Plainsman Clays | SISA
Silica Sand
Silica sand is a washed and screened quartz sand, graded to a narrow band of grain sizes, with rounded grains. It is added to a clay body as an opener, giving the body texture and structure without adding colour.
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Silica sand helps a clay body stand up while it is being built or worked wet, and it reduces shrinkage and warping through drying. It is very high in quartz and very low in iron, so it opens a body without speckling or darkening it. Where a grain reaches the surface it leaves a small pit, and in a wood or salt firing that texture is often the reason for adding it. Bodies commonly use from a percent or two up to about a tenth of their weight, with the larger additions used in sculpture and handbuilding bodies.
- A washed, screened quartz sand with rounded grains
- Opens a body and helps it stand up for building tall
- Very low in iron, so it does not speckle or darken a body
- Leaves fine pitting where grains reach the surface in a wood or salt firing
