Kat Fode on thu 21 dec 00
Hi Susan:
I do not think it is anal to get a clay body analyis done, if you are
going to use
it in glazes as a chemical formula. However most important in
developing your
clay body is to understand the "physical" properties of it first. What
is the dry
shrinkage, fired temperatures, fired shrinkage, plasticity, absorption
and so forth.
You can deduce a great deal from this information.
To use it in a glaze, is like replacing ball clay, Kaolin or so forth.
If the clay is low
fire then it is obvious that the body has minerals in it that makes it
low fire. For
example potassium, sodium, calcium, iron oxide, etc..... If you did get
a chemical
analysis done, what would it tell you personally? And always remember
that a chemical
analyis is only one aspect of knowing your clay body. What about the
minerology
of it. You can have 2 chemical analysis that are practically identical,
but the clay
is completely different because the mineralogy is different!
Any attainable knowledge on a clay body that you are planning on working
with is
going to be useful.
Kat
kat@digitalfire.com
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