Destroying the Plasticity of Clay

Why would you want to destroy the plasticity of a clay? To eliminate cracking when drying in either a glaze or a clay body.

This was the result of trying to destroy the plasticity without sintering the clay. It was fired to 800F with a one hr hold. It wasn’t successful. The part that wasn’t sintered (the inside) was still plastic and the part that wasn’t plastic was sintered.

Still, it was an interesting experiment. The lumps ball milled very easily without having to be crushed into small pieces. This clay has very high drying shrinkage and I think it would now be usable be on it’s own. It’s easier to just mix it with something else.