What kind of clay?

While working with clay before you start you need to figure out what kind of clay you want to use. The clay that you pick can greatly affect what you do with that clay. There are many different types of clay that can be different colors and get fired at different temperatures. When you fire a clay they go to different "cones." The cone is the level of heat that you put the clay under when you put it in the kiln. What cone the clay can handle must be known before you put it in the kiln. Clays come naturally in colors that are red, tan, and white but different chemicals can be added to make other, brighter colors. The Dow art department buys its clay from Runyan pottery supply and gets thousands of pounds of clay for each school year. The large amounts of clay are broken into the multiple types that are ordered. Dow High keeps on hand earthenware, stoneware, and Terra-cotta red clay with stoneware being most often used for throwing. Stoneware is a high fire clay that is a  vanilla color once it has been fired, though it can have a rainbow of glaze colors applied.

Click here for a link to Runyan to look at their products.