Paperclay and Inclusions - Part 4

This may be the first time some people have seen this material (top picture). Rice hulls, also called rice husks is the outer covering of the rice grain. Once this is removed, you have white rice. It took me a while to track this down. Finally I found it at a local feed store. It comes in a 25 lb. bag, is used as bedding for horses and it not expensive.

For my hand-pinch bowls, I wedge the rice hulls into my paperclay. How much to add? If you want more texture, add more rice hull. Use less for a subtler effect. There should still be enough paperclay to hold everything together. You will know it if what you make does not hold up. In that case, add in more paperclay and wedge till the rice hull is evenly distributed in the paperclay. You can also press the rice hulls onto the outside surface of your form but this will give a different kind of look/texture.

This material gives a VERY delicate texture (the second picture is the couples cups on its stand, the bottom picture is a close up shot of the texture) so I opt to use oxides instead of glazes. A heavy application of red iron oxide give a very grayish gun metal color in Cone 10 reduction firing. I often use this oxide to contrast against a lighter colored glaze which I use for the inside of my hand-pinched forms.

In addition to creating interesting textures in paperclay, you can also use the rice hulls as a organic combustion source for your raku post-firing reduction.

Happy experimenting!

Paperclay and Inclusions - Part 3

This brings me to one of my favorite drinks - coffee!

This is ground coffee that I get back home in Malaysia. As you can see, it is very coarse. Not all the coffee is ground so coarse. I shook my coffee container to bring up the coarsest bits to show the texture. I use it in my french press to make my morning brew.

The grounds can be saved, dried and then mixed with your paperclay to create interesting textures. One caveat. You want to make sure you dry out the grounds completely before you mix it into the paperclay to minimize "blow out" problems

Blow Out Big Time - sometimes even cooked rice does not work!

This is one time when even cooked rice added to my paperclay did not survive the bisque fire. Large chucks from the sides of my hand pinched bowl blew out during the bisque fire. I cannot figure out what is causing this as the piece was bone dry when it entered the kiln. It had also been drying in my studio for several weeks prior to the bisque fire. These kind of failures happen once in a while (about 5 - 10% of the time) and I'm still trying to find out the common underlying factor.

I use left over cooked rice and sometimes I let the rice dry out for several days. When I leave the rice out for too long, they start to dry out and get hard and crusty. Then I rehydrate them to soften them up again so I can wedge them with my paperclay. Could this affect the outcome? Perhaps some moisture still remains within the clumps of rice causing the blow out.

This method of making my hand-formed bowls and cups takes so much longer to make than if it had been thrown on a wheel. The successful end product, however, it worth the effort.