I forgot my block of mica clay last night when I was cleaning up. I looked around today but I can’t find it. Anyone know where it may be?
Thanks James
We found it! Ceramics SIG has the super awesome mica. You can pop her a note to arrange transfer. 
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I saw it on the counter and asked Beth to put it up.
Beth was lax. I had to go to work Saturday morning, and doing the glaze load sucked up all my minutes.
Sent you different contact info for her. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s cool creations!
Cool, thank you, got some grolleg and mica pieces ready to fire when there’s enough stuff. Will be interesting to see how they behave. Definitely the mica got shinier when burnished, and the grolleg feels very different, kind of nice without a bunch of grit. Just putting on the top right shelf by kiln right now, (can’t reach over the kiln right now since it’s running).
I was out of town when the class was scheduled but I’d like to get some mica clay. I found a website where I can order it - are the kiln rules for getting it fired basically the same as terracotta?
Mica is low fire 04-05 I think, not sure about terracotta, from a quick look, seems there are several clay bodies available at different cones.
I know mica is suppose to be fired much cooler, but I have been working on a mica plate Tonight I made 2 years ago. I finally decided to paint the center. This plate was fired at 05 with several other mica pieces, and is beautiful. The mica did not burn out of any of them. Luck maybe?
I’m usining strokes and coats and plan to fire it soon at 06 with fingers crossed. Strokes and coats will not flux at 07-08 … I tried, it was flat.
The recommended temp for mica clay is 08 ish… and 010 if burnished.
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Found one site that states 018 to 04 for their mica clay.
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If I take it to DMS to be fired, would I just put it on the shelf for a single kiln firing in the bisque kiln with a note that it’s mica clay?
If you would like to have it fired to 04/05, then yes, you can put it into the community bisque fire. If you want to fire to 010, then you could get together a full load worth for the small kiln and schedule a special firing. If you can’t fill the kiln on your own, you can wrangle up some buddies and do a small group. Community firings take precedence over individual firings but we find small gaps and do cool new things!
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Several people got mica, they should be communicating to get it fired together. The question is did anybody burnish it for cookware? That would require a way cooler fire temp.
I’m going to fire mine at 05 in hope it matches my other mica pieces.
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I know I’ve got 3 pieces already that are burnished, Anette’s got a bunch of burnished pendants, and someone was working on a big bowl that he was going to burnish. So we will probably have enough for a burnished firing pretty quickly.
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And, the small kiln is pretty dang small, so it shouldn’t take much to qualify as full. That said, it’d be better if we can coordinate everybody that wants the lower firing so that nobody gets left out.
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Speaking of mica clay; here is the info I have on the mica clay that was donated from Walter Anderson’s stuff. This is from a thread from 2015. This lists the company he bought it from, so if we want to contact them about firing suggestions prior to loading a kiln, we can. From what I looked at back then, it looked like ^05 was the extreme upper limit for firing. I think the suggestion of firing at about ^010 sounds like a great idea.
wandrson wandrson Makerspace Member
May 11
I ordered; 1 MICAR Mica Red Low fire (018 to 04) 25 0 $0.49 $12.25 from New Mexico Clay. I also ordered a couple of pounds of mica flakes, which I think I need for the finishing technique.
This piece will need to be fired much lower than you’ll normally do from what I have been reading (between 018 and 012).
These pots are fairly unique from what I have seen. I have purchased a number of ‘bean’ pots but none of them have had the same characteristics I have seen with these new mexico clay pots. The ones I have seen are nearly imune to thermal shock when cooking/cleaning. Supposedly due to the high mica content of the clay.
Nathan
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Is there a date for the mica firing yet?
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Shirley is swamped with non-DMS work at the moment so I grabbed a volunteer to take over coordinating it. I’ve just given him a nudge to post in the group thread with a final deadline for having pieces made and added to the waiting area (or significantly marked if elsewhere). Once all the pieces are dry, he’ll give the firing and unloading date in case anyone wants to learn a little more about the kiln process. The pieces on the shelf already look super cool!
If you don’t see a post by this evening, give @JasonM314 the hairy eyeball.
I made a longer post over in the alt clay bodies thread, but the quick version is:
May 13 deadline for mica pieces. Note these pieces are bone dry greenware and do not need to be bisque fired.
May 20 deadline for the grolleg porcelain. Note these pieces need to go through bisque and be glazed before that date.
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