PAPER CLAY & PAPER PORCELAIN
You can turn any clay body into paper clay. It's very easy.
Why would you want to do this instead of buying it ready made?
Well, the most important reason for me is that I can control the amount of paper I add to each batch. I would add much less paper to a piece I was going to carve then I would to a large wall hanging piece.
Southern Ice is a fabulous porcelain, translucent and icy white. Pieces made from it must be dried very slowly or they tend to crack. Adding paper eliminates this problem.
To make paper porcelain, I buy the cheapest one ply toilet paper I can find, unroll it and soak it overnight in a bucket of hot water. I make several batches using between 1/2 a roll to 1 1/2 rolls per 22 pounds of porcelain.
The amount of paper used is dictated by the end use of the clay.
I use my regular glaze sieves to strain most of the water out of the pulp. I like to leave the pulp wet but not drippy.
Then I mix in the wet clay.
I mix the clay and paper with a Hobart Dough mixer I bought used from a restaurant supply house. Two other ways to mix are to dry the bagged clay, re-hydrate it and mix in pulp or to mix this pulp with dry clay using a drill mixer.
I add the pulp first, then add half of the wet clay. I leave it mixing for about 10 minutes or until it has become a smooth pulp.
Then, I add the rest of the bag of clay in small pieces and let it mix until smooth.
As it is mixing, I put old newspapers down on the floor and cover them with an old bed sheet. I scoop the blended clay onto the sheet and let it dry until it is the consistency I like to work with. When ready, I seal it in plastic bags.
***A Note here on ageing of paper clay.
Yes, you will get black fungus and odor from old paper clay as the paper fibers dissolve.
Some people add a tablespoon of bleach to the wet clay but others find this very irritating to their skin when they try to work with the clay.
I usually make enough paper porcelain for a couple of months.
A good idea for those who always want paper clay on hand is to flatten the paper clay into sheets and let it dry. It is quick and easy to add water whenever you need some.
I hand build with the Southern Ice paper clay just as I would any other clay body. It turns out that Southern Ice is a very friendly clay when mixed with paper.
I was able to create forms and transfer them to a shelf to air dry with only the rims protected to control drying.
Look at the amount of texture this clay allowed.
They dried evenly with only two cracks appearing. They were easily mended with additional paper porcelain and no new ones appeared after firing.
The body with less paper was strong enough to survive casual handling of the greenware.
I was also able to repair cracks in fired pieces and refire them. Some practice is needed to make these repairs but you could succeed most of the time.
Carving into the clay was much easier with the lighter paper load.
They stood up well, so I would recommend only 1/2 roll per bag of clay if you want to carve or texturize the finished pieces. I would not use more than one roll per 22 lbs. for normal handbuilding.
WORKING WITH PAPER CLAY
I decided to experiment using paper porcelain to create murrinis patterns.
I added Mason colors along with a minimum amount of paper pulp.
Floating Blocks' is the first pattern I've made with "paper" porcelain.
I built the murrini loaves exactly as I do with ordinary clay.This pattern is simply large blocks of color with straight black lines. I let it rest overnight, then created pieces from the loaf.
The murrini was trickier to slice since the wire caught and dragged paper bits across the surface. The cutter had to be cleaned after every slice. The drag marks were superficial and could be smoothed with a rolling pin.
The patterns moved with the rolling motion and as a result, the two surfaces did not match up. The lines did not stay crisp but smoothed out in soft shadows and hazy color.
Even after drying and cleaning the patterns kept this dream-like appearance.
The pieces fired much the same as regular Southern Ice.
They are so translucent, you can see the inside lines from the outside.
I pressed stamps into the surface. The marks softened, but kept their shape.
For someone who is detail oriented, it took a while to appreciate the randomness of the results, but I grew to really like the surprises and decided to design the next patterns specifically to exploit the movements.
I used the leftover clay for swirled and marbled patterns.
This pattern is named ‘FantasticSea’. It reflects my love of scuba diving.
I wander over coral reefs and pick up endless inspiration
While I was examining these bowls in the sunlight, I noticed another thing.
There was an inner pattern totally separate from the surface patterns.
The inside moves with the direction of the rolling pin regardless of the
outside appearance.
There are three layers, connected, but moving about at their pleasure.
Now, this was really getting interesting.
I enjoy contrasting rigid patterns with the flowing looseness of form.
My next pattern would demonstrate this contradiction on three levels.
This pattern is called “Bangled” Once again we have floating squares of color
but now with a wide pattern boundary.
These lines were even softer and since they were on a white background
it was easier to see the shadows.
It think it was the first sweep of the rolling pin.
The reason I believe this is that I always roll each piece several times
in all four directions yet only one really shows up.
So, the first horizontal sweep shows as well as the first vertical one.
There is very little movement of the pattern, and the only shadows
occur from the slight variation on the other side of the dish, not from
an inner movement.
If you want to know more about all types of paper clays and methods
used to work with paper enriched clay I urge you to
visit Graham Hay’s excellent site. RETURN TO HOME PAGE