Clays

When I took my first ceramics class, the instructor provided the clay. At that time, and for a long time afterward, it never occurred to me that there were different kinds of clay available. This ceramics class clay that I worked with was simply called, "Sculpture Mix". It sounded like the right stuff and I was able to work with it fairly well, as far as I knew. Later on I found out that it has a higher percentage of "grog" in its composition and you can see in the first photo below a rough surface results once you bisque fire a piece. Glaze goes on well, but detail is not as subtle if you're using underglazing. The fired color is very pale and cool. I don't remember not enjoying working with this clay, but I do remember it was difficult to get more delicate detail when working small. I attribute this to the high grog content. This wobble cat pictured below (based a little on the old Weeble toys) is made with Sculpture Mix:

Later on, I discovered there are many different clays available so I decided to experiment with a couple. So far I've tried a clay called Sandstone, and another called Stout. The wobble cats below are examples of each respectively.

Stout is a bit warmer than Sculpture Mix and its composition is much smoother, although it still fires very pale. The clay seems much more sensitive and alive when worked with wet. Also when carving into it, the level of detail possible is much greater and more delicate than Sculpture Mix. It's also very receptive to glaze and absorbs underglazes really well, allowing for greater watercolor effects. This cat is done with Stout:

This last cat is done with Sandstone. Prior to bisque firing, the clay is yellow and silky smooth. The best part about this clay is how waxy it seems. I found that if you wait until a piece is at the leather hard stage, carving into it can be very precise and rewarding. The color after firing is a warm pink tone.

And in case you're wondering, this is what the bottom of the Wobble Cats generally looks like: