Clay buying question

My son and I took the ceramic pendant making class and had a great time and really found a love for this. My question is I can’t remember where Brenda said was the best place to buy the clay and what specific clay was best for this. We can’t wait to come up and make more but want to make sure we get the right stuff. Thanks so much!

The Ceramics committee page of the wiki lists some suggested suppliers, including a recommendation for “your best bet”.

EDIT: The paragraph after that has some info on clays, but it may not answer your specific question. Still need someone from Ceramics to weigh in on that.

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Thank you!

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Trinity Ceramics on Diplomacy off of 35 is my personal preference but be sure to check their hours before making a trip! They are only open M-F 9-5 and 9-Noon the first Saturday of the month.

If that doesn’t jive with your schedule at all, I’m heading over there Monday/Tuesday to pick up some clay and and can grab an order for you as well. Just let me know by this (Sunday) evening if that would help! If you have the time to make it over there, I do highly recommend it just to see all the possibilities and groovy, wallet busting specialty tools and glazes. :slight_smile:

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Christy thanks for giving my sweet wife more info.
We have to wait till May before any wallet exercises occur :smile:

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Oh hey! Big welcome fellow Emes family peeps!

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Just a reminder there is recycled clay in the ceramics Dept to use for free. Let her know to Wedge it a lot.

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Yeah they told us about that but that it also wasn’t the best but more for practice and stuff. Plus, really looking for a lighter color to take better on glazing…

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I believe that was porcelain from Trinity. but I will let @brendamvilla chime in to confirm.

Looks like a few of our pieces came out of glaze last night :smiley:

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@Lordrook @bookpixie For the pendant class we used a clay called t-mix with no sand!

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If people would like to pay ahead, a few of us dont mind getting the clay for everyone at $11/- per bag (with the exception of specialty clays like porcelian).
The dollar extra being for gas, etc. But the clay must be picked on a designated day and time, lets say once every month or two. We could even take turns!

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Is that a DMS price? so if we went on our own and told them were from DMS we get a discount on clay?

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No. It is neither. It is the 1000lbs pricing given by Trinity. If we buy 40 bags together as a 'group order, ’ then we all benefit. Price comes down to $10/- per 25lbs bag!
50 cents or $1/- over that would help the person taking on the initiative.

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Ok thanks! that’s good to know.

I knew some places did a DMS discount and just wasn’t sure if that was the case here.

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Welcome Lordrook👍

Just a few comments on clays…

Well, that was interesting. Trinity says that T-mix is a clay with a smooth porcelain finish. So, sorta porcelain-like without being, specifically, a porcelain. I was about to warn you off porcelain, as the stuff Trinity sells as a Mid-fire porcelain (should vitrify at Cone 5-ish) is called Frost, and we’ve had nothing but trouble with it. T-mix must be more stoneware-ish, but like it says, with a smooth finish.

I use B-mix, which is also a creamy white clay. Probably about the same level of white as T-mix, but not the white-white of Frost. I’ve always thought that B-mix is a stoneware.

Be aware that while we glaze fire to Cone 6, the Mid-fire clays vitrify at Cone 5. So, when you’re buying clay, you want the Cone 5 version. Now, if you’re buying from Conor, you just say “Dallas Makerspace”, and he knows what’s up.

As I think about, B-mix is made by Laguna, so T-mix may be Trinity’s version…

Oh, and what I’ve always been told is that size of the molecule/particle/whatever is significantly differently in stoneware and porcelain. Porcelain is supposed to be a MUCH smaller particle than stoneware/regular clays. It makes it beautifully smooth, and you can get it really thin, but it doesn’t stick together nearly as well while you’re working it. Or – so I’ve heard.

You guys, thank you so much for all the information on this thread, it has really been a huge help and answered so many questions I didn’t even know to ask. I would love to participate in the mass buying of something like the tmix we used to make the pendants if someone makes the trip.
I did think of one more question…not anytime in the next week or anything, but sometime in the future would someone be able to show me how to do glazing on both front and back of a pendant and how to set it up to fire in the kiln properly without sticking?

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You nailed it on the head, T(rinity)-Mix is Trinity’s in-house, lower cost version of B-Mix.

It’s one of my favorite basic throwing clays.