

 

best,

 

.......................john

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It just has a generally large particle size.  It resembles a lot of the clay I use in Japan in what it handles like and what it looks like.  It has a lot of Lizella clay in it.

 

In strong reduction it can get "purple-ey" and in general is very dark in any reduction firing.  In oxidation... it has orangey-red tones.

 

 

best,

 

.......................john

 

This clay sounds fantastic! Orangey-Red tones in an oxidation firing sounds amazing. It says ^6-10, but I have to assume absorption rate for 6 would be terrible. I really want to work more and more with a sandy toothy clay. I know its hard to throw, but I could learn to throw with a sponge in the beginning parts of throwing it.

 

John do you know of any other clay like this clay that has this type of effect in oxidation? One of my remaining problems with oxidation is the clay body itself being so plain. I would love to get tones changes in my firings on my clay body!

 

Is it the lizella that adds the tones? Or am I misunderstanding that the clay will just be orange/red, and not have separate distinguishable tones?

 

Edit: looking at their tile, it doesn't seem to have tones at ^6 oxidation. = ( maybe I was misunderstanding, I will just stick with my good ole Red Rock.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Oldlady, I recently picked up some heavily groggy stoneware from a friend, and I have to say, you're right on the bleeding end. It hurt badly in the beginning, but now I've become a bit accustomed by the tooth and grog. I still miss the smoothness of porcelain, so I'm using procelain and a slightly less groggy stoneware interchangibly.

 

I'm not sure about my work--I haven't made anything I'm super proud of, and I've made both neat and rustic work that has impressed my professors. I'm looking to solve that problem for myself this semester--will try to take some pictures as I go along to show.

 

I usually sanded my porcelain because I like letting some of the raw clay come through sometimes, and in some forms if it's not totally smooth, it compromises the form a bit. (I actually have a question about raw clay showing, but I'll leave it for another thread). Thanks so much for your post!

 

JBaymore, aw! You've left me curious to see now. But that's okay. I'm not too much of a fan of feeling grog, but I do like feeling tooth, so that will be exciting.

 

Timbo_heff, thanks! I'm going to keep it in mind for when the studio starts low fire for the semester.

 

I need to wait a little bit until I get the clay(s), but when I do, I'll try and post a picture of results for others to see. Thanks, guys!

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