Attaching handles and other appendages to moist clay.

[George Lewter]

This is a compilation of a string of comments in the S Hill Ox Project group area, brought here as the basis for a discussion.

Comment by Tracy Minarik - Steven uses Standard 257 porcelain.  I use it now also, but have trouble attaching handles.  Everything seems to crack.  Been doing handles on cups for 15 years. Don't get it??  I'm going to try some "Magic Water" by Tony Clennell next.. We'll see........

Comment by Wanda Manning - Just attended a two day seminar with Steven Hill and he does not use anything but magic water to attach his handles. He made the comment when he used slip he could get cracks also

Comment by George Lewter -  I'm not using porcelain (b-mix 5 instead). I stopped slipping and scoring about 6 months ago. I use 2 parts water to 1 part white vinegar painted on the surfaces to be joined and I just wiggle and lightly mush the parts together. I have a concern about the sodium silicate in magic water causing a glaze to not absorb at the same rate (thickness) as on pure clay.

Comment by Joe Shaw - I use slip to attach handles and the like. I "wiggle" them in place. What I've found it that it's necessary for me (I work with porcelain) that my pieces dry slowly. My wife and I went to a restaurant supply store and we found an old two door stainless steel cooler/refrigerator for dirt cheap. Plastic interior, shelves and (most importantly) doors with gaskets in good shape. I really need to slow down/control drying especially when doing slip decoration. This applies to handles and such also. When one recycles clay as I do, vinegar can be an issue, it helps to create and ungodly stench in the slip barrel.

Comment by George Lewter - The tiny bit of vinegar water I use for attaching handles shouldn't be going into the slip barrel unless I break the piece.

Comment by Joe Shaw - I use Laguna's Frost and Clay Planet's Icelia porcelain. Both fire to translucent. I've suffered with cracking with both clays until I got a grip on the damp-box and controlling the drying.

[Denise S Morris]

Hello, I am new to this site, kinda wandering around peeking at discussions.  My husband Paul is a production potter, and I have added a video of his handle method to my page here.  This video uses stoneware clay, but he uses the exact same process with porcelain.  When he encountered cracking at one shop where he used porcelain, along with slow drying,  they started to paint the joint area with a latex wax resist after attaching which burnt off in the bisque.