What is Bizen

[CRAIG]

Hello All;
I've getting clay formulas for Bizen like clay bodies from cone 4 to
cone 10. They all contain iron, some are smooth some coarse. Is this
the normal firing range etc. ? What are some of the firing techniques
used that you know of? I've attached a bizenesque pot from the last
firing.
Thanks everyone
Make good pots
~Craig

[Lee]

Craig, what I used was very smooth. It had a silky feel. The
Minnesota Indigenous clay, that had iron bearing kaolin in it had a
similar feel. I was told that kaolin was available if you went to
the place that sells it with your own containers. I don't know if
anybody at Minesota Clay still knows anything about it.


I have a red fireclay that Tim Fidreich gave me I will do
a test with.

--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift." -- Albert Einstein

[Paul Herman]

Hi Craig,

Greetings from out west in the mountains.

Hell, I don't know what Bizen is, but I'm periodically using the
following clay body here in our wood kiln. It's a takeoff from John
Baymore's recipe that Lee just sent in. I adjusted it to fit my
material stable and firing temperatures, which are cone nine to 13. We
have fired it to 13, right on the front of the anagama, and it held up
(and came out real pretty.)

Fake Bizen Clay

goldart 50

Old Hickory #5 ball clay 15

Carbondale red clay 15 (refractory red clay)

F-4 feldspar 12

200 mesh silica 8

Sometimes I add a 5% fine sand and/or 2-3% dirt from the roadcut to
spice things up, but mostly I like smooth clays.

This clay produces some of the most interesting effects in our kiln,
but is subject to dunting if the glazes are too low expansion. Shinos
seem to work fine. A celadon that fits my other clay bodies just right
will cause the fake Bizen clay to dunt. I think the iron in the clay
body causes trouble with cristobalite formation somehow. The teapot I
use every morning is made from this clay, salt fired with no interior
glaze.

Right now I am having a little zinfandel in a cup made by Mike Janes
from Juneau, and yep, it's made from the fake Bizen clay. So you can
see there is a special attraction, for me at least.

good luck on the clay bodies,

Paul Herman

Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
www.greatbasinpottery.com/

> --
> Photo log at: http://claycraft.blogspot.com/
> To unsubscribe send email to Claycraft-
> unsub...@googlegroups.com<DSC01562.JPG>

[rickma...@comcast.net]

I believe that Bizen was fired at a temperature that corresponds to cone 8 or so for many days (I recall 7 days) the main Bizen clay came from the "bottom" of the local rice paddys.  It was fairly smooth and occasionally had some stone inclusions.  A friend spent some considerable time pinching through clay to pick out stones and twigs prior to the clay being wedged at the Kaneshige studio.
A cone 04 Bizen is like a cone 0-4 porcelain it might look the same but it is not true porcelain.

YMMV

Rick

--
Photo log at:  http://claycraft.blogspot.com/

To unsubscribe send email to Claycraft-...@googlegroups.com

[Lee]

I could buy cone 3 and cone 6 bizen clay. I used cone 6 in my flue
channel. Many of the old kilns topped out at 2100*F, but the heat work
over time melted stuff.

[CRAIG]

Thanks Paul: I'll give that clay  a spin...  you asked about the insulated floor. I must agree that it was worth the work. A bonus that I hadn't counted on was the hugh reduction of smoke!!  In times past when the kiln would be belching smoke... it was completely smokeless!!!
Make Good Pots
~Craig
New London MN
http://woodfiredpottery.blogspot.com/

To unsubscribe send email to Claycraft-...@googlegroups.com