What Is The Best Clay For A Pottery Wheel The Best Clay For A Pottery Wheel are Porcelain Clay, BALL CLAY, STONEWARE CLAY and earthenware CLAY
Choosing the right clay for pottery can be confusing because there are dozens of clay available on Earth, so knowing the right one is the best option.
When I first started, I was confused about identifying the best clay.
As a beginner, if you have the wrong clay on the wheel, you will find it difficult to use the pottery wheel.
I have listed the best clay you need and how to identify the best clay.
Also, read; is pottery wheel difficult to learn by clicking here
How To Choose The Best Clay
Numerous clay on Earth has different characteristics and uses based on their importance.
Choosing the right clay depends on each characteristic and property and how easy it is to work with as a potter.
In this article, I will give you the necessary things to check when buying or choosing clay.
Below are the important things to check before buying clay for a pottery wheel.
Plasticity
The plasticity of clay refers to the ability of clay to retain its shape after being molded.
This helps the clay to harden after being shaped.
Plasticity in clay is very important because you don’t have to over-labor when molding clay.
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Strength Of The Clay
The strength of clay depends in part on how much weight it can support.
For example, if you are making a large piece, the clay must be strong enough. If the clay is not strong enough, it will collapse under its own weight.
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Clay Texture
It refers to the smoothness and thickness of the clay.
Some clay is rough when working with them, and some are smooth on the hand when rolling on a pottery wheel.
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Ability To Absorb Water
When we add water to some clay, it quickly becomes watery; this type of clay is difficult for beginners to master, and we do not hold firmly on the pottery wheel.
On the other hand, some clay is hard for water to penetrate. Those clay are the best choice for beginners because they are water forgiving.
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Pricing
When going clay shopping, it is important to check your budget. Some clay is expensive to buy in the market, and some are cheap.
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What Is The Best Clay For A Pottery Wheel For Beginners
The soil is rich, hence the wide variety of mud and clay. In the world of ceramics, the most used are the following.
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Porcelain Clay
Porcelain, Also known as kaolin clay or china clay, is one of the easiest materials.
In addition, you can make cold porcelain at home with very common materials in the kitchen.
Making yours at home will enable you to save money, and what is better than saving a little money in the process?
Porcelain clay is the purest type of clay that exists. It is known as primary clay because it is very close to its source, it is very white, and if finely molded, it can have translucent tones.
It has a firing rate of between 1,240 °C and 1,350 °C, giving rise to highly valued pieces of crafts on the market.
Although this is a good clay for the pottery wheel, it is not as forgiving as stoneware and earthenware clay.
BALL CLAY
Ball clay is a name for secondary clay. It is very moldable, even too much, so sometimes it has to be mixed with another type of clay for ceramics.
When cooked, it takes on a white hue. It is the most widely used clay to make sanitary ware, floor or wall tiles, etc.
STONEWARE CLAY
This clay, one of the best-known in the world of pottery, is fine, very plastic and easy to work with.
It is very easy to mold, making it an excellent clay for turning and in different colors.
Sand, minerals and other media are used to make the stoneware clay. It has a cooking index between 1200 °C and 1300 °C.
It is a good clay for throwing on a wheel because it allows beginners and other professionals to mold freely.
And encourage hand-building because it’s easy to work with and shape.
It is a non-porous and opaque clay, which means it has no holes, making it perfect for use in pottery and other objects for the home, such as pots.
If it has added grog, you can form anything out of it because it is strong and can hold shape.
Also, learn what a pottery wheel is.
EARTHENWARE CLAY
Earthenware or mud clays are the oldest and the easiest to find anywhere in the world.
It is one of the cheapest clays on the market, but that does not mean it is bad.
Earthenware clay is very good, easy to handle, and the most porous and plastic. It means that they can contain liquids.
It is an ideal modeling clay. That is why with this clay, you can make objects for your home, such as decorative objects and objects for use in your kitchen.
In addition, they have iron content and other minerals, which provide them with great hardness. Its cooking range is between 951 °C to 1105 °C.
Also, read who invented the pottery wheel.
WHAT CLAY IS BEST FOR MODELING
Each type of clay has different characteristics and properties in terms of plasticity, firing temperature and porosity level.
It is important to analyze some points about the project that we want to carry out. To know which clay is best for modeling,
Let me give you a brief example. If we intend to work with a pottery wheel (lathe), the stoneware clay may be the most appropriate.
However, if we want to mold ceramics by hand, we can use earthenware clay. You also have to take into account the cooking temperature.
Now ask yourself: Do you have an oven suitable for the high temperatures that stoneware requires?
Most ceramic experts recommend experimenting with different types of clay, including mixing them. This way, we will find the most suitable clay for our needs and available tools.
The idea is to buy different kinds of modelling clay and work with it, taking it to its limits. Small test objects can be created and fired at different temperatures.
Once you fire it at different temperatures, you can check how the different ceramics react to the glazes and applied paints.
After carrying out this test, ceramics and pottery are all about testing, experimenting, discovering, and having fun.
As you can see, there are different types of clay to model, which offers many more possibilities to create different objects with unique qualities.
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Types Of Potter’s Clay
Believe it or not, there are dozens of different types of clay, and depending on their characteristics and properties, they will offer you different results.
It all depends on how the clay was formed and its chemical components.
We don’t want to go into mineralogy here, but you need to know some basic parameters.
Some clays are fired at a low temperature, while others need greater care. There are stoneware and porcelain, among others.
In this sense, we can divide clays into two main categories:
Primary Clays
Primary clays are the most difficult to find because they always remain in the same place where they have formed.
Although working with them would be a delight, in reality, it is quite complicated and not very economical to say.
Secondary Clays
Secondary clay is the most abundant on the planet since it originates from sedimentation.
They are the ones used by most potters, which are divided into other subcategories: natural and prepared.
Natural Clays
Natural clays are usually mixed with other clays, as they are less plastic.
As a result, they are not as easy to mold, so they require other materials for optimal balance.
Using a mixture of materials achieves more resistance, better cooking, and a better degree of shrinkage.
Among the most used and well-known natural clays are the following:
Surface Red Mud
By far, red surface mud is the most widely used clay worldwide, and it is easy to get and has great comfort in molding.
We can easily get red mud from the ground by digging in the ground. When digging the ground, you will pass the sandy soil to the loamy soil before getting the red mud.
Red mud clay is made of a large amount of iron and silica, minerals that give it that attractive red hue.
Porcelain Or Kaolin Clay
Porcelain is another natural clay that is not very plastic, but that is not a problem because the advantage of this type of product is that it can be vitrified very easily.
Therefore, it is among the most sought-after for making dishes and similar pieces. In addition, we use kaolin with other pastes.
Refractory Clay
It is the most sought-after material to manufacture ceramics that will be fired at very high temperatures.
It can be used mixed or completely alone, depending on the piece being created. This type of mud is extracted from seams surrounding the coal.
Prepared Clay
The prepared clay is obtained by mixing different raw materials with natural clay.
This mix aims to seek the highest possible quality in pasta. Consequently, all these materials are refined, ground and cleaned of all impurities.
Among the most common types of prepared clay are the following:
a) Material T
It is extremely plastic and has a fairly strong white color. Its main characteristic is that it resists thermal shocks very well without suffering deformations.
It makes it one of the most sought-after materials for creating large pieces.
B) Low-Temperature Paste
The most interesting thing about this clay is that it can withstand up to 1000 degrees Celsius, an impressive sum. It is marketed in red and white
colors.
Other Types Of Pottery Clay
Although the previous clays are the most common, other varieties are also quite practical for various situations. We can mention the following:
Bricks Clay
It contains a high amount of impurities and has shades from reddish to yellowish, depending on the amount of iron oxides in its composition.
It is used to make jugs, vases and other useful ceramic pieces.
Stoneware Clay
It has a high feldspar content. Once fired, it is quite plastic and has minimal absorption, with cream, gray and light tones. It is used for high-temperature enamels.
Ball Clay
It has a lot of organic matter and is part of the fatty clays. Its color is dark or greyish, but once it is fired, it becomes light.
Bentonite
Finally, there is this type of clay, which is derived from volcanic ash. It has really small molecules, so it’s very plastic and easy to mold.
Even so, it must be mixed in porcelain pastes in a proportion not higher than 3% because otherwise, it would cause cracks on the surface.
Completion
If you are asked what is the best clay for a pottery wheel, you will be able to tell because now you are enlightened about the best clay for pottery.
As a beginner, you should try different clay and know the one that best suits you. First of all, try using the ones I mentioned above.
also learned the tools and equipment used for pottery and ceramics.
