Glazing4 min read
What Is Ceramic Glaze Made Of? The Three Ingredients
Every ceramic glaze is silica, a flux and alumina, plus colourants. Here is what each part does, where it comes from, and why glazes only work in a narrow range.
Materials
15 posts filed under materials.
Glazing5 min read
How to Make Ceramic Glaze From Raw Materials
Mixing your own glaze from a recipe: the equipment, the weighing discipline, sieving, testing and the safety rules that come with handling dry glaze materials.
Wild clay5 min read
Where to Find Natural Clay (And How to Know It Is Clay)
Wild clay sits in riverbanks, road cuttings, ditches and building excavations almost everywhere. Here is how to spot it, two field tests that confirm it, and the rules on digging.
Wild clay5 min read
How to Process Wild Clay Into Usable Pottery Clay
Slaking, sieving, settling and drying dug clay into a throwable body, plus the test firing that tells you what temperature it can actually take.
Wild clay5 min read
How to Make Clay From Soil in Your Own Garden
You cannot turn soil into clay, but most soil contains clay you can extract. Here is the water-separation method that pulls usable clay out of ordinary dirt.
Materials5 min read
What Is Clay Made Of? The Minerals Behind the Material
Clay is made of hydrous aluminium silicate minerals formed by weathered rock, mixed with water and other particles. Here is what that means in practice.
Materials5 min read
Where Does Clay Come From? From Granite to the Ground Under You
Clay is weathered rock. Feldspar in granite breaks down over long periods into fine plate-shaped minerals, which water then carries and deposits in beds.
Materials5 min read
What Is Clay Used For? Far More Than Pottery
Clay makes bricks, tiles, porcelain, cement, paper coatings, drilling fluids, cat litter, cosmetics and medicines. Here is the full range and why one material does all of it.
Materials5 min read
Is Clay Renewable or Non-Renewable?
Clay is classified as non-renewable because it forms over thousands of years, but it is also abundant and, before firing, endlessly recyclable. Both facts matter.
Wild clay4 min read
What Does Clay Look Like in the Ground?
Clay in the ground appears as smooth, uniform bands of grey, blue, orange or cream in exposed faces. Here is how to recognise it and tell it from silt and loam.
Modelling clay4 min read
Is Modeling Clay the Same as Polymer Clay?
No. Modelling clay is an umbrella term that includes oil-based plasticine, air-dry clay and polymer clay — materials that behave completely differently.
Sculpting5 min read
What Clay Is Best for Sculpting? Matched to What You Are Making
Oil clay for practice and moulds, polymer clay for small keepable pieces, ceramic sculpture bodies for fired work, air-dry for cheap and large. Here is how to choose.
Sculpting5 min read
What Is a Clay Model in Sculpture?
A clay model is the original worked in clay, from a small maquette to a full-size version, that is then moulded and cast in bronze, resin or stone.
Materials5 min read
What Is Grog in Clay, and When Do You Want It?
Grog is crushed pre-fired clay added back into a clay body. It cuts shrinkage, reduces cracking and warping, and adds tooth — at the cost of a rougher surface.
Clay bodies5 min read
What Is Low Fire Clay? And Which Clay Ceramics Actually Use
Low fire clay matures around cone 06 to 02, roughly 1000 to 1100 C. It stays porous, takes bright colour, and depends on its glaze to hold liquid.