paperclaylab

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Science

about paperclay

recycled paper

cellulose fiber

clay

ingredients

See Ultra Close-UP Micro Graph (SEM) Images of "Paper Clay"

Introduction to Balanced ratio between Clay and Paper for Building Form-(Welcome to the worlds of Bio Ceramic and Nano Ceramic): By Rosette Gault

Clay is mineral, a silicate, and what we call inorganic and "ceramic". It needs very high temperatures in a kiln fire before it will change, or move, or melt. Paper (cellulose) is vegetable- organic, based on carbon. It has DNA. It will burn (oxidize) at very low temperatures. This is the "Bio." Ultra tiny fibers and clay particles are the aspect of this hybrid medium that I call "nano" ceramic.

Clay Particles and Nature:

Over millenia, weather, rivers, ice, and water wear down rocks into deposits of mud and silt. Individual clay particles such as kaolin shown below are extrememly tiny (less than 0.1 micron on average). Note how clay particles look like flat chips in the picture. These light weight tiny chips (before firing) will easily separate and "travel" loose thinned down in water, and the less water the less flexible they are. No two places on earth are exactly the same so each clay has its own "signature" and class such as stonewares, porcelains, eathenwares, terra cottas, etc.

If soils have too much clay content... plants and vegetables can not take root or get noruishment.What is more, when water that used to occupy space between the particles evaporates from the moist clay some of the spaces between opens up to a crack.

Logically shrinkage appeared to be the "issue" when in fact it was just a symptom. "Work around" tmethods used include 1. to manage the moisture content by completing all construction at the leather hard stage of dryness and then slow the drying speed as much as possible so all sections dried the same rate. 2. and/or to add plenty of non-shrinking and so called inert non-clay material such as already fired clay grog or chamotte, sawdust, nylon or fiberglass fiber, or sand, to the recipe. 3. to minimize or avoid use of water at all in manufacture. Force traditonal clay dry and it cracks or even explodes. Joined parts that were too dry (like attaching dry handles to a wet or leatherhard cup) the join will fail. I never questioned these beliefs for 20 years of clay practice. I like many others had gotten used to living with this technical limit, forgetting it was even there.

Paperclay Balanced Recipes for Modeling or Sculpture Allow more Options: No danger of stress drying or firing cracks actually exists for us, anxiety and compensation for threat of loss is utterly absent in comparison. The clay and paper shrink and expand naturally as before through the making process but cracks rarely have any chance to form. And we can open direct sun air or even force the works dry (but no temperature beyond 100C) saving days of time. If a fracture or accident occurs, simply patch, reinforce and heal the crack. The formerly weak bond is now double or triple strong. How could this be?

Paper, (based on cotton, linen, flax linen, etc) seen magnified below, is a thin flat sheet dried of a tangle of cellulose fiber and it feels a little grainy and rough. Each dried hollow fiber could wick water in like a straw. Papermakers add small percentages of clay and other minerals to fill in the gaps and smooth out the surface. Billions of clay particles can lodge in between the fibers. If you burn most paper, a trace of dust and ash is all that remains. How could cellulsoe fiber found in paper be helpful for clay?

Recycle. Turn the paper back into a pulp slurry state first. First we have to re-soak the paper bits in a soup of water and agitate this sufficiently to loosen the tight dried knit above. Learn more in my books or articles.

PaperClay My idea was then to add pulp slurry to smooth creamy non lumpy clay slurry so the wet fibers disperse in the clay in a loose but uniform open network of branches paperclay starts to stiffen and harden. An open latttice of cellulose fibers then stabilize and disperse moisture and air through the paperclay as it expandsnad contracts just as cappillaries deliver nutrients and moisture evenly to human body tissues.

Early on in the firing of paperclay ceramic, the homogenous micro lattice of cellulose fibers burns open to a micro lattice of tiny branch like voids. The benefit of this "micro porous system" hidden in the clay body continues until such time as true vitirification temperatures of the clay body- where the voids would seal, may be wanted. See pictures to the left. Note how plenty of clay remains after fire to support a structure even in a so called high pulp mix that was tested.

The concept is very simple. The potential for advance and exploration is open now.