Susan Ross Pottery: advice on clay body changes

[Susan Ross Pottery]

I have been using Standard's clay #417 for 20 years. I love it.

The color is rich and I glaze fire to cone 03 making the pottery very vitreous with little absorption.

Once several years ago I got a batch of 417 that was contaminated with small bits of limestone. ..I got limestone pops..aargh.

The clay was replaced free of charge by Standard...and I was good for several years,

Now I have limestone pops again.

Two different 400 lb batches of the clay are contaminated.

I'm thinking of switching clay bodies and companies....looking at Tucker's red majolica from Bailey Pottery.

Any ideas/anyone else have this problem?

susanrosspottery.com

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Hi Susan and welcome!

I've taken the liberty of adding to your title, so more people will have a look at your question, and hopefully get you sorted!

Towards your question, most clay suppliers will occasionally experience quality control issues, which is why some of the experienced production potters will tell you to always test fire a new batch of clay before committing to huge quantities of work. Typically if you bring it to the supplier's attention, they do make it right. I don't have any expereince with either Tuckers or Standard, so hopefully someone further east than I am will chime in.

[neilestrick]

The limestone is from the raw materials, and Standard has no control over that. Even if they fire a small test piece, but there's no guarantee it will show up in it. And there's no guarantee that you won't have the problem with another brand, especially since many use the same raw materials. Ask Standard to replace it- they will- and it will bring the problem to their attention, so they can deal with it. 2 bad batches over 20 years isn't that bad.