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clay cracking. need a lil help

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Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive:
I am trying to figure some clay work out. I found a good clay deposit, very sticky stuff. brought it home and soaked it to get the aggregate to sink and poured the slip off the top and used the good, decently clean clay. I made a pair of pinch pots to learn from and plan to fire when dried out.  Three days have passed and as my pots are drying they are cracking...i figured this would be a problem....  I get a little water and apply to it and rub up some cream (like I would when I used to finish cement) and filled the cracks in.  I figured I should do this or add a little extra creamy clay to fill in the cracks as I go until it is totally dry.    I hope that is the right thing to do..... :-\     any suggestions?  Is the cracking inevitable? or do I do just like I have been? or does it mean there is too much sand in my clay? or not enough???    any tips would be appreciated

bubby:
sounds like it still had too much moister when you made it, but i'm just guessing, maybe iowabow will chime in he does lots of pottery

sleek:
I have done a little clay work. I add sawdust to my mixture, and it takes a bit, like just shy of 1/3 dust. You can also use straw. It needs to be completely dry before firing. The dust/straw adds strength, and if fired moist, the water expands and can actually blow pieces off. warm it up slowly and evenly, cool it off the same. Let us know how things turn out... with pics :)

KShip85:
I'm no master but I've worked a fair bit of pottery.  My first guess would be to echo drying slower.  How thick are the walls?  Another issue might be the clay isn't elastic enough.  Adding some bentonite would help with that issue.  I've not done a ton of primitive clay work but I would think principles carry over from more complex clay bodies to more simple ones.  How did these dry? Just open air or were they partially covered?  Nearly all my clay work was loosely covered with a plastic sack for a week or two before uncovering to dry out completely.


Kip

Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive:
thanks guys. as of now only one is cracking....it was the first one I did and it isnt as nice, so maybe it was me varying the thickness too much....maybe not..the other could start at any minute! they have just been drying open air in the house since I did them. perhaps I should go ahead and throw something over the nice one to help prevent cracking.  I may try the say dust too. I heard about adding cattail fluff....same principal as the sawdust I suppose. I might try that next time.  I feel like I have so much to learn with pottery that is why I didn't want to start! but now that i have I am stuck and must master it or I wont be content...  the clay seemed pretty good. could just about tie it in a knot without it cracking or breaking...but i still think it could have been better

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