Clay Body Blend Calculator
Clay & Shrinkage
claycalc.com
Clay Body Blend Calculator
Blend two clay bodies by percentage and predict the shrinkage and absorption of the resulting mix.
Reviewed by ClayCalc Editorial · Updated
Body A
Body B (auto: 100% − Body A)
Results
Enter your measurements above and click Calculate.
Why Blend Clay Bodies?
Ceramic artists blend two or more clay bodies to fine-tune working properties, fired color, shrinkage rate, or texture. A common example is blending a throwing body with a groggy sculpture clay to reduce cracking in thick hand-built forms, or combining porcelain with stoneware to achieve translucency with better workability.
Linear Interpolation Method
This calculator uses linear interpolation to estimate the blended body's shrinkage and water absorption. If Body A is 12% shrinkage and Body B is 8%, a 50/50 blend is estimated at 10%. This approximation holds well when the two bodies have similar chemistry. Large differences (more than 4%) introduce non-linear behavior — always test a small sample first.
Compatibility Considerations
Shrinkage Difference
Bodies with more than 4% difference in total shrinkage may create internal stresses in the blend. Fire test bars to confirm.
Firing Temperature
Both bodies must be compatible at the same peak temperature. Blending a cone 06 earthenware with cone 10 stoneware will not work.
Method & review note
About this calculation
Uses measured dimensions or weights and a stated arithmetic model. Clay and forming method vary, so production decisions should use test pieces from the actual body and firing.
Reference: Digitalfire — Drying Shrinkage. See the editorial methodology for testing, precision and corrections.
Input handling: Values are sent to the ClayCalc server for this request and are not written to the application database.