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Adding broken ceramics to fresh clay?


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Hello,

Ive been collecting broken old ceramic pieces from a local stream and I wanted to incorporate these into new vessels. I wanted to do an almost mosaic effect but pressed into the walls of the vessel. However I know that shrinkage will be a big issue? I’m using an earthenware grog . Any tips on joining old ceramics pieces to fresh clay?? I’m very new to ceramics so know very little - as is evident. Many thanks for any advice! 

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Depends on how you want them displayed I guess. You can melt their glaze to stick, or melt something lower temp on your clay and stick them with that.

I'd love to see the shards juuuuust melted, that would be dope.

I find some old Buffalo Pottery from 1912 in a campsite by my River.

Sorce

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On 1/30/2021 at 10:56 AM, scramble said:

However I know that shrinkage will be a big issue? I’m using an earthenware grog . Any tips on joining old ceramics pieces to fresh clay??

You are right that the shrinkage will be a big issue. The fired ceramics is going to constrict how the raw clay shrinks and in all likelihood will crack to relieve the stresses. Perhaps you could make a platter or large tile form with earthenware, fire and glaze that then use some of your found old ceramics pieces to do a mosaic in the center of it. (decorative use only) Glazes can change appearance significantly if fired to a higher or lower temperature than originally so there is that aspect to it too.

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23 hours ago, Min said:

Glazes can change appearance significantly if fired to a higher or lower temperature than originally so there is that aspect to it too.

This would worry me.

 

Also, mixing clay and glazes is a recipe for disaster.  My best suggestion would be to mix and match old and new as mosaic, not firing them together.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

UPDATE: 

Here’s my piece I made in the end. I’m still finishing a vessel with a more mosaicy feel to it. 

In the end I just had a go at it, but shrinkage has now happened on both pots pictured,, however, seen as this was just exploratory work for an art college project it’s okay! 

Thank you again for everyone’s advice!

66888FFC-E1F8-40BD-B08F-87FE14CEEB64.jpeg

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3 hours ago, Sorcery said:

Whatevs! That's fantastic! 

My spot is kinda generic, more old ignorant littering than history. That stuff looks old old.

Sorce

I’ve been asking all the older people who have been living here for decades whether they know why there’s so much broken ceramics down there, but the best I’ve learnt is that there used to be an old brickworks there 100 years back or something? My best guest is that there was a pottery there too? But no one knows about it!

Very odd.. Maybe just littering

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1 hour ago, Mark C. said:

post a photo of fired pot please.

Sorry- I haven’t had the chance to fire anything yet— I don’t have access to a kiln until lockdown ends here in the UK :( 

 I do not have high hopes that they’ll survive but I’ll give it a go when I’m back at college.

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  • 10 months later...

I'm new to ceramics and I came across this group.. Too cool all the finds of old pottery.. I'm in Sacramento and in nearby Folsom it is common to find old Chinese pottery from when workers were building the railroad.

Looking forward to seeing your creations.. Experimentation seems like a big part of the adventure

 

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  • 7 months later...

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