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Working with porcelain clay may scare you in the beginning but once you've learned how  porcelain differs from other clay mediums, you will be hooked and really enjoy to work with it. 
A note from Antoinette:
During those early days of presenting workshops globally, my English language skills were still developing. Although I still occasionally struggle to find my words in English, my proficiency has improved significantly, which I am very grateful for. Growing up and even as a young adult, despite being exposed to English,  Afrikaans was our main language.  
Hand building porcelain can be as easy or as intricate as a potter wants to do it. Antoinette likes to use translucency in her sculpted porcelain bowls. She use any clay technique to create her ceramic art.
Antoinette shares some of her porcelain secrets in this behind-the-scenes look at one of her first porcelain workshops in Canada. She shows how you can take a leather-hard porcelain bowl and safely bring it back to a soft, workable state—then reshape or sculpt it into a beautiful new form.
You’ll see how she creates a press mold and turns it into a bowl, while explaining why it’s important for potters to truly understand porcelain as a material and build a relationship with it.
Antoinette likes to call porcelain a “diva” 😄 because it has its own personality and needs to be handled with care. She even touches on the history of porcelain to help explain its unique characteristics.
The video features highlights from her hands-on workshop, where she teaches both handbuilding and wheel-throwing techniques. Since that first workshop, Antoinette has gone on to teach porcelain classes around the world

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Orange press molded porcelain bowl, envelope formed on a wheel thrown pedestal.

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Chartreuse green press molded porcelain bowl, envelope formed on a wheel thrown pedestal.

Antoinette's porcelain classes whether it is online or hands-on is loaded with explanations and tips and is suitable for beginner to advanced potters.  She provides a variety of porcelain tips and compare them with regular pottery techniques. Her workshops are normally a mix between wheel throwing and hand building techniques. See Antoinettes Ceramic Workshops
Tags:
​#PorcelainSecrets, #WorkingWithPorcelain, #PorcelainClay, #CeramicTechniques, #PotteryTips, #HandbuildingCeramics, #WheelThrowing, #PorcelainWorkshop, #CeramicArtist, #PorcelainByAntoinette, #AntoinetteBadenhorst, #StudioPottery, #ClayLife, #CeramicsEducation
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TeachinArt, an online school of ceramics and art, was founded in 2014 by Koos and Antoinette Badenhorst. They started with online pottery instruction and have since expanded their offerings to include numerous classes and instructors.

Our detailed pottery video lessons are available at affordable prices, allowing students from all over the world to participate in our workshops. Our school’s motto, “From the artist to the artist,” reflects our commitment to fostering a community of artists.

You can watch our videos anytime of the day, from any technological platform of your choice, regardless of your location. ​ See more about Antoinette's online workshops at TeachinArt online workshops.
Antoinette Badenhorst presents a wide range of professional online pottery and porcelain workshops through TeachinArt, the online school of art she co-founded with Koos Badenhorst. Her classes focus on porcelain, handbuilding, wheel throwing, glazing, design, and technical ceramic skills for beginners through advanced potters. 
Popular workshops include:
  • Understanding Porcelain
  • Porcelain Handbuilding
  • Wheel Thrown Porcelain Dinnerware
  • Handbuilding Porcelain Dinnerware
  • Wheel Thrown Teapots
  • Pinching Teapots for Beginners
  • Glazing Made Easy 

​Antoinette is widely recognized for her detailed instruction on translucent porcelain, often referred to in her teaching as the “Diva of Clay.” Her online workshops combine close-up demonstrations, professional studio techniques, design principles, firing methods, and direct interaction with students. 
The TeachinArt format allows students to learn at their own pace through professionally recorded video lessons while maintaining direct access to the instructor for questions and guidance throughout the course. 
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​Porcelain clay demands just as much technique and maybe more. It is not so much that the Diva wants to be difficult, but you know she is a water addict right? That means she will drink in as much water as quickly as she can and just when you think she is satisfied, she collapses on you!
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Knowing Curt Benzle has been a blessing in many ways. Not only is his work inspirational in nature, but as a person, his insight into the art business is encouraging. 
As a college professor, he realized that students need more than art education to become successful. Therefore, over a period of 20 years, he developed a course to help get students knowledge of how to be successful in the art of business. All Artists Making A Living (AAMAL) is now available as a 10-week online class at TeachinArt.
Listen to the stories from his days as a young artist, finding his way with porcelain, becoming an artist, and seeing his work in the library of the Whitehouse. ​
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Curt mixed his own porcelain clay early on. Translucent porcelain was not readily available in America. He has a funny story about it.

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He uses a razor thin knife to cut the patterns with which he forms his bowls.

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The natural tendency of porcelain to crack is not a problem in his hands. He enhance those with golden inlays, called kintsugi.

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A page from an article about the process of his work.

Classes at TeachinArt  ( Teach in Art)
​If you are interested in becoming an online instructor in any art form, you can contact us. ​
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Throwing porcelain, altering porcelain, pinching porcelain and understanding porcelain are all elements of the "Diva" of clay that are included in the online porcelain classes of Antoinette Badenhorst. Students learn to push their own limits and are challenged to show the translucency in porcelain. Video clips show workshops in Canada, South Africa as well as snippets from porcelain e-courses that Antoinette presented.
Antoinette taught classes in Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and France. Her classes in several countries in Europe for 2020/2021 was  unfortunately canceled due to COVID.
See more about her international workshops.
You may even want to attend one of her USA workshops hands-on workshops in her own studio in the USA. 
She is currently continuing to teach online. See her online pottery classes at TeachinArt
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Porcelain has long had the reputation of being a difficult clay body to work with. Much of this reputation comes not from forming the clay, but from understanding the firing process. Porcelain responds very specifically to heat and temperature, kiln design, glaze fit, and especially to the way it cools after firing.
By understanding the relationship between raw materials, firing temperature, and cooling cycles, potters can make informed decisions about kilns, clay bodies, and firing schedules that lead to strong and reliable porcelain work.
Now that we have to established the concept of porcelain and the distinctions between high-firing and low-firing types, and how to determine the appropriate kiln for your studio needs.

 The Tradition of High-Firing

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David is one of the instructors at Teachinart. See his profile here: Click on the image to go to his profile.

​If you are a "purist" who believes only in high-fired porcelain, you may find yourself drawn to wood firing. This was the original process used when porcelain was a secret known only to the Chinese. Wood firing offers a unique interaction between fly ash and the clay body that modern kilns struggle to replicate.
However, if your goal is a reliable studio experience with the authentic appearance of porcelain, any firing range from Cone 6 to Cone 10 should suffice.
Low-temperature porcelain requires a carefully balanced recipe. A helpful analogy is a cake that appears golden brown on the outside while still raw inside. The surface may look finished, but internally the material has not fully matured.
To achieve translucency at lower temperatures, the clay body often needs more glass-forming materials and less clay. While this promotes vitrification, it also reduces the plasticity of the clay body, making it more difficult to work with.
Plasticizers such as bentonite, Macaloid, or Veegum T may be added to enhance workability. However, these materials introduce additional variables, including changes in drying behavior and shrinkage and thixotropy of the clay.
Historically, soft-paste porcelain was developed in Europe as an attempt to imitate Chinese porcelain before the true formula for hard-paste porcelain was understood. Although beautiful, soft-paste porcelain is generally weaker than traditional high-fired porcelain.
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Wood fired translucent porcelain bowl by David Voorhees

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Translucent sculpted porcelain bowl by Antoinette Badenhorst

The Limits of Electric Kilns

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Functional porcelain objects by Antoinette Badenhorst.

Beyond these temperatures, the technical challenges mount.
Firing exceeding 1285°C (2345°F) requires stable fluxes to work with refractory silica and kaolin, melting the clay into glass while maintaining its form.
To my knowledge, standard electric pottery kilns rarely reach temperatures higher than Cone 12–14 (1360°C).
​If you are aware of a manufacturer producing electric kilns capable of exceeding Cone 14, please share that information in the comments!

The Science of Low-Fire Porcelain

Firing below 1220°C (2228°F) is possible in almost any kiln, but the chemistry changes. At lower temperatures, we must use frits—expensive, factory-produced fluxes.
The challenge here is that silica and kaolin are highly refractory (resistant to melting). If the heating isn't perfectly even, you end up with excess free quartz, which weakens the ceramic because insufficient cristobalite forms.
The Cake Analogy: Low-firing porcelain is like a cake baked golden brown on the outside but raw in the middle. It requires a delicate balance of raw materials, making the recipe "fussy" and prone to failure if mining sources change.
To achieve translucency at low temperatures, you need more glass-forming materials and less clay. This makes the clay less pliable. While plasticizers like Bentonite or VeeGum T can help workability, they introduce their own set of complications.
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Low fired Porcelain by Bryan Hopkins.

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Porcelain cup with crazed glaze.

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Note the thick glaze layer in this bowl. In this case the glaze application was too thick and the bowl dunted.

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Terra sigilata shiver off the clay body

Understanding the "Body-Glaze" Bond

Common Firing Defects
Defect
Cause
Appearance
Crazing
Glaze contracts faster than the clay during cooling
A network of fine cracks in the glaze.
Shivering
Clay contracts significantly more than the glaze.
Glaze peels off like paint chips; edges are razor-sharp.
Dunting
Cooling too fast, creating thermal shock. Too much glaze in comparison with the clay can also cause dunting. 
The pot cracks or breaks in two (sometimes weeks later).
Because porcelain is a dense material containing 10%+ cristobalite, it is highly sensitive during two critical cooling periods:
  1. 573°C (1063°F): The Quartz Inversion.
  2. 226°C (439°F): The Cristobalite Inversion.
If the kiln cools too quickly during these windows, the tension will break the piece.
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Kiln controler to make sure the speed of the firing is under control.

Recommendations for Buyers:
  • Electronic Controllers: Highly recommended. They allow you to program a "slow cool" or "down-fire" to ensure the clay and glaze contract in concert.
  • Manual Control: If you don't have a controller, close all vents (peep holes) once the kiln reaches a "yellow-orange" heat (approx. 1000°C) to prevent drafts.
  • The Golden Rule: Never open the kiln above 200°C (392°F). Sudden airflow can cause a delicate piece to disintegrate instantly.
Pro Tip: Using Saggars
If you fire in a community studio or a mixed kiln with stoneware, consider using saggars. These lidded containers act as a "kiln within a kiln," protecting the porcelain from drafts and slowing the cooling process naturally.

Final Thoughts

Working successfully with porcelain requires understanding more than just the clay itself. Firing temperature, glaze fit, cooling cycles, and kiln design all play critical roles in the strength and durability of the finished piece.
When potters respect porcelain’s need for controlled heating and especially slow cooling, they unlock the remarkable qualities that have made porcelain one of the most admired ceramic materials in history.
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One of the clay tests for a translucent ^6 porcelain. The flux was too powerful. Seem ore about this under clay recipes.

Antoinette present porcelain workshops
​in her studio as well as online at TeachinArt
Tags:
High-fire porcelain, Low-fire porcelain, Electric kilns for porcelain, Kiln cooling cycle, Crazing,  Shivering, Porcelain translucency. porcelain pottery, firing porcelain, porcelain kiln firing, ceramic firing temperatures, cone 10 porcelain, pottery kiln guide, porcelain glaze fit, crazing and shivering, dunting in ceramics, ^6 porcelain clay, ceramic materials science, porcelain cooling cycle, pottery kiln tips,