Donn Buchfinck on sun 13 sep 09
The large California based clay producer make clay on a scale that does not
compare to just about any other studio pottery clay producer in the USA.
Plus they have access to clays that most do not have access to, like
materials from Australia. And it is ordered in by the boatload. Yes and I
mean boatload or more like shipload.
And buying clay by the shipload is cheaper than bringing the clays from the
midwest and east coast here to California.
Economies of scale and all that.
I bet they do runs of 60-100 tons of one clay at a time.
But there is a problem that arises. And that is when you are buying
materials by the train car load and negotiating pennies off a ton of
material maybe the desire is to go for a little less quality. Or the qualit=
y
changes during that 100 ton run. And you get problems. Ten years ago I wen=
t
through a time where all my B mix bisque was cracking as it came out of the
kiln. If you contacted the company they told you it was your fault but a lo=
t
of people on clayart were having the same problem. They tried to save a few
pennies a pound on some material and potters paid the price.
But mixing your own does not mean that all your problems are solved.
Years ago I used to use Hawthorn bond fireclay, it was great but starting
around 1990 it started having these calcium popouts. We found out later tha=
t
there was a screen that was broken at the packaging plant and that a loader
would drive around and scoop up all that was left on the ground and dump it
into a hopper and the screen wouldn't catch the junk and it ended up in the
clay, my first year of graduate school most of the pots had pop outs. Our
instructor even thought it was the barrel of the old soldner mixer and had
it replaced. But it was the clay and the people who ran the machines that
botched it for a lot of people.
As to B mix, B mix is a trick. I bet it is two to three materials at most.
Some chemical/chemistry concoction that works but few potters would come up
with because they think the feldspar/silica/blend of clays recipe way is th=
e
only way.
Someone other than a potter probably looked at the material and told them,
hey it you mix these three together you will have a good inexpensive produc=
t
that gives you the workability you are looking for.
If I told you that you can take wollastonite and ball clay and mix it
together you can make a large 6 foot long tile that you can hit with a
hammer and not break it, would you believe me, would you have thought of it=
?
Added to it that the commercial pugs have an effect on the clay that maybe =
a
studio potter can have on the material if they get their apprentices to
wedge the clay for an hour or so. The industry guys have a different
understanding of what the materials do, and what the machines do to the
materials. Toilets, tiles, bricks, lamps, pyrex, the industry guys know
what they are doing to get what they want, most potters are basically pokin=
g
around in the dark with their hand me down set of recipes. More akin to
voodoo and witchcraft than the science of clay materials.
There are two ways to look at it. If you make porcelain pots then an all
stainless pugmill is the way to go.
Having to put vinegar in each bag of clay so you can use a commercially
built pug mill doesn't quite sit right. Vinegar rots and stinks and it can
make the clay weird.
And second after all you have been through with your clay I bet your going
to find it was something in the materials that is causing your problems not
the equipment. Maybe a screen is broken in the facility that bags the clay.
They just might not want to admit their fault.
Donn Buchfinck
www.donnbuchfinck.com
www.youtube.com/bayareaartist999
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