Search the Community

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!

Searched around for similar posts and only found one. So I’ve been gifted a large wooden table with a particle board top that I’ve been using for wedging. As of late lots of little bits of the particle board are getting stuck to the clay when I’m rolling out for hand building. They aren’t deeply embedded but deep enough that I’d mess up my pieces if I tried to wash them out. I’m using a sandy buff stoneware from standard ceramic (509). These pieces are going to be a bit more rustic in look so I won’t mind if there are tiny divots after firing, but my main concerns are 1) Will it negatively affect the kiln at all (I use someone else’s) and 2) will it affect how the glaze takes (I can never attach a photo as it always says they are too large...any tips for that as well?) thanks friends!

Is there any scientific way of measure the plasticity and tell it in numbers ? I know the easy way by rolling out a coil and wrap around the fingers to check the plasticity in no time but I wanted to know is there any way that I can measure it and keep noted so that it can be a reference is future ...

Aloha, I currently teach ceramics in a middle school and would love to know what clay body most teachers are using in their classroom. Actually, to those veteran educators working with kids what is your favorite clay? My first few years I used Soldate 60 because that is what I inherited. I enjoyed working with this clay body, but I decided to try Laguna Buff with Sand and EM-210 White since they are low fire and I have a lot of low fire glazes. My students hated the Buff with Sand because it was rough and honestly I couldn't pull a handle from a fresh bag of clay. I then decided to try a more plastic clay and smooth clay, so now I am using Laguna White EM-210. I have encountered several issues with dunting and shivering and want to get a new clay body for next year but am unsure which clay to order. Being a teacher with over 200 students I do not have time to troubleshoot firing issues and want to purchase premixed clay and glazes to ensure successful results. I don't mind troubleshooting issues at my home studio, but I want to go with the sure thing at school and not have to worry about shivering, adding feldspar to change the ph level of my clay body, or have to play around with different firing schedules only to get bad results. Thanks in advance for your support.

hi everybody, i'm a ceramic designer from michigan currently living in the netherlands. I would like to adapt one of Val Cushing's earthenware recipes to materials I can access in Europe. I think I have access to most of the chemicals expect for the Frit. Also I was wondering if there was an equivalent to EPK in Europe. E.P.K. (Plastic Kaolin) --- 10 Grolleg China Clay --- 20 Ball Clay --- 10 (Ferro) Frit # 3124 - 10 Talc - 10 Wollastonite - 10 Molochite - 30 + 2% Bentonite From what I gather so far the Molochite is pretty expensive from where I'm ordering it (Keramikos.nl) Cushing-LowFireClay.pdf

Hello, Can you please tell me how to make speckled clay body, not a glaze? Or, if there is anything about it from previous topics to send me a link? Thank you in advance!

I finally got a nice lizzella clay body for chun blue glaze to pass the Recipie is 40 T-6 kaolin and 20% lizzella clay 17.32 Custer feldspar, and 27% flint and .50% black iron oxide very fine iron oxide not the granular material . also i prepare the lizzella clay by washing it at 100 mesh and leaving all the sand out , the iron goes up a bit to just shy of 6% iron the test pot was fired in my small reduction test kiln for 11 hr from start to finish cone 8 reduction but used full oxidation up to cone 06 and it vitrified, and had not so much as one bloat or pinhole and it seems to magnify the chun glaze

Was reading last night that spodumene was used to make a toasty coloured clay body but required quite a percentage to do so. I wondered if anyone has done a wash on clay using Spodumene , in a similar manner to that of the soda wash?

Ron Roy is offering a one day clay body formulation workshop on Tuesday March 15th in Kansas City. This is the day before NCECA starts. Cost is $75. Ron is one of the gurus and this is an amazing opportunity! Please see the attached PDF for more information. Limited to four students. Hope to see you there! Thank you, Owen ron_clay.pdf ron_clay.pdf

Anyone used it? How did your glaze work turn out?

So many clays out there to choose from, thought I would ask which is your fav. to throw with and why ? Thanks..

Would laterite pugged into claybody give a bleedthrough effect on glazes at C5/6

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?