[Marcia Selsor]

I fired a load of porcelain with some pieces I made in Sept. before I went to a residency in France. I sort of remember when throwing this piece that it was a struggle with some stiff clay. I may I recycled 2 porcelains together. I was a little shocked when I opened the kiln. I will add that I has washed off some slip decoration immediately before firing. I have never seen this before after 46 years of working with clay. Any comments on what happened?

Attached File(s)

•  fracturedporcelain.jpg (48.73K)
  Number of downloads: 41

[neilestrick]

Washing off the slip may have weakened the pot. I try to avoid ever adding water to bone dry pots.

[Chris Campbell]

It looks like a tension fracture to me ... just the way it fractured looks like there was a battle going on maybe between two clay bodies. I have to say that I really like how it cracked and would be tempted to keep it around for a while.
Where was the decoration you washed off ... There or on the wide body?

[Marcia Selsor]

The slip was over the entire surface because I had prepped it for shellac carving. While in France I tried a new idea which was more simple and worked better. So, I thought I'd give it a try back home. I think I may have mixed some paper clay scrap with Frost or else some ^6 porcelain from Alligator clay with Frost. It clearly had two types of porcelain and both were stiff to throw.
I sponged off the slip but it did get damp....not wet but damp. It appeared dry before I fired. I did a slow bisque. I was just shocked to see how that cracked up. I have never seen that before and I have been teaching and working in clay for 40+ years.
I think you both are right about the stress of two bodies and probably how the water affected the two as well.

I thought it was a pretty amazing crack up. A second pot that I cleaned off the same way did not have any problems...sp I am thinking the 2 types of clay had a differential in their absorbency if that makes sense.


Marcia

[Avaviel]

I read a quote today, "If art isn't functional, bad pots are art*" or something to that effect. In this case, I'd love to see it glazed, even though it cracked. The fracture is quite beautiful.


*Not to say I fully agree, the article was pointing out the disagreement between 'artists' and 'craftsmen', and how those distinctions can be superficial. But, I'm digressing from the thread...