Making Slip For Ceramics

The process of slaking clay to make it into slip is a simple one.

Making slip for ceramics.

It s a a lot of fun to do washes of color on textured surfaces leaving concentrations of the glaze or ceramic colorants in the recesses but sometimes when the clay slip or glaze is washed off the color loses its vibrancy. First some basic information about making your slip. I never use bone dry clay. Let it slake for 24 hours then mix it by hand a little with a stick figure 2.

I always use wet clay to make slip. A gallon of good ceramic slip should weigh 14 5 pounds plus a smidge. And it should have a gravity ratio of 1 75 to achieve this you should have a hydrometer and a scale. Lana wilson uses texture and clay slip to decorate much of her work.

It may be either solid cast where the form is filled with the new clay object or hollow cast where the new object is deposited around a hollow center from which the remaining slip. The gravity ratio is measured by the hydrometer and it tells you the amount of water in relationship to the amount of. Like liked by 1 person. Then submerging the dry clay in water so that it breaks down and dissolves.

I save all of my little scraps of clay put them in a gallon size plastic bag and when i have enough clay i make slip. With a screw on lid you can get a tighter seal than you can with snap on lids which means your slip will still be usable the next time you need to use it. Every once in a while i spray water in the plastic bag so the clay doesn t get dry. Paint a strip of this slip mixture onto the tile and write on the tile that this is a 2 mixture.

Make sure your slip is made from the same clay you re working with. The dissolved clay is then blended into the water to make a smooth suspension. Plastic containers with screw on lids that come in packs of 2 from the dollar tree. For storing slip i like the 16 oz.

The mold is opened and the clay object is removed. Step one is to have a 5 gallon bucket filled 60 75 with your bone dry clay then add water until it s a few inches below the rim figure 1. Once you ve mixed the slip for about 5 minutes use a. Make a batch of slip out of the same clay body and add a small percentage of stain say 2.