Processing the Black Water Trough of clay
Some of you may remember me posting about a huge water trough full of clay I got when we did the foundation for our shop. I’ve used this clay for years by processing out more …
Category: processing clay
Reclaim Test and adding 5% EPK to black tub clay
Adding 5% EPK to the bucket of the black tub clay that already had 22% neph sye added did indeed jump the absorption from 1.5% to over 3%. The test tile was less shiny after …
Updates
I know it probably seems like I haven’t been working because I haven’t been posting. I have been working—it’s just the boring behind-the-scenes stuff. Since the disaster in April, where my clay got contaminated, I’ve …
More working with the silty clay
This is the batch I dug a few days ago and processed half of it to see if I can recreate the accidental perfect batch. I posted a few days ago. I kept it a …
Digging Clay
In my last post (the clay with 0.3% absorption at cone 9 oxidation), I mentioned it comes from a low spot on top of a hill. Well, here it is.
100% Local Clay Body
This clay comes from an odd low spot, on top of a hill on our land. Right out of the ground, it’s very silty and not plastic enough to throw, fires to above cone 8. …
Another High Fire Test
EDIT: Fired porosity tested as 2.8%. That’s about perfect as I can fire a bit hotter, and it gives me a bit of wiggle room for reduction. Just out of the kiln this morning. Cone …
Backyard Red Stoneware
This clay comes from the banks of our red clay ditch that started out as a cattle trail 50 or so years ago. It’s what I call my “non-sandy” deposit. It’s still sandy, just not …
Moon Clay (Moon Community)
I did not have to put this clay in the dewatering tub. It settled enough on its own that it didn’t need it. I only rough screened this clay (window screen). It dewaters extremely fast …
Playing with Plasticity (ie varying sand amounts)
You know how you’re trying to solve a problem and finally come to a solution and think wow, that’s so simple, I should have thought of that ages ago?? My clays are sandy. Recently I’ve …