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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?