What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear the
word "porcelain"? Exquisite, fragile, fine, white, exclusive,
delicate, translucent? Do you think of oriental vases, expensive European
tableware or vitreous bathroom products - or all of the above.
Now you can think again!
Some porcelains have claimed in their properties one or more
of these listed uses - but now there is a porcelain that can be used for
practically everything-
Superior White
Porcelain
A snow white translucent porcelain which has
characteristics that lend it to coiling, burnishing, throwing, slab building,
casting, RAM pressing and fine, translucent ware. This porcelain is a ball
milled body, and in industry trials, has come with favorable reports of its
plasticity, whiteness, strength and translucency.
It has a firing range of 1280 - 1300°C. It is reasonably
priced, and best of all it is completely Australian made!
Market demands prompted the development of an all purpose
porcelain, but its realization was made possible by the emergence of new
Australian materials - materials that would remain consistent and stable over
time.
Porcelains seem to be made of relatively simple materials -
ball clay, china clay, feldspar and silica. However, the process used to produce
this clay is not a simple one - it is ball milled, sieved, passed over rare
earth magnets twice, filter pressed and pugged through a completely stainless
steel pugmill before being weighed and packaged.
In the past porcelains have been tied to industrial uses, in
nature and pricing, and not the requirements of a Australian studio potter. The
new materials have been used by industry, but will now be breaking new ground in
potters studios. The translucency of Superior White Porcelain is equal to any
porcelain on the market - local or imported. To bring it further into line with
studio practice, the maturation point has been lower so that a greater palette
of colours is available without compromising durability.
Glaze fit with this body is very broad, Walker Stoneware clear
glaze or zinc-free clear glaze are readily available in powders or liquids.
Other stoneware glazes have also been successfully used with this body. It
achieves less than 2% absorption at 1220°C.
The whiteness of the clay body, and the clarity of the glaze
come together to form a vessel of perfection. The highest quality oven to table
ware, resistant to microwaves & chipping and dishwasher safe, can now be
yours.
The list of Australian potters who are using Superior White
porcelain is growing daily. A variety of techniques used by these potters is
evident in their comments and work:
superior white cont'd
