Experimenting

Today/yesterday (I don't know, I'm confused - I woke up before 3am so it feels like the same day!) Anyway, I bought some clay! Yay!

I was looking for a white clay and my (ex) tutor suggested that white St. Thomas was a good choice as a lot of potters use that. But when I got to the suppliers I looked at the fired colour in the catalogue and it didn't look white at all! So I went for a different one which I think is lightly grogged and supposed to be good for hand building - which is what I want.

I also bought another clay which they call crank. It's very coarse and heavily grogged, and is supposed to be very easy to work with and good for hand building. I had seen a piece made with this clay at class and the results were beautiful. It looked like it had been made with something like cork or woodchip. I realised today though that crank comes in different colours, so I hope I bought the right one. Edit: apparently it is known in some places as chamotte.

I'm also experimenting with making my own slip for slip trailing. This is something I've wanted to try for a little while, and right now seemed ideal since I want to coil build a little dish to sit under my plant pot and a) I couldn't get the lino print to work well on the coil built piece so I will slip trail the design instead, and b) my old clay is now too firm for me to coil build effectively so I will allow the remaining slip to dry a little before I wedge it and re-use. I remember Cynthia saying that plaster board is ideal for helping sloppy clay firm up because it soaks up the moisture, so I went to Jewson's today and they gave me a scrap piece that was no use to them.

So, with so many new things to try I am going to try to stay away from the computer this week! Time just seems to fly by so quickly when I am sitting at this thing, and by the end of the week I would like to have finished at least my little dish for the plant pot, and one other project that I have in mind.

So if I don't speak to you before hand, I hope you all have a lovely time with your families over the holiday period. :)


More information on crank (you'll need to scroll down the page, I can't link to the item directly)