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| Dry Clay Materials
Dry Clay Materials are often used in conjunction with other materials to make up clay bodies for use in ceramics. The benefit of creating one’s own clay body with dry materials is that you can achieve the exact composition and qualities you are looking for. Of course it is more labor intensive to create your own clay, however, in doing so you can change the water content, grog composition, color, etc. to suit your needs.
One common dry clay material used in ceramics is Ball Clay. Ball clays are fine-particle, plastic clays that were formed millions of years ago from the deposition of clay and volcanic ash. Ball clays typically contain kaolinite, quartz, mica, iron and titanium, organic matter and other minerals. The organic matter along with additional impurities tend to make the clay appear dark gray, black, brown or pink in its natural state. These materials burn out during firing, leaving the ball clay almost white. There are numerous types of ball clay available, and they differ in their mineral composition. Common ball clays include OM4, Tenn 1 and Kentucky Stone, to name a few. All ball clays, however, have in common high plasticity, fine particle size and high greenware strength. Because the trade-off for high plasticity is shrinkage, ball clays are often used in small amounts in a clay body (approximately 10%-25%).
Kaolin and Grolleg are also terms commonly used in ceramics. Kaolin, which is interchangeable with “China Clay”, is a high temperature, white clay material, which contains high amounts of kaolinite. This type of clay material is found in porcelains. Grolleg refers to a China Clay from England, which comes from an original site of kaolin deposition. Other secondary deposits arise from movement through water over time and produce kaolins such as EPK, Pioneer and Georgia. Water transported kaolins typically acquire more impurities and so tend to be less white. Like ball clay, kaolin is fine and very plastic. Ball clay particles, however, are often finer than those of kaolin.19 products in this category, displaying products 1 to 19.
Welcome to The Ceramic Shop home of discounted ceramic supplies. If you are looking for products that would fall into the following categories: pottery supply, ceramic supply, pottery supplies, ceramic supplies, clay supply, skutt kilns, L&L kilns ,glass kilns, Brent Wheels, shimpo pottery wheel, Amaco glazes, spectrum glaze, Mayco Glazes, kiln supplies, kiln stilts, Olympic kilns, paragon kilns, kilns for sale, mason stains, kiln parts, Hydro-Bats you have come to the right place. Since 1999 we have been supplying the Philadelphia area with quality pottery supplies. We do except school Purchase orders and supply clay and ceramic supplies to all the major clay programs in the area.
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