{"id":3466,"date":"2013-08-07T15:32:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T19:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/\/?p=3466"},"modified":"2013-08-22T19:04:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T23:04:38","slug":"as-for-the-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/blog\/2013\/08\/07\/as-for-the-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"AS FOR THE CLAY\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

As for the clay, now I am teaching myself how to process it. I’m using the best online explanation I could find\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

So first, yeah, I found some clay. I was simply excited to touch the stuff and\u00a0recognize\u00a0<\/em>it as clay: silky, powdery, and if you wet it and rubbed it between your fingers, you could tell, if you’d ever handled slip in a cushy predetermined amateur clay studio like the one I work in in Brooklyn.\u00a0I’m not good at assessing clay yet; apparently you should roll the clay in question between your palms and if it turns into a worm, it’s good whereas if it falls apart or smears into palmy smaze, it’s not going to be very usable.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/dt>\n
Sauvies Island clay sampling (digging)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Back at\u00a0PNCA<\/a>, I’m using the ceramics studio to see if it’s usable, fireable, what it can do — if anything.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"clayprocess1\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Drying it out, then slaking it by turning it all to consistent mush<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
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Straining the mush to get rid of debris (thanks \u00a0to awesome\u00a0Liz Lux<\/a>\u00a0for help building the strainer frame!)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

So that’s where I am. More to come as the clay does its thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Update Aug 14<\/p>\n

I processed all the clay samples from the four sites.<\/p>\n

Willamette\u00a0#2 I left as slip and Willamette\u00a0#3 I had to amend with some Kentucky\u00a0Old Mine #4\u00a0Ball (OM-4) clay, apparently from a mine in Kentucky.
\nI was told* that clay, in order to have any plasticity, must contain a variety of particle sizes or it will dry up and crack, as mine did when I laid it out on the plaster slab.<\/p>\n

But as slip, it is surprisingly adherent and is not cracking.<\/p>\n

Here are 4 slab-rolled hand-built stoneware cups, coated with slip from Willamette site #2:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are 2 pinch pot containers made from the Willamette\u00a0site#3 \u00a0clay amended with 20% OM-4 Clay. Even with the added clay, it was still quite lifeless so I knew that slab rolling for hand-built cups was not going to end well:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next step: firing.<\/p>\n

One bisque fire (no 2nd firing):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They are much brighter red than you see here.<\/p>\n

+ + + +<\/p>\n

* More info on clay elasticity:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/ceramicartsdaily.org\/community\/topic\/3087-clay-elasticity-or-not\/<\/a>
\n“For a body to be really workable, you need particles of various sizes. Grog, while rated at a specific mesh size, actually has particles of many sizes.”
\nSome suggestions from this forum include adding ball clay, which is fine, urine, beer, and bentonite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As for the clay, now I am teaching myself how to process it. I’m using the best online explanation I could find\u00a0here. So first, yeah, I found some clay. I was simply excited to touch the stuff and\u00a0recognize\u00a0it as clay: silky, powdery, and if you wet it and rubbed it between your fingers, you could … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “AS FOR THE CLAY\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3466"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3476,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions\/3476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}