Joanie

Ron, I'm puzzled by what you were trying to read with your ohm meter. They usually read conductivity, right? Were you trying to read the ability of the pot wall to conduct electricity, because if it did, you would conclude that there was a continuous pathway filled with water? Or enough water in the clay wall to conduct a current?

(Because clay is non-conductive usually, although what about if it has an iron oxide based colorant or glaze? I don't know.... they don't use stoneware for electrical insulation, they use porcelain. Does stoneware have conductive qualities, which are apart from its porosity?)

If you plug the holes in an unglazed stoneware bonsai pot, and fill it with water, no matter how long you let it sit, the water shouldn't seep through the clay walls to the outside. The outside should never be damp. The little chambers between the clay platelets are filled, when the clay is mature, and there is no way for water to find its way from the inside to the outside.

The way they measure porosity is by very accurate weighing, first when the clay body is (fired and) dry, and then when it's been soaking in water for hours or days. The difference between the dry weight and the wet weight is expressed in a percentage. The water that a mature (fired up to its proper cone) stoneware holds within itself is only on the outer walls, where the little open chambers are. There should be no water inside the walls of the clay.

Joanie

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