Ceramic Sponge - Experimental 

Congrats, you have made a great light insulating refractory material 🎉

As was mentioned, there are potters, who dip knitted or woven fabric, in slip and then fire. I worked with one of my students, who was interested in this, and he achieved several successful results. Before trying it on some of his knitted pieces, I did some experiments with the slip, glaze and other materials. I found that using a deflocculated slip, with more dried clay added, worked the besr, like with ceramic casting. The bisque fired pieces were very fragile, and porous. They drank up the glaze well though, which strengthened it during the second firing. We actually did multiple layers, but wrung the fabric out, after each dip. I was told that it was important that the yarn was cotton, not synthetic. I also tries some paper towel, which worked fairly well too.

Thank you! This was exactly the type of experiment I was looking for, and so thoughtful in your variations throughout

Very cool testing. Have you seen Liz Crain's work? She knits cups and bowls etc, and then dips them in a slip and fires them. I believe she just adds a clear glaze to the entire piece. She does beautiful work. Some of them she illuminates from inside the piece.

Seems to me you have come up with the perfect kiln cookie. Made a little thinner - no glaze - if glaze lands on the "slip-foam" cookie then the piece is easily saved by chipping off the easily breakable cookie then grinding or sanding off the rest of the cookie and the excess glaze.

You should try this with foam balls, like beanbag foam. Mix it with your clay and fire it in a mold. This method will produce an open cell ceramic foam and should be much stronger.

You do the things that cross my mind! Your channel is fantastic.

Hmmmmm REALLY INTERESTING. I have lately been turning my mind to armature possibilities of paper clay - you set my mind to thinking that bisque firing a foam clay structure to support sculpture might have some very useful implications. Especially like to try it and then put a jet hose in the inside of the solid clay outer to see if you could remove the flimsy internals that way..... as I said, hmmmm!

just use sawdust. Or lawn clippings. Much cheaper than sponge. Then you can pack into a mould. This is essentially a porous kiln brick with highly insulative properties. Or what else were you planning with this experiment?

i've read that if you use deflocculated slip made by adding .002 to .005 weight of waterglass to dry contents of clay, the clay will stand up much better in the initial firing process.

Plush rabbits, bears, doilies, yarn beanies and towels work well. Have tried them all. Bear was cute and made dishes out of the rest Dry them upside down over the shape you want.

Ceramic sponge, for when you really, REALLY have some exfoliating to do

I got a recipe for alumina brick they use 60%/40% alumina and kaolin, adding sodium silicate to strengthen the blend, and for heat resistance they add cooked grinded barley or rice, then fried in the kiln. You should be able to make a custom fire brick...

please try a loofah next!

Thank you👍

I think you should try dipping the sponge in the glaze I just skip the porcelain. Off the top of my head I'm guessing you'll wind up with a glass like foam but it might just turn into a pile of powder for all I know. The only way to find out is try.

Does burning the sponge damage the elements of the kiln? Love your experiments please keep them coming.

Thank you for sharing! So you have any issues with smoke when you fired the sponge? I also wonder the same if you fire cotton covered with slip.

Please give ceramic filter making video...how it is make

is that good for reef bio media?

I think you just made Space Shuttle heat shield tiles!

I wonder how well these might work as firebricks? It'd be fun to have a torch blow directly on them and see how they react

I wonder if you can soda stream clay slip, that would be funny to see!

For aquarium diffusers, co2 systems

Great testing!can you tell me the brique firing temperature and time, and the later firing temperature and time, and if you increasing the temperature then at what rate? i am working on something similar. thanks

Could this be used as insulation? Perhaps replacing firebrick, if you're willing to give up structural integrity?

I like your black matte metallic glaze . Do you like to share the recipe ? Thank you 🤗

How is the media ceramic if it’s sponge.

I think if you used a cast slip versus liquid clay scrap your results would be more durable

did you deflocculate the slip, as with sodium silicate, ie 'waterglass'?

I wonder what the fire rating would be for these ??

I found an interesting paper and thought of this video! They use egg whites and yeast to make effectively a clay based cake bread and fire it core.ac.uk/reader/12005850 I think it would make an amazingly cool video... Might try it myself but I don't think I have the video making chops!

Somehow that reminded me of a twinkie after bisque

Interesting 🤔

May I ask how did you mix the liquid? Is clay and water? And what is the proportion? More one question, are you burn 1000F? Thank you

I want to ask. For sponges, do you use Polyurethane PU Foam? Hopefully please answer, thank you.

look at michal fargo from the RA

Try using rice or and burn the rice away

may i ask how heavy are the blocks?

/work at Selee

Why are you doing this what is the use of ceremic sponge?

i thought this was gonna be like carbon foam to make a super insinuative material but you just put a rock in dye thinking it would aborb dye...

Yikes there’s so many things you did wrong I don’t know your poor size of the sponge, plus whatever ingredients you using aren’t right, yet changed the recipe and you could have some.