Another way to repair

You may have used Magic Water and/or a clay/paper/sodium silicate slurry to repair you pieces or join handles to your cups and bowls, but here's another possibility from fellow potter, John Wear.

" My favorite attaching slip is the Martha Grover version she suggested in PMI. Two or three sheets of low grade toilet tissue, half a cup of vinegar, and half a cup, or so, of your clay dried out to bone dry and crushed to 1/4" and smaller chunks (if you are in a hurry, flatten out your clay into paper thin pieces and it will dry out overnight; for a super hurry, direct a hairdryer or heat gun on the pieces and watch them dry before your eyes.) First dissolve the paper into the vinegar by swishing it around until it breaks up and becomes a slurry, then add the clay and mix the whole into a paste consistency, add clay or vinegar to adjust. Then cover the container. It is best if you let this work overnight, as the vinegar breaks down the clay and the mix gets foamy. I use a small, stiff, brush to pick up the slip and apply it to scored clay and work it into the scored area of each piece to be joined. It works well. You can patch cracks with this, or even use it to build back bits that may have broken off, or add profile to a pot. Unlike paper slip I have made using water and clay or throwing slurry, I do not find the vinegar made slip to have the stinky mold issue if you keep it closed up between uses. When it dries out and stiffens, I add a bit of vinegar to bring it back to working consistency.

It can, with luck, even join small bisque ware pieces if you are careful to wet both pieces and don't handle the repair much after."

Give it a try and share your results.

Wes