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Pottery Coffee Mug

Safe Pottery Glazes for Food

I am trying to re-create a coffee mug as a gift for someone.

Do you know of a clay or glaze I can use so that it can actually be used as a coffee mug?

Thanks for any advice! (I am totally new to all things clay.)

Emily

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If you’re interested in working with real clay which is fired in a kiln at very high heat (high-fired), yes there are glazes that are safe for eating utensils.

Since a kiln is required, the best way to begin is to sign up for a class with an expert. You will find classes where the greenware (unfired clay form pottery) is provided and you are taught how to glaze the piece.

If you want the full pottery experience, find a class where you will be taught to throw and form the wet clay to make your own greenware. It’s really an amazing feeling and sight to have the pot or vase or whatever form between your fingers as the potting wheel spins.

Well okay, nine times out of ten it doesn’t form but rather collapses into a heap on the wheel – that is, until you get the knack of not working the clay too thin.

Your expert teacher will know all about pottery glaze safety as well as safety precautions necessary during the potting process.

Basically for food, lead-free glazes are required. If you are working with powdered glazes, a respiratory mask is advisable. Solvent-based (wet) glazes require good ventilation in the studio. Gloves should be worn when handling any glaze.

To learn more about clay potting, check out Ken George’s Pottery the Art site. It’s one of the best how-to sites I’ve ever seen.

Using Polymer Clay for Food Use

If you’re interested in clay crafting you can do without a kiln, there is a bit of controversy about using polymer clay for food utensils.

Polymer clay is not true clay. “Real” clay is composed of fine particles of silicate suspended in water. Polymer “clay”, on the other hand, is composed of fine particles of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspended in plasticizer (diisononyl phthalate or DINP).

Residual DINP can remain in the clay after firing, and this plasticizer could theoretically leach out into food that touches even the fired clay. So the question is, “Are small amounts of ingested plasticizer harmful to humans?”

Study after study worldwide has concluded there is little danger. Yet, because of the concern over ingestion of DINP, polymer clay manufacturers have taken the conservative route of placing warnings on their packages like “Pottery or dishes made from _________ should be used for decorative purposes only, not with food, beverages or smoking materials.”

If you’d like to read the facts for yourself, visit the Consumer Products Safety Commission website. For a distillation, in laymen’s terms, of the many studies done, read the study done by Phthalates.Org.

To summarize, the only use of DINP which has been restricted anywhere in the world is its addition to rubber toys and other items that would be mouthed by infants for several hours a day.

Even at that, the limit was set at 100 times less than the amount deemed dangerous for infants. Furthermore, more and more studies are concluding the testing, which has been done with rodents and links DINP to cancer and liver damage, is not even applicable to humans.

As I said earlier, the manufacturers’ of polymer clay and most users’ of polymer clay choose to take the “better safe than sorry” approach and not use polymer clay for items intended for food or beverages.

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