Grogzilla, Godzilla, Moxilla, etc

I found out about this high-grogged NON-paperclay called Grogzilla™ when I attended my first paperclay workshop with Graham Hay in Santa Clara at Clay Planet back in 2007. It is manufactured by Clay Planet and is rated to Cone 10.

What attracted me to this "traditional/regular" clay was its rough texture and the little bits of "white godzilla teeth." That was my first impression of the feldspar crystals that popped from its surface. (See close up shot below) It does look like little dinosaur teeth so I thought the name was quite appropriate.

This hand-pinched bowl was fired in Steve Davis' kazegama ash kiln at Aardvark. I applied a thin layer of flashing slip on the top 1/3 of the bowl. The rest of the bowl was left bare. You can see the ash glaze over the flashing slip as a slight grayish brown coating. At high temperatures in the kiln, the feldspar crystals in the clay break through the surface and melt into little white globules.

I enjoy this texture very much and have been using this clay in my "sandwich" technique. (See earlier post). Paperclay allows me to incorporate this "regular" clay into my paperclay sculptures.