spring Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Hello Everyone, I'm working on a large project in porcelain. My go to porcelain is usually southern ice but its expensive and costs a lot to ship. I need to buy about 300lbs, so I wanna choose wisely. I need a porcelain that will be very translucent, is plastic enough to work in very thin long slabs that will be manipulated, and stays white. I tried frost cone 6 porcelain and found it to be very short and ill suited for my needs. I've thrown with Babu and Coleman; had positive experiences with both but never handbulit with them. I'll be firing cone 10 because the midrange clays available to me in my area do not seem translucent enough nor white enough. I know there are people who have done lots of development in low/mid fire porcelains that are translucent but I don't really have a couple years for this project. Based off of personal experience, please let me know what you think. The types of clay I have to choose from are: Babu Coleman Frost cone 10 Laguna 550 thanks in advance, spring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 why not contact tom coleman and ask his advice? working with his clay is a simple answer and i bet he knows a handbuilder or two who use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spring Posted August 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Ummm, cuz I guess I never thought Tom Coleman was gonna answer some random question to see if his clay is gonna work for what I want. I'll try it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Babu and 550 are about even as far as whiteness I use them both for that and also because glazes pop on them Never hand built much past teapot lugs with them. Porcelain for this long thin slabs project will take experimenting with 1st so I suggest testing before committing to any body. The pool of candidates is small-4 pugs. And you live where supply is easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 I have used Southern Ice and Colman. I have not tried hand building with them. I would recommend adding molochite to the clay by re-pugging or, if you have porcelain scraps...make a slurry and add molochite and dry to whatever consistency you need. Molochite is porcelain grog. It could change the translucency. Paula Winokur uses this in her large porcelain pieces. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazenerd Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Marcia: Before I ended up doing my own custom blends: I had my porcelain custom mixed with 15% molochite added. The added benefit of molochite is also after the firing: it increases mullite in the body In sculpting, some plasticity is still required: so I am thinking 8-9% molochite. It is also relatively free of iron and magnesium content that could effect color else wise. Lastly, because molochite is 0.05-0.075 particle size: it will also add strength to the body during green ware and vitrified. If sculptures are large, 200 mesh kyanite for ^6 will also help strengthen the final product. 3-5% Nerd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rakukuku Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 A friend used to hand build a lot with porcelain and thought babu was best. I use Dave's porcelain for hand building but its not particularly translucent. Just suits my pinched forms more than babu. rakuku Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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