I have been trying lots of different porcelain and clays which I get from Valentines Clay in Stoke-on-Trent. I started off using a number of porcelains including Audrey Blackman Porcelain but I found that there were too many warps and cracks. I find a mix of stoneware and porcelain clay gives me the whitest look and least warps and cracks (PF 700) .
Currently I am working with Parian Clay which is self glazing and gives a marble effect. It is very soft and the hardest clay to work with but am liking the affect more than the porcelain glazed pieces.
The porcelain clay I was firing to 1050°c for the first biscuit firing, then 1000°c for the glaze. Now I am using Parian clay which I fire just once slowly to 1230°c.
No, all of the flower people are made by hand including the flowers. I do use a sieve to create the center of daisy’s and sunflowers, and a rubber stamp which creates the lines on some petals.
You can buy them online from this website, but you can also buy them in the following shops and galleries:
Coalport China Musuem, Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK
Sari Jules, 247 Watling Street, Radlett, London, UK
Galleries Alive, Telford Town Center, Shropshire, UK
Oh So Pretties Handcrafted Gifts, 2341 Boston Road, Wilbraham, MA, USA
Parian is a self-glazing body, extremely translucent and ideally suited for casting to produce figurines, dolls and light forms etc. However I use it to sculpt which is extremely hard. Why? Because I like the marble like look and feel of the fired piece. Parian clay contains a very white felspar and is firined: 1220 – 1240°C
Parian is derived from Paros the Aegian Island famous for its beautiful white marble widely used for sculpture by the classical Greeks. Parian ware became very popular in the mid-nineteenth century and was manufactured by many notable Stoke-on-Trent potteries.
