Redart

Redart is a red firing earthenware of moderate plasticity and low shrinkage. It fires light orange to dark red depending on firing temperature from cone 06 to 3. It achieves its best color at cone 02 and gives deep red color and stoneware properties at cone 1. It is airfloated to 200 mesh and is very clean and has a long firing range. This is a very popular ingredient in clay bodies made across North America and it has been available for many years.

This material is quite high in iron thus the powder is a deep red color and quite messy to work with. Redart is also used by potters in glaze recipes, sometimes up to 60%.

Redart can be used as a primary component in plastic modeling and throwing bodies, however some plastic additions of ball clay will be necessary. It can be used as a casting body without any additions, although it is desirable to diversify recipes to achieve better consistency and less dependence on the quality of one material alone.

While redart can be used as a source of iron in high temperature bodies, it will produce brown rather than red coloration. This is because the fluxes are intimately mixed with the iron and fuse it to a darker color. To get red in oxidation or reduction at higher temperatures you must use refractory clays with iron or iron bearing fireclays. However there is good reason not to use low fire reds as fluxes in high fire bodies: The fluxes in the red clays don't dissolve cristobalite like feldspar does, the result can be thermal expansion related ware failure.

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