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This is 70% kaolin and 30% feldspar. Fired at cone 6 with glaze G2926B. The fired body has a nice porcelaneous surface. But, right out of the kiln, it crazes like this! The dense craze pattern indicates a very serious fit problem. The thermal expansion of the kaolin:feldspar mix is much too low. Adding 25% low-expansion silica will solve the problem. The other issue is with the flat particle shape of kaolin. The throwing process has lined up the predominant kaolin particles concentric to the centre. During drying, and especially firing, more shrinkage occurs across them than along them. All ten of the cups made cracked like this! The solution is adding a filler, one with rounded particles to separate the kaolin plates. Silica is perfect, using the same 25% addition. The grains act like aggregate in concrete, strengthening the matrix and separating the clay particles, forcing them to orient more randomly.
Articles |
Formulating a Porcelain
The principles behind formulating a porcelain are quite simple. You just need to know the purpose of each material, a starting recipe and a testing regimen. |
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Glossary |
Porcelain
How do you make porcelain? There is a surprisingly simple logic to formulating them and to adjusting their working, drying, glazing and firing properties for different purposes. |
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