Talk:Modelling clay

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As the author of Modelling Clay, I welcome editorial amendments, corrections and additions. This is my first article and clearly having re-read it, it requires cleanup. Your patience will be rewarded as I will not be satisfied with it until I have reworked it endlessly. This article is necessary because of the proliferation of modelling clays which need an umbrella gateway. I will address the issue of connecting to the other specific clays or will write articles for them in due course. Particular attention needs to be given to the re-direct from modeling clay to plasticine. Modeling clay needs to be redirected to modelling clay and the redirect to Plasticine deleted. If somebody else hasn't dealt with this in the next few days, I will deal with it myself. Dougart 12:00, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi Dougart, I would agree that whilst the article is the start of a useful entry it does need tidying up. And a few suggestions 1. Explain what earthen clay is, or remove altogether if it's not adding value 2. Neither plasticine nor ploymer clay actually conatin any clay minerals 3. Often dried' is too vague, and possoibly could not be substantiated 4. ... no more than 15 mm thick seems overly precise. What would happen if the object was made 16mm? 5. Your statement about earthen clay puzzles me '... disadvantages namely that it dries out unevenly and relatively quickly, it cracks when used in thick sections, it is not easy to re-work, it requires high temperatures to fix it permanently, it can distort as it shrinks and it is brittle.' If by earthen clay you mean clays that are used to produce ceramic ware then there much is incorrect: i. any uneven drying is due to the processes used and not the material ii. why is it not easy to re-work? Providing it has not been fired it can be easily so iii. Requiring high temperatures to 'fix it' can be an advantageous as after wards the article relatively temperature inert iv. Distortion is not due to the material itself but how it has been used v. Ceramics are brittle but clay is not

Just a few points that I guess seem rather harsh ... sorry

Regards,

Andy

[edit] Earthen clay

Can anyone suggest a better term than 'Earthen clays'? In addition to seemingly rather clumsy (IMHO), it is not used by geologists or potters (who does?) and the meaning is not explained in the article

Regards, Andy

[edit] origin

I can't actually find out in ANY of the clay articles HOW clay is actually made! If anyone knows, please add on to this discussion Italic textbefore 8/11/06 (November 8th)