David W McDonald on wed 25 aug 99
Ron,
Here is the letter I sent to Jon Brooks at Laguna:
8/3/99
Jon Brooks
Laguna Clay Company
14400 Lomitas Avenue
City of Industry, CA 91746
Dear Mr. Brooks,
My name is David McDonald. I ve been a customer of yours for
going on 20 years.
On April 29th of this year I received 2200 pounds of Amador clay
from Laguna Clay Company (Invoice # 80022), the same clay, I presumed,
that I d been using since 1980. On May 5th, I began producing lots of new
pieces from this shipment of clay. This was to be a very productive time
for me; to produce my slab built/wheelthrown ceramic platters/wallpieces
and fill orders which I wrote in February from my yearly show in
Philadelphia, The Buyer s Market of American Craft. This year s show was
stronger than ever, and my calendar was filled for the year.
My four glaze firings during the month of May were filled with
pieces made from clay from the shipment preceding 4/29/99. These firings
were all coming out as wonderful as ever, with one exception; the rare
piece seemed to be bloating. Not always in the same place in the kiln,
and out of the blue. In all these years using Amador, I ve never had this
experience. Yellow flags went up in my mind.
On June 5th things changed. Half of the kiln load was bloated!
Later, I was able to figure out that this was the point where I was
beginning to fire pieces made with the 4/29/99 shipment of clay. At the
time however, I was very concerned that something to do with my firing
schedule/technique was changing for the worse, and causing the problem.
So for my next glaze firing, on June 10th, I scrutinized the firing much
more carefully than usual. I checked that all the orifices were clean and
clear. Cone pads were put throughout the kiln, I used an oxyprobe, and
monitored the firing closely. This was a very standard cone 10 reduction
firing; oxidizing atmosphere to 1880 degrees, damper in for 30 minutes
producing back pressure at bottom peephole, neutral to slightly reducing
atmosphere to cone 10, kiln turned off, damper closed 30 minutes later.
Results; 12 out of 15 pieces very bloated! Cone pads showed that cone 10
was not exceeded in any part of the stacking areas except along the fire
wall edges, where temperatures reached a maximum of cone 11. For 12 years
I have used a 30 cubic foot Halvorsen updraft natural gas kiln which, in
my experience, has always fired very evenly.
June 14th was the day I called you personally and asked you if
there were any significant changes to the Amador clay body recently, and
if anyone else had reported bloating problems showing up. You answered
yes to both questions, as I recall, and said you would look into it and
get back with me. Later that day, Jon Pachini called me back and
explained what changes were made. He repeated the same thing you had told
me. Silica sand used as a grog in many of Laguna s clay bodies was no
longer available from the same source, and now a more feldspathic type
sand was all that could be found. Essentially, he said, since the sand
being used was now more feldspathic, and thus more fluxing by nature than
the silica sand used before, perhaps it might be a good idea to
reconsider including the powdered feldspar the formula called for before.
He said that he would mix up such a batch and send me a box of it right
away, which he did. I mentioned that I had alot of work in the bisque
stage still, and many orders to fill, and needed to have some ideas on
what to try in the next firing in order to get some acceptable results.
Pachini suggested that next time I try waiting to 1950 degrees before
body reduction, as I wouldn t be trapping as much carbon in the body that
way, and he suspected that that might be what was causing the bloating.
As I recall, he also said that in Laguna s test kiln, when the Amador was
reduced at 1880 degrees for body reduction, it also bloated, but not at
1950 degrees.
On June 14th I also posted a message to Clayart on the
internet, asking for help from anyone who might have some ideas for me to
consider, so that I could get back on track as quickly as possible and
start filling my orders again. At that time I was still hoping that there
was some way, outside of changing all my glazes and firing to a much
lower temperature, of adjusting my firing technique and achieving good
results, without the bloating. My other interest in posting to Clayart
was to find out if anyone else was experiencing bloating with Amador, or
any other Laguna clay, and if so, to get with them and compare notes.
On June 16th, I fired again, this time with more pieces of the
same clay batch, and a large, thick-walled piece I had made months
earlier, with a previous batch of Amador, as a test to compare results
with. For this firing I body reduced higher, at 1950 degrees, as Pachini
suggested. I also turned the kiln off half a cone cooler. Results; the
large thick-walled piece was fine, 4 out of 7 of the platter/wallpieces
were bloated. I broke open one of the bloated pieces and saw that there
was no carbon core/entrapment, but still bloating. I sent pieces from
this firing to Pachini for his inspection, along with a sample of the
batch of clay I was using. I called Pachini on Friday, June 18th to let
him know the results. He sounded pretty surprised when I told him that
there was still bloating without the carbon core. I had also done a water
absorption test on the clay by this time, with the results being less
than 1% water absorption. In past years my tests showed the 2.5% results
that Laguna s catalogue advertised. Holding a broken piece of this fired
ware in the sun and looking at the cross section of the wall, I could see
that it shone like glass. A very vitreous body for stoneware!
After realizing that getting this batch of clay to work for me
was unlikely, and another batch of Amador might give me problems too, I
concluded that I needed to get some other clay right away, and get some
pieces made with it so as to keep some flow going in my studio while I
waited to see the fired results from the test box of Amador that Pachini
sent me. So I drove down to Marjon s in Phoenix late on Friday June 18th
and judged from the kinds of Laguna clays they had on hand that Soldate
60 might be an OK substitute for my needs. I brought home 1000 pounds and
got pieces made with it immediately.
While waiting for this work to dry and get bisqued, I proceeded
to glaze the 3 pieces I made from the test box Pachini sent me earlier. I
filled the rest of the kiln with work made from the bad clay, and from
older pieces of bisque that I had sitting on my wareracks. Glaze firing
on June 25th. Results; new test box of Amador was fine, pieces made from
older bisque were fine, and pieces made from the bad clay were bloated.
On Monday, June 28th, I called Jon Pachini with the results that
the one box of test Amador worked for me, and ordered a ton of it to be
shipped as soon as possible so that I could recover from this experience
and get going again. TWO WEEKS later, on July 12th, I received the new
clay, and got pieces made right away.
On July 10th I glaze fired a load of pieces that I had made from
the Soldate 60 clay I bought at Marjon s. I expected that my glazes would
not look quite the same, as I had tested some smaller pieces of this clay
in the last glaze firing. The glaze results were quite acceptable, but 11
out of the 16 pieces were bloated. So the Soldate was bloating too!
From July 12th, to the 22nd, I produced alot of new work from the
new clay I received on the 12th. I felt pretty confident, now that so
much attention had been brought to this situation on my and Laguna s end
of things, that as Pachini promised me, this clay would be good. Just
like the old Amador I d grown to know and love.
On July 28th I glaze fired my first full load of the new clay.
Results: 8 out of 16 pieces were, once again, bloated. This clay body and
new batch I ve received is apparently NOT fixed. On July 31st I fired
again. I placed 9 cone pads in various parts of the kiln, right next to
the pieces. I fired about two thirds of a cone cooler than the previous
firing. My suspicions were confirmed. The cones came out ranging from
cone 9 1/3 to exactly cone 10. It was only cone 10 in one spot, and
that s where the only bloated piece was. So what I could see from this
firing, positively, is that this clay will fire without bloating right up
to cone 10, and then it goes from no bloats to full bloat. Zero
tolerance. There doesn t even seem to be any in between, or transition
period. And this was the new clay, which Pachini said had the 100# of
powdered feldspar removed from the formula.
So since I ve, once again, made alot of work from this new clay,
and it s ready to be fired, I m going to go ahead and fire it at the
lower temperature. I desperately need to get some work out to my
customers. The glazes will not look as rich, and the work will not look
just as promised, but I need to be making some movement here.
Since the beginning of this period of bloating, I have looked
over my firing logs and added up the loss of pieces which, were it not
for bloating, would have been sold, shipped, and paid for by my
customers. That amount comes to $7275, and I have it fully documented in
the form of firing logs/loading charts, and purchase orders unfulfilled.
Were it not for this experience and the interuptions to my work in
dealing with it, I would have actually produced and shipped out much more
than this amount. This amount represents only the actual pieces which
came out bloated. Impossible to quantify is the amount of damage to my
reputation with my customers, some of whom still haven t received their
artwork I promised them 6 weeks ago now.
Now, I d like to explain why I m telling you all this.
First of all, when I think about the fact that you knew that
there were problems showing up with the Amador (and the other bodies)
which was mixed with the new sand, and I had to be the one to call YOU to
find that out, I feel very disappointed, because I really could have used
that knowledge. It could have saved me alot of time, energy, money,
frustration, confusion, and loss of confidence from my customers who over
the years have grown to trust that I would deliver my work on time as
promised. I hope you can empathize with why I might be upset with this
whole experience.
Secondly, when I see that you have not, to this day, posted
anything on Clayart in regards to this matter, or sent out notices to
those using clay made with the problem sand, long after realizing how
much clay has been put out there that could be causing problems with
bloating, I feel frustrated and angry. Besides myself, I know of five
other potters who have had this same experience with bloating in the past
months. I ve talked to one of your distributors in New Mexico, and they
too have had complaints of bloating in Amador. One can only imagine how
many others are out there, perhaps still without a clue as to the cause
of their problem. I really value communication when it comes to matters
like this which can have such a profound effect on so many potter s and
artist s lives, such as it has my own. What a powerful venue we all have
available to us now with the internet and Clayart. I really hope that
Laguna Clay Company would consider not only monitoring Clayart, but to
respond with vigor at times like this when there is most certainly
something to say! We could all benefit greatly by open lines of
communication.
Thirdly, when I think about the $7275 worth of work I ve lost to
this experience, I feel angry, because I value fairness and integrity
with the people and companies I do business with. I hope you are not
disclaiming responsibility for a product that your company puts together
and sells, which allegedly gets put through extensive testing and quality
control, and is purported to be suitable for firing to cone 10, and was
found to be defective by a growing number of potters including myself. I
want you to do more than replace the defective clay, which you have done,
and reimburse me for the actual cost of this loss, $7275. This work would
have been sold and paid for had it not been for the bloating. How about
paying me back in the form of a salary for working, in essence, as a lab
tech for Laguna Clay Company for the past two months? I would also like
the $173.37 I paid to Marjon s for the defective Soldate be reimbursed to
me. Amador used to be, for so many years, such a cooperative, tolerant
clay body to work with. I wish so much that you could get it back to
where it has what it takes to work for studio potters working in the cone
10 reduction range.
I hope Mr. Brooks, that I will hear back from you very soon. If
I don t hear from you by August 13th, 1999, I will presume that you are
not interested in responding directly to me, and I will approach taking
care of my needs in some other way. Up until now, I have had only good
experiences with Laguna Clay Company, and would really prefer continuing
to do business with you.
With much respect,
David McDonald
___________________________________________________________________
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Tamara Reid-McConkey on sat 28 aug 99
David,
I just read your long letter to Laguna. Bravo! Well done. Not that I
usually advocate this type of thing, but have you ever considered hiring an
attorney?
I, too, have experienced these problems with the Rod's Bod in the past. The
last shipment seemed to have the problem corrected. I was going to continue
using this body, but now, thanks to your eloquent letter, I am rethinking
this position. I, too, have misgivings about the way Laguna treated this
situation and I also agree that a certain amount of integrity concerning the
product, product representation, and actions and behavior of the company
producing those products is the RESPONSIBILITY of that company.
Responsibility being relegated to something of a dirty word these days, I
think the only way to reverse this situation is to hold people, companies,
government, etc. RESPONSIBLE. If we as individuals do not, then we get what
we deserve.
Just my opinion.
Tamara
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