karen gringhuis on thu 28 sep 00
Jeri -
Before you start adding things or changing your clay
body recipe, work on the MECHANICS of your recycling
first. SOAK and BLUNGE that reclaim to the
consistency of PUDDING (as Vince suggests) and include
your throwing water in it. The ultra small particles
of clay can be lost in the throwing water and they
provide plasticity so you want to keep them. I add
LOTS of water, blunge & let it sit overnight or longer
and decant the water off the top. If you don't have
water on top, add more. Your goal is to SATURATE
EVERY CLAY PARTICLE to make it plastic, NOT to
generate immediately workable clay so drench it. This
can substitute for aging so don't rush this. After
decanting the water, pour this out onto plaster bats
to dry. This may seem laborious but it's worth it &
it will be your most plastic clay. I then wedge this
into wet "virgin" clay which has never been thrown. I
do all this fairly often so I always have very plastic
recycle to wedge in.
You can also use this procedure to wet down your
"virgin" dry clay mix.
(Yes, you'll need plaster bats but you can mix up
plaster and shape it by pouring it into shallow boxes
- doesn't have to be round or have a dish shape for
this purpose.)
I would also advise adding 1-2% macaloid to your body
to increase plasticity. Again, BLUNGE this in water
the night before mixing so it can absorb maximum water
- just throwing it dry into the mix can be
DISASTEROUS. This 1-2% is above and beyond the 100%
total of your recipe. You can begin to add this to
newly mixed clay and then wedge the new w/ old
recycled.
If you're not wild about your present recipe, which I
am NOT (Jonathan Kaplan is right - he & I are
basically telling you almost the same thing), here are
a few observations. Your recipe is short on clay
(only 50%) and it's clay which gives you plasticity
i.e. too little clay makes a short body. If you want
to adjust your body, reduce both the flint and spar to
20% each and add the available 10% into the kaolin,
preferrably Tile #6, depending on what's available to
you. (A variety of clays is good.) For a ball clay, I
suggest C & C or Tenn. #10.
If you want my porcelain recipe which can take a LOT
of abuse, write me and I'll send. But first work with
what you know fits your glazes.
Good luck, Karen Gringhuis
=====
Karen Gringhuis
KG Pottery
Box 607 Alfred NY 14802
Personal e-mail to:
KGPottery@hotmail.com
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