Friday, July 1, 2011

CLAYBODIES!!!!!!! good ones!

Claybodies that I have used:


Megan's Sexy Clay Body:
15 Goldart
15 Fireclay
15 Ball Clay
15 Tile 6
15 XX Saggar
15 Neph Sy
15 Silica
5 Silica Sand
]I LOVE this claybody and its one i experimented with after my undergrad! GREAT FLASHING in the soda fire and wonderful texture!!



White Stoneware:
10-Potash Feldspar
25 -EPK
30-XX Saggar
20-Ball CLay
15- Flint
This claybody in the soda fire flashes a little orange and white but when a slip is added to it creates a brighter reaction instead of a regular stoneware I also tend to add 2- 5 % of silica sand for texture
The Little Spots on the pot are the Iron Flecking in the white stoneware and the reason this piece is so white is because I sprayed a light spray of Fake Avery Slip (Recipe will be provided in another post).





White Porcelain:
30-China CLay
30-Tile 6 Kaolin
20-Kona F-4 Feldspar (NC4)
10-Pyrax
10-Flint
*for quicker plasticity add 2 % bentonite which is premixed with ten% water and allowed to sit overnight
*this claybody creates wonderful greys in the soda fire when run correctly its actually very beautiful in most the firings it goes into brightens glazes.. one thing i suggest with all porcelains though is that it sits for as long as possible in fact i have a batch in my garage thats been sitting for a year im pretty excited to dig into soon :) This cup has a Celadon Glaze over top of it but as you can see it really pops on the white porcelain.




Basic Porcelain (not as white in the wet stage)
25 Ball CLay
25 Kaolin
25 Feldspar
25 Flint
Makes a nice light colored porcelain harder to through. I also suggest adding the premixed bentonite mentioned above to this one for plasticity but with any porcelain the key is letting it age. Another helper with age is beer. It molds the clay and it will be very stinky but it works wonders in weeks as opposed to months.

Central Michigan's Basic Throwing Stoneware
50 Goldart
20 Fireclay
10 Ball Clay
5 Flint
5 Redart
This claybody is pretty simple and is wonderful for learning to throw. I used a lot of this in my undergrad!
This is a woodfired piece in which i used the stoneware and instead of using the Custer Feldspar I had substituted NC-4








Purple Earthenware
10 Custer Feldspar
15 Nephaline Syanite
20 Cedar Heights
40 Redart
14 XX Saggar (OM4 can be substituted)
*This claybody can be altered to testing due to its slumping in the wood kiln but when made right makes WONDERFUL results as you can see this piece is woodfired and there is not a single glaze on the outside just the woodash and this claybody provide a sheen all over it its really quite beautiful but is very finicky










Yellow Porcelain
25 G-200
5 Redart
25 EOK
25 Yellow Banks (Red 101)
20 Silica
Unfortunately I did not get into testing this clay body much but I put it up here because it seems that it would be interesting so hopefully in my future I can really give examples of this clay body.

#318
15 Soda Feldspar
10 Tile 6 Kaolin
25 OM4
15 Hawthorne Bond
25 Goldart
25 Foundry Hill
10 Silica Sand
This clay body is wonderful in the woodfire and would look similar to the woodfired piece I provided above. The flashing however tends to be a little more red and blue instead of such earthy colors. Its really quite wonderful for throwing or handbuilding. Lots of texture which I am very excited about!

Odie Porcelain
30 XX Saggar
25 EPK
20 OM4
G-200
15 Flint
15 Hawthorne Bond
5 Soda Feldspar

#8 Yellow Banks
60 #401
10 Fireclay
25 #101
15 Custer Feldspar
This claybody is very beautiful and it flashes red to yellow! Its really beautiful in the woodfire and very creamy of a texture when throwing.

Pepto Porcelain
50 EPK
25 Custer Feldspar (I substitute NC4)
15 Flint
2 Bentonite
5 Redart
This porcelain is very beautiful and in the woodkiln is a very wonderful pink color with green woodash drips. One of my favorite porcelains to use hands down!

So this concludes the claybodies that I have or want to experiment with! PLEASE provide me with some feedback or feel free to leave some recipes of claybodies here on this site to share with me and hopefully others!!