Janet Starr on sun 23 jul 06
Hello All,
This is part of the continuing saga of how to get flat tiles. I appreciate
all the suggestions that I got from fellow Clayarters and tried all of
them. But, I did not appreciate the replies that seemed to indicate that I
was not professional and just a beginner. I have been selling for years and
have just been living with the fact that I have to make a lot of spares.
I know that I am fighting with a claybody that is really too plastic for
tiles, but I have not found a replacement that has its' characteristics.
The clay is IMCO Stoneware 1-C. It is a mid-range stoneware clay that is
grey when wet and light terra cotta when fired and vitreous at Cone 3.
Also, I developed all my glazes for this claybody. There's not as much
choice in the midfire range. The manufacturer has a 2000 lb. minimum to add
some fine grog or calcined EPK (suggested by Linda Arbuckle). The claybody
has only fine sand. Perhaps if enough of us asked for the clay with grog,
they would produce it.
The suggestion that seems to have helped the most came from Michael Wendt.
I was throwing the slabs to about 3/4" and then slab rolling them. I was
resistant to wire wedging all the clay because it is an additional step.
Michael has an article about wire wedging in the Mar-April 2006 issue of
Pottery Making Illustrated. But if I have less loss, it is worth the time.
For my last order I did wire wedge, and all the tiles came out flat. I did
a few other things as well. I dropped the slab 2' before trimming (but I
had done this before and it wasn't enough). I trimmed around the edges and
only scored the dimensions the first day (in case there would be any
shrinkage between day 1 and day 2), and cut them up the second day, when I
also finished the edges (later in the day). I leave them on a fresh drywall
board face up for one day, face down the next day. After they are starting
to turn color, I put them in my dehumidifier closet, and I can bisque them
after 2 days in there. I know this is more handling than some people would
like, but if it works....... I hope this information will help anyone else
who is struggling with this problem. You have to wait for the clay to be at
the right level of moisture and not rush things.
--
Janet Starr
www.craftsmantiles.com
www.featuretile.com
featuretile@gmail.com
Nancy Braches on sun 23 jul 06
Hi Janet
Nice post and now I have to go look up wire wedging...sounds interesting :D ...I haven't made tiles in the past year but when I was making them a couple of years ago, that additional grog that I wedged in helped a lot. I used Standard Clay 308 which has 2% sand and 4% fine grog added and fires cone 4-8. I still added additional grog but it did require more work from me as I would roll out a slab and then cover with grog roll it up and rewedge it again.
My few that warped I used as mosaics for other non pottery projects.
Nancy
Hilltop Potter
Janet Starr wrote: Hello All,
This is part of the continuing saga of how to get flat tiles. I appreciate
all the suggestions that I got from fellow Clayarters and tried all of
them. But, I did not appreciate the replies that seemed to indicate that I
was not professional and just a beginner. I have been selling for years and
have just been living with the fact that I have to make a lot of spares.
I know that I am fighting with a claybody that is really too plastic for
tiles, but I have not found a replacement that has its' characteristics.
The clay is IMCO Stoneware 1-C. It is a mid-range stoneware clay that is
grey when wet and light terra cotta when fired and vitreous at Cone 3.
Also, I developed all my glazes for this claybody. There's not as much
choice in the midfire range. The manufacturer has a 2000 lb. minimum to add
some fine grog or calcined EPK (suggested by Linda Arbuckle). The claybody
has only fine sand. Perhaps if enough of us asked for the clay with grog,
they would produce it.
The suggestion that seems to have helped the most came from Michael Wendt.
I was throwing the slabs to about 3/4" and then slab rolling them. I was
resistant to wire wedging all the clay because it is an additional step.
Michael has an article about wire wedging in the Mar-April 2006 issue of
Pottery Making Illustrated. But if I have less loss, it is worth the time.
For my last order I did wire wedge, and all the tiles came out flat. I did
a few other things as well. I dropped the slab 2' before trimming (but I
had done this before and it wasn't enough). I trimmed around the edges and
only scored the dimensions the first day (in case there would be any
shrinkage between day 1 and day 2), and cut them up the second day, when I
also finished the edges (later in the day). I leave them on a fresh drywall
board face up for one day, face down the next day. After they are starting
to turn color, I put them in my dehumidifier closet, and I can bisque them
after 2 days in there. I know this is more handling than some people would
like, but if it works....... I hope this information will help anyone else
who is struggling with this problem. You have to wait for the clay to be at
the right level of moisture and not rush things.
--
Janet Starr
www.craftsmantiles.com
www.featuretile.com
featuretile@gmail.com
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