Comminuted pre-mixtures for technical ceramics production, and ceramic bodies made therefrom, the comminuted pre-mixtures being comprised of cellulosic components and alumina source components and the bodies being produced by compounding the comminuted pre-mixtures with powdered inorganic components into batch mixtures, adding liquids to the batch mixtures to form plastic batches, forming the plastic batches into shaped bodies, and heating the shaped bodies to form the ceramic bodies.