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Flying With Ceramic Material


Leola

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Hello everyone, 

 

Am having a quick question. Can i fly with porcelain clay? Or porcelain powder for slipcasting?

Am traveling to a place where it is harder to find these supplies.

Does anyone has experience with this?

 

Also i like to ask if i can put my porcelain work in the cabin luggage or hand luggage, related to freezing in cargo. 

Thank you very much!

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I have flown with my porcelain clay ... put it in my luggage so I would not have to stand around explaining it ... and yes, every time TSA went through my bags, opened the packages the clay was in and looked around ... but it always got through ok. I marked the bags as porcelain clay on the outside hoping that would help. Also have packed my powder Mason Stains, pottery tools, demo pieces etc, and they got through OK.

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I was in Toronto once visiting my sisters. I realized that one of my sisters lives very close to Tucker Ceramic Supply in Oakville ,Ontario.[a suburb of Toronto.]

I was working in low-fire Majolica at the time, and thought I could buy an exotic Fritt at Tuckers. Long story short- I am at the airport ready to board my flight back to Winnipeg. I am holding a large bag of white powder in a zip lock bag. I mean big. Not a sandwich bag. Say 1000 grams of fritt. It suddenly dawns on me that this looks a bit hinky. I also had long hair in a pony tail, and a beard.

I went to the ticket agent. They said to go to special services. I told them what it was, and showed them my receipt. They said to check back in an hour. I was hoping that they wouldn't confiscate it, as fritts are expensive. I picked up my package an hour later-no problems.

I am sure they analyzed it. It looked like a big bag of cocaine.Anyway, my glazing was a success.I have also brought pots back in my carry-on without a problem.

Dry clay would be O.K. too.

TJR.

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Thank you al very much for your reply's. Its very helpful. 

Am going early, to say at the counter what i am carrying. Am thinking it won't be a problem, i hope so. 

Will let you know after my flight :)

Thank you for the quick reply!

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White powders definately raise some concerns.  On my last trip to Japan I picked up some artificial rice hush ash for experimenting.  No problems getting out of Japan or through US customs, but they found it in my carry-on when checking back in for my connecting flight in Dallas.  All of the labelling was in Japanese so they ran a lot of tests before letting me travel on with it.  No real problems but you just need to plan on the delays. 

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As long as they aren't packed in one kilo parcels.......

 

It's not the counter you have to worry about.

 

Place Msds and any other data, receipts info sheets with said material along with roll of tape should they sample.

 

You can fly with firearms in checked baggage.domestic. If properly packaged.

 

Domestic and international flights frequently carry cargo. Worse case scenario you check your bag in at the cargo dept. ahead of time.

 

But best thing is to call airline!

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Guest JBaymore

I do a lot of international pottery related traveling as a presenter or resident artist or the like.  Hand tools got in chacked luggage... labeled clearly as such.  Nothing pointy or what a "normal person" (not a potter)  would consider wierd in carry-ons.

 

I ship anything questionable to the venue ahead of time via FedEx.  With a full itemized invoice, CAS #s, and MSDSs included.  And expect that it will get confiscated.... but it never has.

 

Gray plastic clay in ANY luggage is going to get a good going over (at a glance likely looks a lot like plastic explosive).  Any white powder,....... ditto. 

 

I was working with an international ceramicst once that made the mistake of packing powdered white slip in his suitcase.  He ended up literally staring into a bunch of AK-47s in a country where he did not speak the language.  He got thru it... but it was NOT fun for about 1 hour until they verified what the stuff was.

 

Returuing to the US from Japan one year I once had some nice knives (Japanese knives are the BEST) and a carpenter's saw in my CHECKED luggage.  The US TSA has a group in the Narita Airport for returning to US flights........ long story short.... I soon had my checked bags unpacked and spread out all over the floor at Narita as they went thru every single bit of it.

 

Err on the side of caution.  See your airline's policy site.  Check the country you are flying into for regs on import/export.

 

best,

 

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

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  • 3 months later...

I wish to reply on this matter, since i made the travel with all the materials back and forth.

During my flight, international to the other side of the world. Both ways i bring materials. Lusters, glaze powders, porcelain slip powder, big bags of clay, tools, kobalt stains etc. My luggage allowance is around 50 kg. 

They didn't stop me, they didn't ask me anything. All my luggage arrived well. 

What i put in the luggage also is that am a Fine Arts student, letter. 

So from my experience there is no any problem here. 

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