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URL: Kirsty Kash Ceramics
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Potter goes full DIY and makes her own porcelain
The best thing happens: Failure on the third mix!
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Super white translucent porcelains are expensive, approaching $200/box in some countries! Even so, variation in properties is common (certainly not good for a "tipping point body" that is difficult to make). The idea of making your own clay body is actually feasible here. Yet Kirsty Kash, maker of this mug, told me that this amount of DIY was something she had never really considered, thinking it would be too complicated without guidance. But ongoing issues with the commercial clay gave her the motivation to give it a try (using a recipe similar to L3778D). She weighed out the materials, slurried up the mix using a propeller mixer, finished by blender mixing and then dewatered on a super-clean plaster bat.
By the third batch, something good happened: The porcelain blistered (tiny bumps on the surface). Subsequent correspondence brought the realization that this type of body is "walking a recipe tightrope" that requires control of the percentage of the key ingredient: Feldspar. It determines the maturity of the fired product. Too much brings blisters, too little and translucency is lost. Simple testing is all that is needed to determine the needed amount. More good news: The change enabled increasing the kaolin percentage by the same amount. That, in turn, enabled reducing the percentage of veegum (reducing the cost).
Her comment a few days ago was inspiring: "I'm getting to know my material so intimately. I have been learning SO much." When I suggested she might end up buying commercial again she responded: "I just bought large bags of all the materials and plan to keep going. I like having the control and being less reliant on the boxed clay. You've converted me!".
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