The day the slip went wrong

Last year, when I went to make my second ever batch of slip (because 30 gallons lasts a long time, well it used to...) I grabbed the paper with the recipe on it as I headed the 60 miles up to the clay store. The paper had the recipe that Jim had dictated on one side, which was for 60 gallons, and my halving of the recipe on the other. Because it had been a long time since I had made slip, I ordered the quantity of, you guessed it, the 60 gallon recipe. But that would have been all right, the dry ingredients would have kept. However, upon reaching home, I proceeded to read the water measure and soda ash/sodium silicate measure from the 30 gallon side.

Picture, if you will... I have put the water and ash/silicate in the mixer. (The mixer looks like a small sized water heater, with a top that comes off and a tap at the bottom. The little motor is on the non-removable back half of the top, with a rod going down into the water and paddles at the bottom and middle of the rod.) I don my mask, open the first bag of talc, and begin the process.

Emptying bag after bag of talc into the mixer, a little at a time, I begin to hear the mixer's valiant little motor start to strain:

(wwwwwhhhhhhwwwwhhhhhwhhhhhwhhhhhwh...gasp...wwhhhhwhhhhwwwwwhhhh....gasp....)

This does not impinge on my brain until the talc is all gone. Yes. All of it. The amount needed for SIXTY STINKING GALLONS. I am standing in the little rubber shed, looking like a dusty ghost, realizing slowly that I have made a supreme boo-boo. I now have a full allotment of talc, only half the water and ash/silicate and absolutely no room in my 30 gallon mixer to complete the process. Thinking hard, I realize that I cannot just remove half of the talc and start again, because the talc sinks to the bottom and there is no way to know whether I removed exactly half of the water, half of the talc, and half of the ash/silicate mix. The ash and silicate are very small amounts, less than two cups total, so an error here could ruin the whole batch.

I dust off, jump into the Rodeo and head to the hardware store to buy a nice, clean, 33 gallon trash can. Coming home with this innovation, I laboriously drain half of the mix, put it into the trash can, but that isn't going to work because again I can't be assured that the mix is equal. So, back to the hardware store again for another trash can. I drain the rest of the mix into the first trash can, and then position the second can next to it. The talc has sunk to the bottom by now, like taffy below the water. The "mud mixer" attachment on my drill won't reach to the bottom of the now halfway full can, so I have to take a clean piece of PVC pipe and stir it around, looking like a modern witch with an inappropriate cauldron. It is very sticky, not at all smooth, and doesn't want to stay suspended in the water.

So here I am, covered with splashes, drips and smears of wet talc. My arms are aching and my back hurts. I am stirring the mix in the can and then quickly dipping a bucket into it and bailing into the second can. A few bails, and stir again. Finally, the cans are equal and the mix looks very much the same, feels the same, etc... Now I have two trash cans holding this absolute c**p which is useless unless I can add half again the water, ash/silicate, and then the right amount of ball clays.

Next day, feeling like a herd of pygmy elephants had danced on my back, arms and shoulders, I went out again to tackle the goo. Of course, you guessed it, the talc had settled to the point that I could hardly mix it at all. Several hours later, I had transferred one can full of sludge back into the mixer.

Let us pause here and note that, at this stage of the game, I had probably all of twenty bucks invested in actual ingredients. Throwing the whole mess away and starting over would have been easier, despite requiring the return trip to the clay store. But what do you do with several hundred pounds of wet talc, in the middle of urban Carlsbad??? No, no, determined to make this work, determined to see it out to the bitter end...

The rest of the story is quickly told. Adding the water and ash/silicate appropriately, then adding the ball clays and fire clay, etc., I ended up with one regular batch. Looked fine, and even cast fine. (I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid enough to ball mill this junk unless I know it casts!) When that batch was finished, I transferred it to the now empty clean can, covered it, covered it with plastic trash bags, duct taped it, and set it aside. Then I made a batch also out of the second sludge pile.

The really disheartening part of this whole shebang is that the clay was a bit darker brown than usual. Nothing wrong with it, but it was darker before firing. I called Jim and found out that the clay store had sold me "Texas talc" instead of "New York talc", since I didn't specify. Going out to the trash and examining the empty bags, indeed Jim the keeper of all knowledge was right! So I had spent several backbreaking days, had bruised armpits, and almost cried, and ended up with 60 gallons of the less than white slip.

Of course that slip was fine and is what we have all been using since. Now I am milling the first of a new batch of "New York" talc mix and the brown slip is just a fading memory. But you'd better believe I threw away that stupid piece of paper with the sixty gallon recipe on it!!!

Joanie from Pour Horse, who is now tired just thinking about it...