This week Jeff and I are giving STARworks new Catawba clay a try. It's hard to tell from the photos, but it's sort of a greenish in color. I haven't thrown with it yet, but Jeff has. He created this 15" platter for me to carve.
While carving large plates and platters, I like to brush the carving "crumbs" to one side as I work. On smaller pieces that I hold in my hands, I dump them into my slop bucket as I go. I try to not handle the larger pieces as much, preferring to keep them on a foam bat while I work. The goal is to keep them as flat as possible and without cracks.
The Catawba clay carves nicely. It's smooth without any groggy chunks to catch my trim tool as I carve away.
I’m interested in your opinions of these clays. I used Star white ^10 for a wood firing I did a few months ago and really liked the clay. It held up to the intensity of the wood fire (maybe ^13) without dunting and looked great.
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