Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
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That is interesting. I noticed some of my glazes spec when I do a slower cool than I normally do. I want to try your schedule in the future. I might order some of that frit and compare original vs with frit at that temp rate. Thanks for the reply.
The black dots in the slow-cooled glaze come from the glaze ingredients rather than the clay. It looks the same on porcelain.
Norm in the picture below. The warm Jade Green. Are those two pictures on the same clay body?
Or is the one on the right a body with Manganese Granular?
I am curious about this Frit 3269. I might try some of it soon.
Barabara - Even at a fast cool Weathered Bronze Green needed extra flux to become reliable.
But our need to add extra flux and glass, with the additional 20% 3269 Frit, comes from our use of a very slow-cool - 6 hours between 1,800 F and 1,500 F, so 50 F per hour.
This results in additional crystallization which give extra character to most glazes. This example of Randy McCall's Warm Jade is why we use the slow-cool. This was an artistic choice we've used for the past five years to give Cone 6 glazes the look of Cone 10 glazes from a hard-brick kiln which naturally cools far more slowly than a soft-brick kiln. If I wasn't interested in chemistry and re-working glazes we probably wouldn't be doing this.
In some glazes though, like Weathered Bronze Green, this long slow-cool results in all of the glass being taken up in the form of matte mustard-colored crystals. Adding the extra 20% 3269 Ferro Frit adds glass and flux returning the glaze to the same look it had when the kiln cooled rapidly at it's normal rate.
Without our very slow-cooling schedule the extra frit may not be needed.
This is what the unaltered recipe for Pete's Seafoam Green looks like after our very slow-cool. Adding extra frit would likely make it look more like your bowl, or perhaps something else entirely.
These photos of Sapphire show what happens as the cooling through the crystallization temperature zone is slowed. Using our very slow-cool one-dip is fully crystallized and doesn't appeal to me. Two dips and three dips f Sapphire have a lot of character while still retaining some of the color of the fast cool tile.
Adding an extra 10% to 20% of a frit is will make the glaze glossier, although it might end up looking quite unlike the original as with this Clear Base Blue Recipe. Adding the extra 10% 3269 makes the glaze glossy again in a slow-cool, but quite a different glaze than the original.
When adding the 20% 3269 frit, do you eliminate or changer any of the other ingredients? The recipe I use for Weathered Bronze follows -
STRONTIUM WEATHERED BRONZE (Frog Pond Green)
This is a great weathered-looking glaze. The bronze goes from a clear, bright green to a brownish bruised green and is suited to all clay body colors, although it is best on tans.
60% Nepheline Syenite
20% Strontium Carbonate
1% Lithium Carbonate
10% Ball Clay-Old Mine #4
9% Silica
ADD:
5.0% Copper Carb
5.0% Titanium Dioxide
2.0% Bentonite
This is a Pete Pinnell’s strontium glaze tweaked by John Hesselberth. Needles to say, the fired color of both the Seafoam and Weathered Bronze are almost identical but the Seafoam glaze really goes on nicer and seems to fire more evenly.
Here's the Seafoam recipe:
Pete’s Seafoam Glaze ^5/6
9.6% Ferro Frit 3134
51.3% Feldspar-Kona F4
25.5% Strontium Carbonate
12% EPK
ADD:
5.0% Copper Carb
5.0% Titanium Dioxide
2.0% Bentonite
These are the latest results, now adding 20% 3269 Ferro Frit to Weathered Bronze Green.
Being better fluxed, the glaze no longer requires thick coverage.
Ferro Frit 3269 is a high expansion "crackle frit" which adds Sodium and Potassium flux for brighter colors and expansion, along with Boron.
http://digitalfire.com/4sight/material/ferro_frit_3269_371.html
Interesting. I making Weathered Bronze Green into a more reliable glaze for us by adding frit.
I've found the added Soda and Potassium of either Ferro Frit 3269 or 3110 can brighten a lot of glazes, especially any glaze that looks too dry. Adding 16% 3269 to Weathered Bronze Green is almost enough, 25% is too much, so some tiles with 20% go in the kiln next.
I've also made three batches, one with Lithium Carbonate, the second with Spodumene and the third with Lithium Fluoride. The tile with Lithium Fluoride (the most powerful of the three lithium fluxes as both the lithium and the fluoride in the molecule both act as fluxes) with the 16% 3269 Frit is obviously displaying the highest degree of melt.
I've seen Weathered Bronze Green fire to a light yellow, dark mustard, and black. With the added frit it's now coming out better. Three coats on the top 1/3, then two, and one towards the bottom. Obviously it comes out best in the dimples, so perhaps the glaze accumulates there.
I want a glaze that fires in our firing schedule with slow-cool to a reliable weathered bronze.
Lithium Fluoride, no frit, 3% 3269, 6% 3269, 16% 3269
Lithium Carbonate, no frit, 3% 3269, 6% 3269, 16% 3269
Spodumene, no frit, 3% 3269, 6% 3269, 16% 3269
I found it. Alisa Clausen's photo of Pete Pinnell's glaze is different to mine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glazes/1086339415/in/photostream/
My tile fired to Cone 6, 60 min hold, slow cool 50F per hour between 1,800 and 1,500.
Low cost flat lapping disc can be used on you potters wheel if you, drill bat pin holes in it, and provide a trickle of water to cool it. At amazon.com, 120 grit for aggressive material removal. Click the image to purchase
Members have had great things to say about John Britt's new book, Mid-Range Glazes. Click the image to buy from Amazon.com
Purchase Glazes Cone 6 by Michael Bailey, The Potters Book of Glaze Recipes by Emmanuel Cooper, or Making Marks by Robin Hopper, all available at amazon.com. Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth & Ron Roy is now out of print.
Harbor Freight is a great place to find unbeatable prices for better HVLP spray guns with stainless steel parts and serviceable economy models, as well as detail guns, all tested by our members for spraying glazes, as well as compressors to power the guns. As yet no one has tested and commented on the remarkably inexpensive air brushes at harbor freight.
The critter siphon gun is a spray alternative that is well liked by some of our members, and is available at amazon.
Amazon is also a competitive source for photo light tents for shooting professional quality pictures of your work. They also have the EZ Cube brand favored by several of our members. You might also want to purchase the book Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles . . .
If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera
Following are a few scales useful for potters. Ohaus Triple Pro Mechanical Triple Beam Balance, 2610g x 0.1g, with Tare $169.00
And finally a low cost clone of the OHaus. The Adam Equipment TBB2610T Triple Beam Mechanical Balance With Tare Beam $99.62
ebay is a great alternative for many tools and the equipment used in the ceramics studio - kilns, wheels, extruders, slab rollers are often listed there both new and used.
If you just want to spout off, it is best accomplished as a blog posting. If you want to get more guidance and ideas from other members, ask a question as a new discussion topic. In the upper right corner of the lists for both types of posting, you will find an "+Add " button. Clicking it will open an editor where you create your posting. 4/16/2014
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