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In the most basic terms possible, pottery is the process and result of shaping clay into forms and heating it to a high enough temperature to cause the molecular particles to bind together and form a unified structure. That solidifying temperature varies with the clay used.
Earthenware is a porous, low fire clay that is used in a great deal of both decorative and functional pottery. (Almost all other cat fountains are made of this.) Much of the pottery that comes from China and other countries is earthenware as this is much less expensive to produce, both in materials as well as firing costs. Think of all the colorful pottery from Mexico. That is earthenware. Very light weight and unless glazed or painted, porous.
Most of the techniques we use at ThirstyCats to create ceramic fountains have been in use for thousands of years. The first evidence of wheel-throwing dates from three thousand years B.C. and of course hand-building is much older. Those are our primary processes. Â But not the only ones we use.
Because of its mechanical and chemical makeup, earthenware can only to be fired to under fourteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond that the clay itself begins to melt. Nevertheless, though structurally weak, all the fragments of ancient civilizations found around the world are of low-fire, earthenware clay. It may not be strong within itself but there are no natural elements that can destroy it.
It wasn’t until the 1400’s that Porcelain and Stoneware were developed. (We make ninety five percent of our fountains from stoneware, none of earthenware.) It matures, or vitrifies – becomes non-porous) – at about two thousand two hundred and thirty two degrees F., creating a very strong structure.
Traditional porcelain fires to as high as twenty six hundred degrees F. However, another porcelain was developed that fires as low as stoneware, 2300 degrees and we do use this. It has most of the qualities (translucence, whiteness, really hard to work with, etc.) of traditional porcelain and we intend to use more of it.)
As the talents of our artists have matured and new talent has joined us we are now offering handmade sculpture fountains that can be used as cat fountains but are considerably more expensive and intended as scuptural art for home decor.
These are larger, more complicated fountain scenes and vignettes which take considerably more time to make so are offered as significantly higher prices. Below are a few examples.
