Monday 16 September 2013

New clay

After speaking to Potclays (who are always a great source of advice) I've now bought some red stoneware clay (Keuper red), which I've been advised will help me to achieve the results that I want. I came home tonight really keen to make some pots that I can get dried in time for bisque firing at the weekend. However, I first had to clean up all the evidence of the white stoneware clay that I'd been using until now. I didn't want the new clay getting contaminated with the old clay. This turned into a bit of a mammoth task. I must have spent 2 hours scraping and washing the wheel tray, surfaces, bats and tools. It made me realise that I need to work in a more organised / tidy way. from now on I'm going to make sure that after every throwing session I wipe down the surfaces and remove waste clay from the wheel tray.
Eventually, I did manage to throw a simple jar and lid. I'll get this trimmed and slipped in the next couple of days, and then decorated at the end of the week before firing at the weekend. that's the plan at least!
The clay was a little softer than my previous batch of white stoneware and I was able to throw it easily. It felt smooth and very maliable, but wasn't too sticky. I'll keep you updated with how I progress.

1 comment:

  1. When I had my studio in a downtown gallery I was careful to clean up after every throwing session...now that I have my own space at home I am not so consistent! I need to work on that....and I am getting ready to switch to buff clay for a bit!

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