When clay is mixed with less water (less than the quantity of water added to make liquid slip), it acquires a paste-like consistency. This can be achieved by mixing clay with just the sufficient amount of water or by removing some water from the liquid slip. Removing water from liquid slip can be achieved by […]

Clay and water share a very complicated relationship. Inspite of plenty of research done on this all over the world, we are yet to unravel all the secrets of this complicated relationship between clay and water. There are so many books written on the CLAY-WATER relationship. However to simplify everything and to gain a basic […]

Like any other raw material available on earth, clay is also composed of many types of minerals. As ceramists, we are interested in few main types of minerals found in clay namely:

Kaolinite
Montmorillonite
Illite

These minerals may be found together or separately contaminated with grains of quartz and other non-clay minerals.
Out of these, KAOLINITE is the most common […]

Weathering - The Chemical process
Granite contains four types of minerals - Alkali feldspar, Quartz, Plagioclase feldspar and Olivine. Natural chemical agents react with these minerals slowly and results in clay.
Water combines with Carbon Dioxide and the resulting acid reacts with the granite materials as follows:
K2O.Al2O3.6SiO2 + 2H2O+CO2 = Al2O3.SiO2.2H2O + 4SiO2 + K2CO3
Orthoclase <——> […]

So what is Clay? You will get different answers for this question from different people based on their interests and experiences. So let’s see what kind of responses you might get:
A gardener - “Clay is an important part of the soil”
A builder - “Clay is used in making bricks”
A potter - “Clay is used in […]

We know how difficult it is to plan and foresee every small detail before we accomplish anything - be it small or big!
Just imagine the amount of planning ‘The Creator’ himself would have done to create the universe and all its beings. He looked into every small detail to keep us self-sufficient in this universe. […]

Brick - This is the first ceramic engineering material . In fact, we could call this as the first engineering material invented by mankind. It is the basic building block and needless to say there would be no infrastructure without bricks. Buildings, dams and all construction activities rely on this basic engineering material and naturally […]

Due to a big demand for building materials all over the world, brick emerged as a very important material and plenty of research and development took place. This particular ceramic field of brick making saw many technical advancements however even today the production of this important ceramic material is done by the potter in the […]

The early days of pottery saw pottery wares made out of clay available in common places like lake, river bed, etc but not with glaze. The most common ceramic materials in this group were building bricks, roofing tiles, pottery ceramic ware made out of red burning clays.Some articles like pots, jars etc. made by potters […]

When man understood the special characteristics of clay and pottery, he was constantly seeking to find different techniques and understand the magical secrets of the material - ‘Clay’. He started researching the varying properties of clay available in different places like valleys, river beds, hills, etc. He then understood that different types of clay is […]