Tuesday, December 16, 2008

New Talc, Texas - no more Nytal

I'm formulating a new clay body with Talc. Previously, Nytal-100 was stocked up at my local shop, but due to recent experiments it was believed by some to be an asbestos-like particle. Thankfully, I my experiments use the new Talc, from Texas - so I'm guessing Mike over at Continental will charge a bit more for it. The new Texas Talc is not like asbestos, a scary word. Also, Mike let me have a little sample of his white clay with the new Texas Talc, I'm going to try out their formula, and see how it works compared to the one I came up with, a little bentonite, grog, ball clay, and talc.

2 comments:

Dawn said...

It must be the Texas talc in AMACO's #20 clay that gives such a good body because its sort of plastiline and easy to hand build with. I have a friend who sculpts fairly small figures with it. Fires bright white. I think all their other clay bodies are talc free.

Brandon Hanna said...

I bet you're right about the Amaco clay body - maybe Zircopax too (?), I've never used the Amaco clay body. I'm working on a low-fire white, fire it to cone 03, add some ball clay, fire hotter perhaps. Check back I'm having some glaze tests up soon. This Texas Talc is actually light grey, hoping it will turn nice and white in firing - I've been told it does.