Marcia Selsor on fri 5 jan 07
Ivor,
I use a gray raw low fire clay which fires into red terra cotta in
Italy. It also must be soaked AFTER the bisque fire to
avoid crumbling of lime content (I am guessing). I had an experience
in Spain where the clay pieces completely disintegrated a few days
AFTER the bisque. Now I know if I had soaked them the would not have
crumbled. That is all the explaation I get from Italian potters.
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
On Jan 3, 2007, at 7:01 PM, Ivor and Olive Lewis wrote:
> Dear L. P. Skeen
>
> The material used to make bricks and other forms of Pottery are
> also known as "Plastic Earth". There are varieties of "Plastic
> Earth" that fire red or orange. They are called "Terra Cotta" which
> is I understand an Italian term for "Burnt Earth". Perhaps this is
> an analogous to Flour which when correctly processed becomes "Toast".
>
> So perhaps "Terra Cotta" "was" a red "Plastic Earth" that had been
> partially composed of "Clay"
>
> See American Ceramic Society Bulletin, June 1939. Vol 18, No 6, pp
> 213-15. The definition contains the statement "A clay....for the
> manufacture of Terra Cotta...."
>
> And I was hoping for 2007 to be without pedantry.
>
> Best regards,
>
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