Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sunday Morning Coffee

OK. I woke up this morning ready to get some work done in the studio. I wedged and recycled clay, trimmed a few pots and felt inspired to throw a few pieces. Half way through my first pot I realized that I had accidentally mixed some reclaimed RAKU clay in with my high fire white clay. Yipes! I had mixed a whole bag of clay this way. I blame it on my lack of a morning coffee. So, I guess I will have some experimenting to do to try and reconcile the different clays once I try firing and glazing them.
To those of you that don't know RAKU clay, it is quite different from the smooth white high fire. RAKU has grog and grit, kind of a sandpaper feel to it. I'm not sure how the bowls will dry. I'll keep you updated once I bisque fire them...I'm off to grab a coffee, Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

3 comments:

Cynthia said...

Ohh, that's a bummer...although last year, I mixed in stoneware with porcelain with no problems.

I can't do anything without at least 12 oz. of coffee in the am!

Andi said...

I'm not sure who your supplier is, but most commercial raku clays are stoneware clays with an addition of Kyanite as temper. This results in a more open body at raku temperatures that is more resistant to thermal shock. If fired to stoneware temps, most of the commercial raku bodies that I've tried give a white or ivory body with a lot of grog texture. I've fired Standard Ceramics raku body to ^8 with no noticeable problems.

Pam McFadyen said...

Excellent! Thanks for the advice. I am using Sheba Raku from The Pottery Supply House in Ontario. I'll give it a try and cross my fingers...