[Terrapreta] OT Fiber re-inforced ceramics

[Hunt, Tony]

Hi Kurt

 

The information about the freshwater sponge spicules in the clay used to
make the pottery is amazing.  I don't have any direct experience with
Amazonian freshwater sponges but for a short while I worked on a
research project looking at marine sponges on the Great Barrier Reef,
and I can say with great conviction that speculate sponges are
extraordinarily difficult (and dangerous) to handle, because the
siliceous spicules are like microscopically tiny glass needles - super
fine and SUPER sharp.  Picking up one of these sponges bare-handed
results in hundreds of invisibly small (and transparent) but very
painful glass needles embedded in the skin, which then usually break
when being extracted leaving the tip in the skin, where of course it
gets infected.  All in all, one of the nastiest but most innocuous
marine creatures I've encountered.  

 

So, what really puzzles me is how they could possibly have incorporated
this stuff into the clay - presumably by hand-kneading - without
acquiring crippling or even life-threatening injuries.  Perhaps the
spicules in freshwater sponges are different to marine sponges?

 

Tony Hunt

Group Environment Manager

Transfield Services

North Sydney NSW Australia

 

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

 


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