{"id":870,"date":"2022-07-23T10:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T10:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/?page_id=870"},"modified":"2024-03-26T10:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T10:29:31","slug":"good-mixing-of-porcelain-is-essential-for-workability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/good-mixing-of-porcelain-is-essential-for-workability\/","title":{"rendered":"Good mixing of porcelain is essential for workability"},"content":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]\n

Traditional wisdom says that a porcelain body must be aged for months or even years before it can be used. This piece shows that it is not always the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CHH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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For CHH<\/a>, only 5 days elapsed between the body being mixed from powdered ingredients and the piece being thrown on the wheel, bisc and then glaze fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Good mixing is essential<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

CHH is made from my TP021 (Throwing Porcelain #21), a cone 10 body formulated using Puraflo 50 as the kaolin, bentonite and ball clay as the plasticisers and fluxed with a potash feldspar. Powerful mixing of the bentonite and ball clay is essential to disperse the fine particles and thoroughly wet them. I add these initially to the water and mix for 4 hours with a powerful paddle mixer (the same process I use for mixing casting slip). The kaolin is added next and mixed for another hour. Finally the feldspar and silica are added resulting in a thick mass that is initially hard to mix. After another 2 hours of mixing, the slip has thinned dramatically and is ready to be sieved and poured onto a plaster batt for dewatering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also made this body by mixing the powders together with only sufficient water for plasticity and then kneading. The result is initially awful: a body that lacks plasticity and cannot be thrown on the wheel. It takes several months for the body to mature after which it gives good performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I took the dewatered slip and kneaded it for throwing, I knew immediately that there was a major difference – plasticity was excellent immediately, months of waiting were not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Powerful mixing of a porcelain body reduces the need to ageing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n

Traditional wisdom says that a porcelain body must be aged for months or even years before it can be used. This piece shows that it is not always the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
CHH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

For CHH<\/a>, only 5 days elapsed between the body being mixed from powdered ingredients and the piece being thrown on the wheel, bisc and then glaze fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Good mixing is essential<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

CHH is made from my TP021 (Throwing Porcelain #21), a cone 10 body formulated using Puraflo 50 as the kaolin, bentonite and ball clay as the plasticisers and fluxed with a potash feldspar. Powerful mixing of the bentonite and ball clay is essential to disperse the fine particles and thoroughly wet them. I add these initially to the water and mix for 4 hours with a powerful paddle mixer (the same process I use for mixing casting slip). The kaolin is added next and mixed for another hour. Finally the feldspar and silica are added resulting in a thick mass that is initially hard to mix. After another 2 hours of mixing, the slip has thinned dramatically and is ready to be sieved and poured onto a plaster batt for dewatering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also made this body by mixing the powders together with only sufficient water for plasticity and then kneading. The result is initially awful: a body that lacks plasticity and cannot be thrown on the wheel. It takes several months for the body to mature after which it gives good performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I took the dewatered slip and kneaded it for throwing, I knew immediately that there was a major difference - plasticity was excellent immediately, months of waiting were not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248851,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/248851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crystallineceramics.co.uk\/crystalline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}