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albany slip and marine clay

updated thu 28 mar 02

 

Martin Howard on wed 27 mar 02


River mud could well be the basis for many new slips and glazes, but, as
Janet says, we must beware of what has contributed to that mud.
Instead of concentrating at the estuary, why not begin at the other end of
the river?

One river begins in my road, it is added to by the effluent from several
septic tanks and eventually reaches main river without any effluent, as far
as I can see, from industries which might add heavy metals. It will always
need dredging because of climate change and because farmers just do not
attend to hedges and ditches as they used to. Some have had nasty shocks
just recently and have begun to some ditching operations. The result of that
could be useful to potters. It certainly may be high in potash and other
fertilisers, which may make it a natural glaze.

So, perhaps we need to do some real explorative work in our own
neighbourhoods, linking our pottery wants with local and national needs
brought about by Global Warming.

Martin Howard
Webbs Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
01371 850 423
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
http://www.webbscottage.co.uk
Updated 3rd March 2002

Lee Love on wed 27 mar 02


----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser"


> With the reappearance of Albany slip in conversation yet again, I was
> wondering whatever happened to Michigan slip?

I've had good luck with the synthetic Albany, Alberta Slip. I've used
it to good effect in Sander's Tamba glaze. I'll put up the recipe and I think
I have a photo of a pot with the glaze on it. Runs nicely, especially in the
soda kiln.

Lee in Mashiko
._____________________________________________
| Lee Love ^/(o\| Practice before theory. |
| Ikiru@kami.com |\o)/v - Sotetsu Yanagi - |
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

Janet Kaiser on wed 27 mar 02


With the reappearance of Albany slip in conversation yet again, I was
wondering whatever happened to Michigan slip? With Albany being
unavailable, what about Michigan? Or is that now under houses,
government buildings and shopping malls too?

Also the mention of "Marine clay"... Is this really a clay deposit, or
is it really river ooze?

The foul-smelling sediment at the bottom of many medium to large
rivers is excellent for using as a glaze. After seeing pots which were
simply dipped into gunk taken from the bottom of the Conway estuary in
North Wales, I really wondered if this was the origin of Bristol
ware? Same semi-gloss dark brown. Certainly very similar to Albany
slip. Of course you would have to be careful about which river these
days... Hate to think what heavy metals and other nasties are in many.

Janet Kaiser
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
Home of The International Potters' Path
8 Marine Crescent : Criccieth : GB-Wales
URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
postbox@the-coa.org.uk