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cobalt in talc?

updated sun 19 sep 10

 

Bill Merrill on sat 18 sep 10


I just heard from Val Cushing yesterday. He had a stint put in his
heart (veins) 9 years ago. He had to have the same thing done again.
He said that it feels like someone is sitting on your chest and you
can't breathe, that was the warning sign to him. His regular doctor
sent him to Rochester for surgery the next day. He is doing well, so
well in fact that when I talked with him, he had just finished loading a
glaze firing. When talking with him we talked about talc. He has used
talc in his glazes for over 55 years and I have used talc for since
1965. I use talc in my stoneware body as a flux in my clay body without
one pot dunting etc. I have used talc in white stoneware bodies and
have never run across blue specks in any glaze or white body. I asked
him and he had never seen that either. It seems Talc gets a bad rap for
everything. Yes it is a substance that must be used carefully, but so
is any powdered minerals like flint. Cobalt resources in the United
States are low grade and production from these deposits is usually not
economically feasible and not associated with talc.=3D20

=3D20

The question is, how do we really know how conscientious the person is
who makes your clay? That's why I have always made my own clay bodies.


=3D20

=3D20

=3D20