I drink from these when I dream

For many years, I have processed the clay for these myself, from lumps I get from the raw stockpiles behind the Plainsman plant. These are made from our PR3D raw clay mined near Ravenscrag, Sask. It is the bottom layer of six. It has the most potential for pottery because it is low in contaminants, fine-grained, light-burning and vitrifies well below cone 10. When I remove all particles coarser than 200 mesh (by slurry up and vibratory sieving) this becomes MNS (mother nature's stoneware) all by itself. Left: 200 mesh. Right 325 mesh. Centre: 150 mesh with added ball clay and feldspar to produce porcelain.

My coffee tastes better in these because they symbolize the potential of even our current quarry (as opposed to our importing tens of thousands of bags of American clays each year). This is what I dream about. Processing our products past 42 mesh to get porcelain-like bodies. The finer particle size doesn't just unlock plasticity, but it eliminates problems that plague customers: glaze pinholing, fired specks, coarse particles and sand, even inconsistency and poor drying. Couple that with moving to a deposit further east and we reduce soluble salts and get whiter clays. I even dream that we won't leave this clay in the ground, unmined, like we have done for the past three minings! I even dream that someone on our board is paying attention to these posts I have been making for the past 18 months!

Related Pictures

Here is What Processing a Clay Can Do

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The clay is Plainsman 3B.
Left: Without processing, other than grinding to 42 mesh (currently the finest we can grind on a practical scale). When fired toward zero porosity it burns like this (at cone 6, 8, 9, 10 and 10R bottom to top). Of course, these are not big issues for non-vitreous rustic bodies fired at cone 6. The speckle and bloating are caused by impurity iron-bearing particles and others having an LOI (they decompose and produce gases that cause the bloats).
Right: The impurity particles make up a small percentage; they can be removed in our lab by sieving to produce a natural porcelain that fully vitrifies by cone 6 (the middle bar). Only about 5% of the material was removed to produce this amazing product (we call it MNP).
Imagine what could be done if we were able to mine raw material further east, where clay quality is much better!

Here is why new grinding equipment is a really good idea

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These two pieces have been fired to cone 6, without glaze, I use this as a way of comparing changes in the character of the fired surface over time. These are made from a mix of A3 and 3B, our two main raw stoneware clays. The mix has been ground to 42 mesh (using our hammer mill). These materials vary in the amount of sand they contain and the amount of iron stone concretion particulates, so we will also see smoother and more speckle-free than this as a matter of normal variation. We have made sandy and speckled clays like this for so long that they seem normal to me. Yes, rustic bodies do have their appeal. However, the limits of our particle size reduction equipment and current quarry materials have resulted in importing American materials to satisfy customers who want smoother, whiter, more plastic and more vitreous bodies. We are now producing tens of thousands of boxes a year made from these imported materials! Transporting expensive clays at great distances begs the question of why we have not better leveraged the clay resources that are right here. That, and associated independence, quality and lower production costs, are coming soon.

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