Alie Ward

We have a great geology two-parter that we'll link for you.

To make fine china, you need this kaolin and some minerals like the soft stone alabaster, which was later swapped out for feldspar because you could fire it at lower temperatures.

Now, other things you could add to this fine white clay kaolin are bones, straight-up ground-up bones that have been set on fire and then mashed around.

Some bone china...

contains nearly half ground-up bone.

And why was this?

Oh, well, one porcelain maker had a shop right near a bunch of slaughterhouses and was like, holy smokes, boy howdy, why not add some frickin' bone to this stuff?

Looks great.

What do we call it?

Bone China?

No notes.

Moving on.

Love it.

And what about the types of clay?

I mean, I think about like terracotta clay and I think about red clay and white clays.

Are there different types that are regional?

And do you have to purify them before you make something with them?

Is that why there might be bubbles that explode?

I love these people.

And I went down a hole looking up abandoned kaolin quarries where the clay is washed out from the decomposing granite.