Hello! I’m studying ceramics at Colorado State University (about to graduate this spring woohooo!) and am moving to Kenai this May. I’ve been told about the glacial clay in the area (around the Cook Inlet at least), but haven’t really been able to find out much information about it (except how to exfoliate my face with it…haha..). I was just wondering if you are able to build and fire the clay without adding much to it or if you’ve had to mess around with it until you got the right clay body/strength/flux, etc. If you wouldn’t mind getting back to me, it would be really helpful to have a better understanding of the clay. I honestly can’t wait to try it out…Thanks for your time, and great work! -Lindsey
Hello Lindsey. The glacial clay has a lot of flux and will melt at high temperatures, so you do have to add other stuff to raise the melting point. My first test of the clay was to mix it 50/50 with another clay body and it worked fine for low fire ware done at cone 04. The local clay amount has to be reduced to 30-35% if you want to go to cone 6 or 10. Like any other clay body a mix is usually better. Ball clays and kaolins work well for wheel throwing bodies, and fire clays is probably better for slab work.
Hello! I’m studying ceramics at Colorado State University (about to graduate this spring woohooo!) and am moving to Kenai this May. I’ve been told about the glacial clay in the area (around the Cook Inlet at least), but haven’t really been able to find out much information about it (except how to exfoliate my face with it…haha..). I was just wondering if you are able to build and fire the clay without adding much to it or if you’ve had to mess around with it until you got the right clay body/strength/flux, etc. If you wouldn’t mind getting back to me, it would be really helpful to have a better understanding of the clay. I honestly can’t wait to try it out…Thanks for your time, and great work! -Lindsey
Hello Lindsey. The glacial clay has a lot of flux and will melt at high temperatures, so you do have to add other stuff to raise the melting point. My first test of the clay was to mix it 50/50 with another clay body and it worked fine for low fire ware done at cone 04. The local clay amount has to be reduced to 30-35% if you want to go to cone 6 or 10. Like any other clay body a mix is usually better. Ball clays and kaolins work well for wheel throwing bodies, and fire clays is probably better for slab work.