The Raw Materials
Indented Bottle
In my workshop I initially used two stoneware clay bodies and a porcelain made from clays and rocks mined near Gulgong, in Central Western N.S.W.
A pale stoneware body uses a blend of three local clays from pits around the Puggoon area west of Gulgong.
The dark stoneware body features an irony schist from a hillside named Blue
Biddy at Beryl, to the west of Gulgong, and two of the local clays.
The porcelain was made from a clay/shale mined at Ulan, north of Gulgong. The shale had to be crushed, sieved and passed over a magnetic separator to remove iron fragments. The body was made from this single clay fluxed with 15% felspar, but did need flocculation treatment in it's milling to improve the throwing characteristics. See the section on Clay Making for details.
I am currently using a commercial porcelain body, 'Southern Ice' (which is a far superior body to the Ulan body!) while I re-establish clay-making facilities here at my studio in Wentworth Falls