INFORMATION porcelain/pottery

Hi,

I have been googling quite some time for information about the ingredients and processes involved in making contemporary porcelain/pottery. But I am still not satisfied.

It seems as if there are several different opinions about the EXACT definition of what porcelain is.

The ingredients seem pretty obvious: clay/kaolin/feldspar/quartz.

Some sources say that ALL the ingredients melt into the flux (feldspar), while others speak about the flux sintering the other ingredients together, only partly dissolving them.

Can anybody direct me to a website with a comprehensive description/classification of the different types of porcelain/pottery. Or if somebody wants to write down an explantion in this group I would obviously be extremely grateful!

I would also like to learn more about the enamel.

The information -if satisfactory- would be used in a museum display about feldspar.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Ron Norway

You want to post this on the the clayart list

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(if you don't belong)or to the yahoo

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are experts here who could answer you question in more detail but it has been extremely quiet of late. I can give my opinion but it is not one you would want to post. Porcelain first came to us from China. It is made primarily from a clay called Kaolin (or China clay). Europeans tried to copy the ware out of China, eventually discovering their own sources of white clay but none of them quite compare to what came out of China. For one thing what we have is not as plastic (making it harder to throw). We do however have some kaolins that are more 'pure'.

Although you can get what is labeled as mid fired porcelain that vitrifies (melts and forms glass as part of the body) by the use of fluxes and other ingredients (ball clay for example) it is not to me a 'real' porcelain. In general porcelain is made up of 50% white clay, 25% free silica and 25% felspar. The feldspar used matters because to make the porcelain translucent it has to be fired high enough for the body to melt but not to slump. The feldspar 'holds' it up in its fluid state.

As I said, don't trust what I say. Ask and look elsewhere.

Donna