What Clay Body Would You Use For Fast Drying, No Cracking

[ClayToTheCore]

If you had to make a fairly large object (14" tall/8" wide, 3/8"- 1/2" thick), and have it ready to bisque in 3 -4 days, what clay body would you use? The obvious problem is shrinking and cracking, so how do you best counter that? Heavily groged clay body? Paper clay? What do you think?

[Mark C.]

Big White from Laguna

Mark

[ChenowethArts]

You'll probably discover that the more plastic the clay, the more likely that you will encounter more shrinkage...and more shrinkage causes stresses across a piece as it dries and, even more/uneven stress when you attempt to dry it quickly.  I have had good luck with Lizella Clay recently...it is a high iron clay with a good proportion of grog, but it is proving itself for taller, sculptural pieces.

The clay body is only one part of your fast drying solution though.  Keeping the thickness even throughout is essential. Turning and flipping the piece as it dries helps.  Even the surface where the piece is drying has an impact.  The goal is to dry it evenly...which can pose a real challenge when you are trying to dry something fast.

 

Paul

[Tristan TDH]

Paperclay has the most strength as greenware, and is least likely to crack during drying. Even though it can be crap to work with.

Make sure you have strong joins and even thickness. When you are drying it sit it on a rack instead of a solid surface.

[neilestrick]

It's not always about the clay. How well the piece is constructed and how evenly it's made has as much to do with it as the clay body. 3-4 days to dry is plenty of time for any clay body. Just make sure it is well made. But if you're concerned go with a stoneware with some grog.

[Marcia Selsor]

You would need any open type of body: stoneware with grog, raku or a raku/paper clay.I am not familiar with many commercially made clays so that it as specific as I can get.

 

Marcia

[synj00]

I have made very thick pieces using Stone Mountain Clay - 251 Raku  which is a heavily groged white body clay. I agree that it should be well made and any slip & score needs to be done right by doing the "little wiggle" between the two pieces until you feel them catch properly. My pieces fell apart when using slip & score method because I didnt "fuse" the joints. Not sure if youre building slab method or not but just sayin   Let us know how it turns out!

[perkolator]

3-4 days to being able to fire it can be achieved with pretty much any clay body.  the size you want isn't really that big, I don't see any issue.  getting the piece constructed and out of the kiln in 3 days is more of a challenge but still doable - literally just did this monday night in order to mail 3 pieces this morning because part of a piece broke in transit to a show.  I'd say you need a decently grogged clay body to provide the nice porous matrix to allow water to escape the core of the clay.  Depending on your clay, you could just build it and leave it uncovered to dry out until close to leather-hard, then force dry the piece with warm air flow.  If you're buying clay, perhaps try a raku or grogged stoneware body