Paper Clay is a mixture of ordinary clay with ordinary paper fibre, giving the resulting material surprising and helpful properties like increase in plasticity, dramatic reduction in shrinkage and magical improvement in adhesion (wet on dry and vice versa).
Paper clay is mixed roughly in the proportions of one quarter wet paper fibre (shredded paper, egg cartons, newspaper - uncoated) to three quarters of wedgeable plastic clay. It can not only be sculpted into intricate forms, not crack as it dries, but also into the kind of form that needs a metal armature, and would therefore normally be moulded and cast, will hold itself together unaided to be fired.
Paper clay appears to be slightly more brittle than pure clay when biscuited, and it can be aesthetically more unpleasing when a pot is unexpectedly light in the hand.
The cellulose fibers in paper pulp are like hollow drinking straws, hygroscopic, taking water out of the clay but remaining flexible. The fibers when mixed in clay are almost invisible to the naked eye, and the holes they leave when the pot is fired are equally tiny, so the surface is unblemished and as ready to take glaze as any other biscuit ware.
A few pointers on paper clay from the book 'A Complete Potter's Companion' by Tony Birks:
PAPER CLAY AT MONKEY BUSINESS
Paper clay is mixed roughly in the proportions of one quarter wet paper fibre (shredded paper, egg cartons, newspaper - uncoated) to three quarters of wedgeable plastic clay. It can not only be sculpted into intricate forms, not crack as it dries, but also into the kind of form that needs a metal armature, and would therefore normally be moulded and cast, will hold itself together unaided to be fired.
Paper clay appears to be slightly more brittle than pure clay when biscuited, and it can be aesthetically more unpleasing when a pot is unexpectedly light in the hand.
The cellulose fibers in paper pulp are like hollow drinking straws, hygroscopic, taking water out of the clay but remaining flexible. The fibers when mixed in clay are almost invisible to the naked eye, and the holes they leave when the pot is fired are equally tiny, so the surface is unblemished and as ready to take glaze as any other biscuit ware.
A few pointers on paper clay from the book 'A Complete Potter's Companion' by Tony Birks:
- Have one bucket for wet paper pulp, another for thick clay slip. Mix them in a third bucket with your hands, or if you wish, a powerful food mixer.
- Pour out the porridge-like mixture on to an absorbent surface, such as a plaster bat, and spread it out to an even thickness using a straight edge.
- When the paper clay has dried out to the consistency of plastic clay, roll it up and wedge it. It is now ready to be used or it can be stored.
- Scrim or Bandage soaked in paper clay slip can be used on an armature to build up a sculptural form. More layers can be applied with a paintbrush.
- Bone dry slabs of textured paper clay can be joined using wet paper clay slip, without the usual danger of the finished pieces falling apart.
PAPER CLAY AT MONKEY BUSINESS
Method:
PAPER PULP - Shred papers into small pieces and soak in water for about an hour. Once soaked shred the paper pieces further. Use a drill or grinder to mash up the soaked pieces to make a very fine pulp.
*Tips (for making Good Pulp)
-Take a handful of the pulp and add it to a glass of water, if the mix looks homogenous the pulp is
ready to use but if u still see pieces of paper floating around, grind the pulp further.
-Do not use shiny coated art paper/newspaper. Although this already has china clay in it, which one
might think would be helpful, it has been glued in with waterproof latex resin, and does not break
down in water.
* Paper pieces in its initial soaking stage.
SLIP - Make a good amount of slip (triple the amount of the pulp) by soaking dried or unfired pieces of clay in water for a day or two, to get the right consistency.
* Unfired clay pieces used to make slip.
* Clay pieces after a day of soaking in water.
The paper pulp and the slip have to be still mixed together at the right consistency for use.
A few pictures of a paper clay bowl made at the studio of a bone china factory in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. The clay used here is bone china. The bowl is paper thin, but extremely brittle and has to be handled with much care. Watching, touching/feeling the paper clay bowl gave me a better understanding of the possibilities of the material.
More on the bone-china factory in my posts to come.
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