Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A Pottery Topic

The last couple posts have been about other project and not about pottery, so I felt it was time to return to the primary topic on this blog.

I spent a little time working on some medium sized cylinder shapes out of B-Clay from Continental Clay this weekend. I'm still a few (or maybe a hundred) pots short of what I need to fire the wood kiln up for the first time so now I'm short a few less. In the past I've wood fired using a Buff Stoneware clay from Continental, but there are several other choices now I'd like to experiment with.

So far I've got a couple dozen pieces out of Buff Stoneware and maybe a hundred out of B-Clay. I also purchased 50lbs. of Tableware Stoneware and Soda Clay to add to the experiment. I'm hoping to have some pieces of each in the first firing to see what speaks to me.

Compared to the mid-range stoneware I usually use, the B-Clay is awesome to work with. It's so smooth and easy on the hands. Even the Buff is a joy to work with by comparison. I'll maybe have to give serious thought to a full scale switch of clay body.

Be well.

1 comment:

Mr. Young said...

I am experimenting myself. I just received 100 lbs of Oregon White from the Tacoma Clay Art Center. My goodness! I have never worked with such a soft clay! I could throw this right out of the bag without an hour of wedging! I can't wait to open it and put some on the wheel....
Good Luck with the new clays!