Snail Scott on thu 10 jul 03
At 11:04 AM 7/10/03 -0400, you wrote:
>>'to make the unwedgably short clay bodies I adore.'
>
>You got me hooked. Why do you love this kind of clay body, please?
I do sculpture. Often fairly large (2' up to 7'). Usually
freestanding. Mostly coil-built. I work by 'roughing in'
the form of the piece, then going back and refining the
surface. Plasticity is the enemy of this method. I can
build the form higher only while it's stiff enough to
support itself without bending or sagging. (I hate using
armatures/supports.) With a nice short, coarse clay I can
build as fast as I choose to, without waiting for the clay
to 'set up'. I'd have to let plastic clay dry a bit to
accomplish this, and face the prospect of having to finish
the bottom of the piece before the top is even built. If I
worked from a fully realized maquette, maybe I could do
this, but my sculpture nearly always evolves as I work. I
need to see the whole form, before I commit to the details.
A short, coarse clay lets me build the whole form, then go
back to finish the surface while the entire thing is still
at about the same level of workable dampness.
Some people work on many pieces at once, adding clay to
one while another sets up. I don't work well this way -
too single-minded. Besides, my studio is too small to have
more than a few pieces of big greenware around at one time.
This type of body doesn't allow much squishing, mark-making
or bending of the clay. In some ways, it's more like
masonry - I put the coil in place, lute it, tweak it as
needed, then add the next layer. I work thick (about 1/2"
on average), so that I can carve and refine the surface
afterward. If a part needs to be elsewhere ("Darn, I wish
that bit were 3" further to the left...") it can't just
be bent into position; I have to cut it off and rebuild
that section. That occasional inconvenience is offset,
though, by having less need to worry about any 'volunteer'
movement. These types of clay bodies also tend to have
very minimal shrinkage, too, so adding to an existing
section is less likely to result in cracks due to varying
dryness levels. (They also seem to join with less fuss.)
Coarse clays are more forgiving of irregular drying in
general; they also rehydrate readily, and release moisture/
steam easily even from thick clay. They can be almost
impossible to wedge, but they don't really need it, either.
Air bubbles aren't an issue, and particle alignment is
less of a factor than it is with thrown work.
They're not the clays for everyone, but they suit me.
-Snail
ccpottery@BELLSOUTH.NET on thu 10 jul 03
In your last post on Redart you said ...
'to make the unwedgably short clay bodies I adore.'
You got me hooked. Why do you love this kind of clay body, please?
Chris Campbell - in North Carolina - always gotta know why !!
Chris
Chris Campbell Pottery, LLC
9417 Koupela Drive
Raleigh, North Carolina 27615-2233
Phone : 1-800-652-1008
fax : 919-676-2062
e-mail : ccpottery@bellsouth.net
web : www.wholesalecrafts.com
Jim Murphy on fri 11 jul 03
Hi Snail,
I'm interested in coarse clay bodies suitable for building larger "works".
Am I correct in presuming the coarse clay bodies you adore consist of an
appreciable amount (10-40%) of Ball Clay, perhaps the Ball Clay itself being
of a "coarse" variety or perhaps a plastic Ball Clay used with other coarse
materials to make the overall body coarse and/or "short" ?
My understanding is that Ball Clays are ideal for use in larger "works" due
to the strength and particle diversity their relatively small particle-size
provides to the clay body.
Jim Murphy
Snail Scott on fri 11 jul 03
At 10:32 AM 7/11/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Snail,
>
>I'm interested in coarse clay bodies suitable for building larger "works".
>
>Am I correct in presuming the coarse clay bodies you adore consist of an
>appreciable amount (10-40%) of Ball Clay, perhaps the Ball Clay itself being
>of a "coarse" variety...
I am no expert on clay bodies, but I prefer a body with
no more than 10% ball clay, as all those I've tried (by
no means all those available,) create too much plasticity
for my taste. I also prefer a minimum of feldspar or other
non-clay ingredients, as I believe (without corroboration)
that all-clay bodies join more readily and are less likely
to separate at joints. Since I work at mid-range stoneware
temperatures, I don't worry much about cristobalite. And,
since I seldom use glaze, I don't worry much about glaze
fit.
When I do use glaze, 'standard' recipes often craze, which
I suspect that could be corrected with a little silica in
the clay, but as I mentioned, I hate adding non-clay
components. But since I prefer dry matte glazes, it's
generally an invisible effect, an unlikely to affect my
thick sculpture in any structural way. So, I rely mainly
on fireclay and grog as my mainstays. My favorites:
Hawthorn Bond fireclay, and the old Muddox Buff grog...
miss that stuff!) Goldart is useful, and Redart, and kaolin.
There are many clays I've never tried, though. I prefer to
keep my recipes simple, for mixing in buckets. While this
increases my exposure to the variablility of materials,
I'd rather deal with that than measure out a more complex
and precise formula in small batches.
None of this has been worked out methodically; it's just
the habit of work and material that I've fallen into over
the years.
Lately I've gotten away from mixing my own clay, and have
been using Laguna's ^5 Buff Stoneware. It's not optimuum,
really; I dislike the color and the grog, though it IS
short enough and fairly frostproof. I'd prefer to have
more grog of smaller size, and smaller amounts of the
coarse stuff...I liked the Muddox (ground firebrick) grog
for both its color and variety.
The biggest factors in doing large work, for me, are grog
content, low plasticity and low shrinkage, all of which
are at least partially related to one another. Other
working methods will thrive on different clay properties;
it's very much a matter of personal technique.
I've long since lost track of whether my work necessitates
my choice of clay, or whether my clay dictates my mode
of work. They're rather intertwined at this point.
-Snail
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