Holiday Wishes For You

I have fielded questions from customers about clay work for years and will include some of those questions and answers in these newsletters. If you have a burning question about my work, please do feel free to e-mail it to me and I will be happy to share the response in the newsletter.

Question: So what is "ceramics" and what is "clay" anyway?

Response: Here's the long response . . . Over millions of years, the weathering action of alternating freezing and thawing, along with the grinding of glaciers, the pounding of rain, and the flow of rushing streams, slowly broke down the earth's crust into boulders, then into stones, then into pebbles, and finally into the small particles that make up clay. Along with the weathering action, chemical changes took place as oxygen combined with minerals to form oxides. Feldspar, the most abundant element on the earth's surface, is an essential component of clay. Silica and alumina combine with alkalies such as potassium and impurities like iron to make it possible to fire clay into a dense and permanent hardness. To be capable of producing a ceramic, clay must contain a flux and a heat-resisting material, or refractory. These elements, along with extreme heat, produce a ceramic that can last for thousands of years.

Unfired Goddess fountain top

The difference between a fired ceramic and unfired clay is easy to see. Unfired clay from the earth can be dampened with water. It is easy to manipulate and holds together as you shape it into an object (similar to the mudpies you made as a child). After a few hours, the damp clay hardens to a leather-hard yet somewhat elastic stage, at which time decorative designs can be cut or etched into the clay surface (see image at right). Once air-dried, the greenware clay is very fragile and crumbles easily.

Goddess fountain top in kiln

When the sculpted clay piece is introduced to the heat of a kiln (which is a high-firing oven), the clay piece becomes hard and permanent, and is capable of maintaining its form interminably. Your clay/pottery plates and bowls illustrate the durability that is achieved after firing in a kiln. I routinely fire my ceramic sculptures to between 1,860 and 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit for several hours.

Therefore, a ceramic is clay that has been heated to a very high temperature to become very durable. More information and pictures may be found at: http://www.kanika.us/1Ceramic_process.htm