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I'm trying to slip cast a tile like (14"x14") piece of art that will hang on the wall and having trouble deciding what type of clay body to use. My minimal past experience with clay has been all functional, midfire thrown stoneware, so I'm not very used to choosing clay for non functional work. What criteria do I look for when choosing a clay body for this type of work? All my glazes I currently own are midfire glazes, which is making me want to stick to midfire casting slip, but if I'm losing out on some qualities by doing so, I would make the switch to something else and buy new glaze, etc.

Hi everyone, Hobbyist ceramist with a few years of experience here, but not so much glaze chemistry knowledge. I make work at a studio in Germany since a few years and since the summer, we noticed a lot of new issues with various glazes used at the studio. Nothing seems to have changed a priory with the way we do things. We fire with 2 different Rhode ecotop kilns at 1220 celcius. All ours work is made using a white stoneware clay from one distributor. We order commercial glazes from the same distributor and a few other glazes from another one. We've been using the same glazes for years and the same firing cycle as well. We received a new order of clay and glazes in August from our main distributor and since that, we started to notice an increasing amount of dunting. The issues are mainly with work from beginner students that are taking classes at the studio and that are perhaps applying glazes a bit too thick. This is something that happens regularly but didn't usually result in dunting before. Then recently, I also started to have shelling or slight shivering issue at the rims of cups on some of my own pieces when using one particular glaze. It's a matte transparent glaze I've been using for years and never had issues with. Is it possible that it is the clay body that is creating all these new issues? What is the best way to trouble solve from here? I emailed both distributors so ask if they know of any changes with their products already ( waiting on an answer) but any other tips I can get from someone with more experience would be much appreciated!

I’m on a really long and frustrating journey trying to find a glaze/clay match to avoid crazing. But why, time and time again, on YouTube and Instagram am I finding potters with high follower numbers and ‘JUST SOLD OUT ETSY RESTOCK’ posts who are advertising pots, which have clearly got crazing issues?? Is there a ‘generally accepted’ level of crazing one should expect? Is it ‘normal’ to hear your pottery ping when getting it out of the kiln then later pouring hot liquid in? I’ve been driving myself nuts, but it appears to not be as serious as I initially thought... am I wasting my time??

Hello all, I'm wondering if any of you know if Sibelco clay bodies are carried domestically (North America)? I've got emails out to the company but have yet to hear back and internet searches aren't seeming to turn anything up. Also if anyone knows of a similar body to the Sibelco WMS 2002GG available from the usual suspects that would be super helpful. Thanks!

Hi all, Second time posting here and I’m hoping you can help! Hopefully this is the right place to be for a troubleshooting question like this. Im currently working from a recipe for Val Cushing’s Cone 6 Porcelain Slip. grolleg: 15% tile 6: 15% Epk: 3% om4: 10% flint: 25% neph sy: 30% gerstley borate: 2% —————————— Sodium silicate: .0028% calgon: .0005% When I mixed this before, as now, I subbed the deflocculants with Darvan. I mixed it successfully then, but I’m currently have difficulty. I know that darvan generally subs for sodium silicate at 2-1, so bearing that in mind, that’s where I started. I kept adding darvan in small 5g increments up to 100g in a 10000g recipe. That seems like far too much, but maybe I’m wrong? I feel like I’m on the other side of that deflocculation bell curve some how and missed my mark. Every time I come back to the studio the slip is gelled thick but never settled and never develops a skin. When I’ve added more darvan, the slip temporarily thins, but seems to rebound to being too thick the next day. Can the casting process indicate overdeflocculation? If so, in what ways? What should I be looking out for other than settling and a skin in my bucket? Can anyone offer any advice on this recipe or deflocculants? I’ve been doing some hard research and testing and can’t nail it down. My current gravity is measuring at 1.71, so I’m hesitant to add more water, since according to some other online sources I should be aiming between 1.7 and 1.8. I’m wondering if I should throw caution to the wind and say “this slip just needs more water than most”. Ive mixed this slip before with great success two years ago. I have no clue what I did right then. Dumb luck haha. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!