Alisa and Claus Clausen on sun 25 jul 99
I have two clay bodies I use frequently.
One is a cone 04 terracotta.
Other is a cone 04 -6 white body.
I still have difficulty believing that one clay body, such as this German =
white
body, truthfully has such a wide firing range.
Not to go back to our vitrification discussion, but at 04 the white body is =
very
porous, and at cone 6 it is vitrified.
It seems that this clay CAN be fired to 04, but is not really useful unless
fired to 6.
I have two commercial clear 04 glazes, a matt and a gloss, that fire well on=
the
terracotta. Smooth surface.
However when I use them on the white body, fired to only the 04 range, they
craze, very much.
I understand about glaze not fitting the body, and this seems to be the =
case.
However, I do not why in this case. The manufacturer of the clay insists =
that
the range IS 04 to 6. I have big suspicions that this is not so. If my
wariness about a clay body that is claimed to be both earthernware and =
medium
range stoneware are correct, could this just a matter that the clay is truly=
a
cone 6 body and I should just glaze fire it to cone 6 glazes?
The German white clay I have has no very little throwing character which is
maybe because it has a lot of kaolin in it?
It sounds wonderful to have a wide range clay body, but is there really such=
a
body that fits also such a wide range of glazes?
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