So you think you want to make your own slip. Maybe it is because you want the control, perhaps because finding ready made slip has become a burden, or maybe it is a cost factor. Yes, it is less expensive to make your own, but you need to have a supplier close by who will sell you small amounts of chemicals and clays unless you plan on major production and can have your components shipped direct to you.

CLAY is heavy, it is not cheap to ship.

I have written about this subject in three separate articles breaking it down as a simple process. I do hope you read all three before you jump in and begin throwing ingredients together.

Part One - the Basics: This gives instruction on how to determine if you have good slip and how to test it.

Part Two - The mixer: This gives ideas on how to make your own mixer or where to buy one.

Part Three - The recipe: This gives you the ingredients and tells you how to put it together.

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Porcelain is the finest among all clays. It is the purest and finest textured clay found on earth. It is made from Kaolin clay that was found in China around 700 AD. Most of the fine pottery and ceramic products were exported from the orient and they were mostly made from this elegant clay. Chinese found a way to fire this clay to the hottest temperatures (up to about 2500 degrees Fahrenheit) which is necessary to mature it to a very hard and non-porous state. Fired porcelain is completely vitrified, glass-like and impermeable. It is translucent to varying degrees based upon thickness and exact formulation. Sadly the term porcelain has not been standardized and one see’s many references to products as porcelain which are not made from true porcelain clays.

It is believed that porcelain was named by the French who compared its translucent beauty to part of a seashell that they nicknamed “little pig” porcellana (cowrie shell) or porcelaine. For many years, China porcelain was highly sought after for its beauty and delicacy. Traders shipped it all over Europe and it became high demand around 1200-1400 AD. Until sometime in the 17th century, the only place to get porcelain or china was from China. Only in relatively recent history have the mysteries of working with porcelain and other locations for natural resources become available to the world outside of China. Collectors today, still place great value on the pottery developed in China dating back to the various Dynasties like the Ming Dynasty.

Porcelain is somewhat translucent in that you can see light and shadows through the fired ware. It has many grades of quality and translucency the finest among them is ‘bone China’. Bone China derives its name from the fact that when developed it had crushed bone added to the formula. The more bone, the more translucent the final product. The inclusion of other minerals and chemicals determines the final outcome and grade of porcelain.

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Primarily, ceramic slip is clay that has been thinned down with water and sometimes additional chemicals to be used for various purposes in the field of clay arts. It is clay mixed with water to a smooth gravy-like, liquid consistency.

In pottery, it is used for decorating or coating the crafted items as well as acting like a glue or paste to adhere parts together.  In ceramics, it is used to cast plaster molds creating images and shapes as well as various finishing techniques.

It is called slip because of its smooth, slippery consistency… a texture without roughness, smooth to the touch.  The term comes from Middle English: slime, from Old English: ‘slypa’ or ‘slyppe’ and also has Indo-European roots: sleubh. Just step in the middle of a puddle of it on your floor and you will understand completely. It is well named.

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In a nutshell, greenware is raw clay. Clay that has not been fired or ‘baked’. Potters throw pots and until they are fired, they are greenware. It does not matter if an item has been sculpted by hand, cast with a mold, earthenware, porcelain, stoneware or any other form of clay, until it is fired it is raw or greenware.

While in the unfired state, it can be broken quite easily. Most fragile is cast porcelain, then cast earthenware, then sculpted bodies.  This is primarily because of the density and thickness of the item as well as the fragility of the clay body.

When handling raw clay ware, it is important that you support the bottom rather than trying to pick it up from the top as the weight causes stress and can cause the piece to snap and or crumble.

In its raw form, most clays can be crushed and recycled; however once fired, they cannot. There are two major differences between clay bodies - Low-fire and high-fire. Low-fire clays are those that require lower temperatures to reach maturity as opposed to those which require higher temperatures.

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