don. gauthier on sun 4 may 97
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My wife and I have recently begun working with tiles and
press-molded platters produced with a Northstar slab roller. This is =5E10
reduction porcelain, carved and covered with a celadon glaze. The clay I
formulated is as follows:
Pioneer Kaolin - 35
Kaopaque - 20
Pot. Spar - 20
Flint - 20
Neph. Sy. - 5
The clay works reasonably well. We dry the tiles between drywall
and do not get a lot of warpage, however, we do get cracks running from the
edge to the center of the tiles that show up after bisque. The clay has a
soft,=22punky=22 feel to it dry and bisqued.
My question to the list is this: I feel the need to strenghten the clay
while drying and handling green. Two things I have considered are, 1-Adding
CMC or some other organic binder, 2-Adding a small percentage of OM4 or an
even smaller percentage of bentonite. I have never used a binder in a
claybody before and do not really know if it will give me the strength I am
looking for. If I use the clays I might increase the warpage and have
formulated the clay to avoid that as much as possible.
I would welcome any comments that would help me strengthen the clay
and any comments on the formulation in general since this is the first time
I have tried a =22non-plastic=22 claybody designed for slab work.
Thanks for any suggestions or comments,
Don Gauthier
Baldwin City, Kansas USA=21
Kat Berger on tue 6 may 97
what about Wollastonite especially fibrous Wollastonite.
Granted I've only used it for throwing bodies but it might be something to
look into
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