porcelain for the people review.

I've seemed to misplace my camera yet again so simple words will need to suffice.

I'd decided to jump on the bandwagon and try out some "Matt & Daves Porcelain for the People." I bought 30# for $30 shipped(pricey? yeah.) I'm toying with having another porcelain phase and I'd heard good things about it and decided to give it a shot.

Immediately out of the bag the clay failed the coil test,(rolling a coil and making a tight circle with it) it didn't just crack, it fell apart. It also has that rubbery feel that PV clay imparts along with the fact that if you slap 2 plastic pieces(right out of the bag) together they don't stick. Some of you may know what I'm talking about, not sure of the best way to put it in words.

I wedged it up and made 4 yunomi, 8 mugs, 4 dessert plates and a 4# pitcher on the wheel. I will say that I give this clay and A+ for throwability(is that a word?) It throws really well, thin if you want it to all while in a soft state. It doesn't take constant wetting like a typical porcelain either. Honestly it throws better than my stoneware.

Trimming was fine, average, same as any porcelain I've used. Handles are a whole other matter. Remember the coil test? That is a pretty clear sign telling you how the clay will behave with handles. This clay pulled some of the worst handles I've experienced, unaged clay from the mixer pulls better than this stuff. They cracked and split really bad. Only massive amounts of babying the clay helped. So handling I give a D. The bigger handle on the pitcher pulled much better than the smaller mug handles but still suffered from the same issues but I think its mass helped. Could be I had a "bad" batch because I haven't heard of anyone else having problems with it yet.

I haven't dried or fired any pieces yet, I don't think I'll have issues with either of those. Porcelain by its nature needs to be babied a little and dried slow, so I'll dry them under plastic. I left a couple of mugs out to see if the handles would pop off as they can do if dried too fast just for curiosities sake.

The clay is ok, but not right for me and how I need it to behave. So if your work and work habits are different than mine you should disregard my review. If all I did were throw pots it would be a good clay, but I need it to do other things(I imagine it would absolutely suck for hand building)so for the price it's not worth it for me. I'll stick to my own blend.

I'll end with this video someone pointed me to on youtube a few years ago. Unrelated to the post but, shall we say interesting?




Cheers!