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Throwing Grainy Rough Clays


marcello

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Hello

My name is Marcello, from Italy. I am a pottery beginner, and I whish to ask some questions.

I am attaching here a picture of a japanese tea cup.

Question 1:

I wish to try to trow similar grainy rough clays, but I was told this is very difficult, an that you can cut your skin. Does anybody have a some trick to throw without injuries?

Question 2:

What kind of glaze do you think this is?

Many thanks

Marcello

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Welcome Marcello!

 

Some people actually enjoy throwing clays with some grog in them ... I like them myself and have not had any issues with cuts. The grog is not usually sharp but smooth. Granted, if you added grog yourself you would have to be careful of the kind you chose.

Sorry, I don't know what glaze that is.

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Hey,

      I am familiar with an USA clay from Highwater Clay in Asheville, NC called Craggy Crunch.

It has lots of the larger sized grog.  I generally use it to make a two piece 4 to 5 gallon cistern since

I haven't had it to split or crack.  There has been times where if slurry is allowed to build up on the bats,

and the grog gets between my hands and the bat, it feels like the side of my hand was split open.  

There has never been an actual cut, but with your hands covered in clay its hard to tell until the hands

are rinsed off and examined.  The remedy is to take the rib with the flat side and clean or

squeegee off the bat between pulls.

Expect to lose finger prints if you use heavily grogged clays like this.

 

    The glaze appears to a light blue that breaks black.  I understand how the rim would be black in that case

but not the lower black edge unless the lower edge was feathered thin with a moistened sponge forcing

it to turn black.

Hope this helps,

Alabama.

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I threw a raku clay one Summer, all Summer for at least 4 hrs a day. This clay was 50% course grog. I had permanent open sores on hand at the knuckle of the thumb, first finger, and pinky/last finger. These would never heal as I would be back to throwing the next day. You get used to it. It also taught me where I was making contact with the clay while throwing. I had started out throwing with the middle knuckle of the pointer/first finger. However, when I found that the knuckle was getting raw from the clay I changed to finger tip braced by the second finger and thumb. This allowed me to throw  without the additional raw spot. I really came to not like the raku process for many different reasons, one of them the coarseness of the clay.

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I have been throwing some rough raku clay after using only porcelain for a long time. It is rough but stronger to throw than porcelain. I don't know where you are in Italy or what type of clay are available to your. If you want to mis something into a clay to make it rougher, you can try things like used coffee grounds or fine sawdust. They will not feel as touch as chunks of rock.

 

Marcia

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I love me some grog

 

But some of the roughest clays are coil / pinch built, finshed on banding wheel and appear thrown.

 

You'll be surprised how much grog you can tolerate, on wheel.

 

Sometimes it feel like grog is pushed into clay. Then reveals itself at trimming and after firing.

 

Much of the look and feel depends on amount, type and size of grog.

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post-25544-0-25694000-1409689454_thumb.jpg

 

I threw this crunchy clay today

 

The red bits are granite, it's not readily available where I live, this is chicken grit, the white is crushed feldspar from custer Montana.

 

One of the secrets is a slow wheel. And you have to press the stones into clay while throwing.

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I'll post tomorrow when I get to studio,

 

Here is detail of wood fired piece with granite chunks only .... You can see where granite is melting (granite = feldspar+ mica + silica for the most part) it resists the natural ash glaze deposits. The granite mostly melts white.....post-25544-0-89326800-1409880835_thumb.jpg

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I haven't found the Raku clay, I use in my classroom, to be too groggy.  I notice the grit, but it doesn't bother me.  The same goes for the grog in the stoneware I used in my class at my second district.  However, the claybody, that my Ceramics class used in college, that stuff was GROOOGGGY!  The faculty and some of the upper level students made it.  I believe the grog was some ground up bisqueware.  Like the claybody Pres mentioned, this stuff tore up my hand something awful  I had a sore on the side of my hand, from where my hand touched the wheel from centering.  I would apply Liquid Bandaid, but the grog would eat through it in no time.

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    The glaze appears to a light blue that breaks black.  I understand how the rim would be black in that case

but not the lower black edge unless the lower edge was feathered thin with a moistened sponge forcing

it to turn black.

 

No silly feathering tricks or otherwise, the piece was dipped upside down, leaving less material on the bottom edge.

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Neil

I'm going to follow what you said^^^

More cow bell........ More grog.... I'll keep testing till I find the magic combo. Continue to Push the limits, outside of comfort zone.

( I suppose that means I need to start weighing and measuring)

My last batch I thought ....wait there are some soft spots............

 

Was your comment directed to cone 6, cone 10 redux, salt/soda, Woodfire?

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