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I had an interesting idea today and that was to sprinkle sand on my freshly thrown pieces to add some interesting designs. My teacher is going to try in the older kiln since it doesn't matter as much if it does something bad. However that kiln can only get as high as cone 6. I was wondering though if maybe the sand will melt possibly. I don't have any specific details about the sand except that its high in silica. Has anyone had any experience with this yet? Any suggestion would be appreciated.

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Sand is made of mostly silica, which has a very high melting point. Is this beach sand? If it is, I would recommend bisque firing some in a pot first and then rinsing it because you will get calcium in your clay otherwise. This could also be known as lime or plaster popping. Have you ever had glaze pop off your pot and in the center there is a white dot? That is a glob of calcium/lime/plaster.

 

Sand shouldn't do anything to your pot unless there is calcium in the sand mix. I have found it is easier using grog because you don't have to bisque fire and rinse it. You could also use a product called silica sand which is commonly used in concrete as a filler. It is cheap and just fine to use as you mentioned too. This particular product looks like sugar and I have found it at Ace Hardware. 

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i recently fired at 6 ox a clay body with 120  silica   turns out there is a percentage of larger   up to 60/80   some just melted in or cant see it som bits look like mica. clay body included nepsy as flux,this  sand is technically pure silica from the edgar mines (yes the epk people)

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the only other details about the sand is that it was ordered as a huge compressed block that we shaved down into a bucket that is simply labeled sand. its mostly used for paintings at our school

Shouldn't matter too much I think. Sand is sand. If you don't know the makeup of the sand, I would just bisque some in a big unglazed bowl or plate and then rinse it to get rid of the calcium. 

 

That's what I'd do. Or the easier method would be to buy silica sand, which is cheap.

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  • 1 month later...

I only stumbled over this thread today. I often use sand and gravel, marble powder and pebbles and other material, organic and anorganic in and on the clay. I always use high fire clay. The sand now (it's mostly beach sand from all over the world) is baking into the clay when fired high (cone 6 and more). If you fire sand on clay at lower temps, it will drop away with time. You can mix it with a flux though before applying it onto the clay. There's a wonderful book if you are interested in using sand etc. on or in clay:

 

"Additions to clay bodies" - Author: Kathleen Standen

 

You can buy it right here:

 

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/all-books/

 

Have fun!

 

Evelyne

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  • 2 years later...

I only stumbled over this thread today. I often use sand and gravel, marble powder and pebbles and other material, organic and anorganic in and on the clay. I always use high fire clay. The sand now (it's mostly beach sand from all over the world) is baking into the clay when fired high (cone 6 and more). If you fire sand on clay at lower temps, it will drop away with time. You can mix it with a flux though before applying it onto the clay. There's a wonderful book if you are interested in using sand etc. on or in clay:

 

"Additions to clay bodies" - Author: Kathleen Standen

 

You can buy it right here:

 

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/all-books/

 

Have fun!

 

Evelyne

 

Hi Evelyne,

 

I have been looking high and low for someone with experience with adding materials to clay - and when you said you added pebbles to your clay *bing*. I wanted to know what you have experienced with adding dark river pebbles to clay. I once saw a potter make his jars bleed black by placing stones in his porcelain jars (not sure if they were kneed/thrown with it or inserted). Any tips?

 

Re sand topic. I have used black piha sand in high fired porcelain and brown clay and it works fine. On certain glazes it creates the speckles and on some others it bleeds black.

 

Jason

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