paper-clay?

"DKat" wrote in message
...
For minor S cracks in the bottom of bowls I have successfully repaired the
crack using a mix of clay and glaze. It does not repair the bottom side
of
the piece but works fine on the inside of the piece. For a student that
was very taken with her piece, we took a thin piece of clay shaped as a
star, covered it with glaze and put it like a bandaide over the crack. It
did a perfectly find job of a cosmetic fix to a very pretty piece with a
lovely glaze. I can see paper clay working in this manner. More of a
cosmetic fix than a stuctural one.


The two pieces I have tried it on, it didn't help. One was a kitchen
utensil-holder that cracked on the inside wall joints, the other was a ball
where a piece flaked/fell off near the bottom. Both are more cosmetic than
structural problems, but the paperclay I made just didn't work - it cracked
or fell off after 1250 degree C firing.

Marianne

"Scoop" wrote in message
news:R4RLf.821959$xm3.720138@attbi_s21...
I would suggest this as a good starting place for research.
http://www.grahamhay.com.au/articles.html


Great link! Will need time to go through all this!

Thank you!

Marianne

Then I recommend the 'bandaid' or mixing clay and a very runny glaze
(half/half) that covers the area. Honey is a glaze that works nicely for
this but it only will do the inside of a piece.


Honey


Opalescent Clear

Glossy


6








RUNS!





Spodumene--Foote
3200

Flint
3000

Gerstley Borate--1999
2000

Talc
1400

Dolomite
500

Kaolin--EPK
1515

Rutile 6%?


I can't say for sure how much Rutile until I get back home. Unfortunately
the computer I am using had a corrupted file.

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
For minor S cracks in the bottom of bowls I have successfully repaired
the
crack using a mix of clay and glaze. It does not repair the bottom side
of
the piece but works fine on the inside of the piece. For a student that
was very taken with her piece, we took a thin piece of clay shaped as a
star, covered it with glaze and put it like a bandaide over the crack.
It
did a perfectly find job of a cosmetic fix to a very pretty piece with a
lovely glaze. I can see paper clay working in this manner. More of a
cosmetic fix than a stuctural one.


The two pieces I have tried it on, it didn't help. One was a kitchen
utensil-holder that cracked on the inside wall joints, the other was a
ball
where a piece flaked/fell off near the bottom. Both are more cosmetic than
structural problems, but the paperclay I made just didn't work - it
cracked
or fell off after 1250 degree C firing.

Marianne

Hi Marianne, I can give you an empirical conformation that paper clay
can work when repairing bisque: A few days ago I dropped a small white
stoneware clay sphere, belonging to a student, it shattered into more
than a dozen small pieces, I was mortified but set to to try and rescue
something from the debris. I used a stoneware flax 'paper clay' as
'glue' between the joins but when all of the parts that I could find
were assembled a gaping hole still remained (approx 20mm diam); I
managed to patch the hole with more paper clay but as DKat suggests
overlaid this with some glaze. This morning I took this jigsaw sphere
from the kiln and although some areas of the repair were visible, the
finish was not too bad and the structure of the piece was sound.

Success in this case may be due to method: I coated the inside of the
sphere with a moderately thin layer of the paper clay (up to the point
where the inside was no longer accessible) and did likewise on the
outside, I then brushed on a coat of glaze, before the paper clay had
dried.

Andy

An addition to my last post: In the 'workshops' at which I'm employed,
we also teach papermaking using cotton linters ( a by - product of the
cotton industry these are the cotton fibres that are too short to be
spun); we have had few problems in making paper clay from the
'leftovers' from a paper making session using a fairly standard
stoneware clay and up to forty percent paper pulp. We have even been
successful in producing a casting slip from similar 'mixes'.
Those problems we have had concern the mould that sometimes forms but
to combat this we use either 'Milton' fluid or dilute domestic bleach;
this is not an ideal solution (sorry for the pun) and tends to be
temporary.The second solution is much more useful; we dry the paper
clay in slabs,store it in a nice dry cupboard, and reconstitute it when
needed. 'Hope this is of some use to someone,
Andy

"plodder" wrote in message
oups.com...
An addition to my last post: In the 'workshops' at which I'm employed,
we also teach papermaking using cotton linters ( a by - product of the
cotton industry these are the cotton fibres that are too short to be
spun); we have had few problems in making paper clay from the
'leftovers' from a paper making session using a fairly standard
stoneware clay and up to forty percent paper pulp. We have even been
successful in producing a casting slip from similar 'mixes'.
Those problems we have had concern the mould that sometimes forms but
to combat this we use either 'Milton' fluid or dilute domestic bleach;
this is not an ideal solution (sorry for the pun) and tends to be
temporary.The second solution is much more useful; we dry the paper
clay in slabs,store it in a nice dry cupboard, and reconstitute it when
needed. 'Hope this is of some use to someone,


Hi Andy

I had a "biggish" batch of paperclay, and I did dry it and have then
reconstituted it as needed, but I really do think that the recipe is not
right, as the piece looks fine before firing, but the clay tends to then
shrink during firing, and not adhere to the other clay.

I suppose what I really need is another recipe for paper-clay :-)

And I have no clue where to get hold of cotton fibers here. My dealer
doesn't have it on his list, anyway.

Marianne

Hi Marianne, most paper when pulped will do the trick as most of it
contains plant fibres; I believe some potters have begun to use
polyester fibre in their 'paper clay' mixtures, this might be worth
investigating.

Could the problem be in the ratio of paper pulp to clay; 'anyone else
help on this?

"plodder" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Marianne, most paper when pulped will do the trick as most of it
contains plant fibres; I believe some potters have begun to use
polyester fibre in their 'paper clay' mixtures, this might be worth
investigating.

Could the problem be in the ratio of paper pulp to clay; 'anyone else
help on this?


I have no clue. I think next time, I will at least run the paper with water
through a blender. I used recycled toilet paper last time - maybe that
doesn't have the right qualities?



When I get the time and non-pottery-inspiration (will be ages, as I just
went to a great show in Mallorca) - I will wander the net and see what I
find of recipes here.

Marianne

Toilet paper in this country is going to have a minimum of long plant fibers
(the goal is to make it 'soft'. Toilet paper from China would be most
excellant! We use newspaper. I would bet paper grocery bags would be good.
Thinking outloud...

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

"plodder" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Marianne, most paper when pulped will do the trick as most of it
contains plant fibres; I believe some potters have begun to use
polyester fibre in their 'paper clay' mixtures, this might be worth
investigating.

Could the problem be in the ratio of paper pulp to clay; 'anyone else
help on this?


I have no clue. I think next time, I will at least run the paper with
water
through a blender. I used recycled toilet paper last time - maybe that
doesn't have the right qualities?



When I get the time and non-pottery-inspiration (will be ages, as I just
went to a great show in Mallorca) - I will wander the net and see what I
find of recipes here.

Marianne