Rick Hamelin on fri 20 oct 06
Hi Folks,
I would like to update those few who assisted me and my friend on our quest of the holy Grolleg.
My friend had purchased from a supplier two bags of Grolleg that yielded bad results. Her research in several books to answer "Is Grolleg the same as English China Clay" got her only more confused.
So, we came here to ClayArt and we also contacted the clay manufacturer. I also contacted an author who stated that English China clay is different from Grolleg. The author never replied to my emailed query.
Imerys, the manufacturer of all things called English China Clay told me that we should now understand that all of their kaolins are English China Clay and that one should only order by type required, such as Grolleg to prevent any confusion with their other clays. The idea that Grolleg is the only English China Clay is antiquated and the practice should not continue as Imerys sells too many types of ECC to the American market for use in making paper, cosmetics, paints, etc
My friends supplier allowed us to return the two bags that only listed Imerys China Clay and had no other imprinted markings. I kept a sample from these bags. We exchanged these for a bag of Imerys that clearly was imprinted with Grolleg. We compared the colors of these samples; The clays contained in the unmarked bags were of a bluish tint and the new, truly Grolleg clay was a cream color that matched her remaining old inventory. Her supplier purchased his Grolleg from two different distributors. If he ordered ECC, that is what is got, but if he didn't specifically state Grolleg, he got one of the several other english kaolins.
Her supplier was supplied from an importer of all of Imerys products who probably has someone at a desk that doesn't care what the required end use of the material. The chain of Imery to importer to distributer to supplier got sloppy as far as clearly marking the bags. It is on faith that we, the last person on this chain, purchase the correct clay. But it is only after we open the bag, make the clay and fire the product that we discover out the costly mistake.
I hope that this helped others who have experienced odd changes in their clays and glazes and again, I learned a lesson that nomenclature is very important.
Rick
--
"Many a wiser men than I hath
gone to pot." 1649
Don Goodrich on fri 20 oct 06
Rick,
Thanks for the enlightening account of the ECC supply chain.
It begs the question of just what's intended when we encounter
a glaze or clay recipe that merely says "English China Clay".
Assuming we can't ask the glaze / body's inventor personally,
I guess there's nothing for it but to test and see what works.
Don Goodrich
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