Woodfiring clay body?
Howdy everyone!
I was just wondering if anyone would be able to give me a lead on finding some good woodfiring clay body recipes to test. I have looked in quite a few books, but haven't found one that I really like yet. I haven't ventured in to making my own clay before and I was just hoping for a starting point. Anyone have any that they like? In general, I am looking for a brown stoneware body with a sandy quality to it. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Lindsay
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI will post a couple in a day or so.
Have you checked Dick Lehman's site? His article on woodfiring has several clay bodies.
ReplyDeletevncstudio.com
A simple starting point I've used is a mix of 70% ball clay, 15% china clay and 15% feldspar. Being in the UK I use hyplas, grolleg and a soda feldspar. In a 30 hour firing I get a nice brown with some pink touches, ok flashing and it fluxes nicely. If your firings were shorter, you could use nepheline instead.
ReplyDeleteYou can then play around with the different types of clay, differing the proportions and so on. Make small batches and fire in different parts of the kiln and see what they do.
Ben Brierley has a number of recipes here, too, which sound a bit like what you want, but you'd have to find equivalent US ingredients:
http://www.ben-brierley-woodfired-ceramics.co.uk/
Basically just mix and see - it's a lot of fun.
Funnily enough, my shino glaze is just the same as my clay body, but with different proportions. You could go down that route - find a recipe you like and adjust the mix for throwability and see what happens.
I know none of this is very scientific but I'm more of a try it and see man, I'm afraid.
Good luck.
I use a body consisting of
ReplyDelete25 helmar
25 hawthorn
15 tennessee 10
10 xx saggar
10 N-4 soda spar
5 neph sy
10 flint
+ silica sand to taste (~5-10lbs)
+ redart to taste (i've used upto 25lbs, usually only 5lbs now)
WOW, What a great group!!!Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI second that comment john! thanks so much everyone!
ReplyDeletein the 2005 june/july/august issue of ceramics monthly there were 3 or 4 pages of recipes for clay bodies, slips, and glazes to be used in wood firing. here are a few that i seem to remember...
ReplyDeleteWhite Flashing Stoneware (^6-14)
Neph Sye------------------25
Ceadar Heights Stoneware-----10
Coarse Fireclay--------------15
EPK----------------------30
XX Saggar-----------------20
Helmer Porcelain (^8-14)
G-200 Feldspar-------------25
Helmer Kaolin--------------50
XX Saggar-----------------10
Silica--------------------15
Flash 'N' Glass Porcelain (^6-14) (Self -Glazing)
Custer Feldspar-------------10
Neph Sye------------------15
Redart-------------------5
EPK----------------------25
XX Saggar-----------------25
Silica-------------------25
Thanks again everyone! This gave me a great starting point. I ended up with a really diverse group of recipes and am excited to learn more about how these ingredients react in the firing.
ReplyDeleteLindsy,
ReplyDeleteSorry I was no help. I am getting ready for Denmark and swamped.