Glaze Calculation Software - Pro's / Con's - Which Program

[Andrea Wolf]

Hi All,

I'm about to start using glaze calculation software and am at a loss for which one to select. I dont really want to pay for more than one but I am kinda stuck as to which one to pick... insight...glazemaster....etc

I was wondering if anyone had done a similar search exercise and weighed the possibilities and what they concluded was best.

Thanks,

Andrea

[George Lewter]

Google drive has an online spreadsheet that is excel compatible, cloud based, and works with most computers and devices.Nothing to install. No cost.

Your spreadsheet is great, Norm. I wonder if you would consider posting a short course on exactly how you would use it with "goal seeking" to get to desirable reformulations of several glazes. I think this is a process that very many of us have difficulties with. Let me know if you are interested in turning it into an interactive, real-time seminar.

[Norm Stuart]

If only I could use a spreadsheet goal-seek function to solve glaze conversion.  A glaze program of that type would require extensive linear programming math.

I find rearranging the ingredients in a glaze a very relaxing pastime I can work on while watching television, similar to the way other people might work on a crossword puzzle where your initial choice of a down column might prove to be the wrong word when you look at the clue for an intersecting row across.

Basically all I do is insert the rows of a number of potential raw materials with column F set to 0%. Being able to see the make-up of all of them across the column quickly leads you to choose a percentage of one over another, which then often lead to a replacement of one of the ingredients you haven't changed for a different raw material which doesn't contribute to a surplus or deficit of an oxide which isn't adding up to your original profile.

There's usually no perfect solution.  On the Slips worksheet page you'll see two solutions for a substitute for the MOK-623 frit Alisa Clausen uses.

The first solution is 74.97% frits (72.66% 3134 Frit and 2.31% 3195 Frit) so melts in a similar way to MOK-623, but you'll notice this solution oversupplies Calcium Oxide by 12.53%. It also relies on soluble materials like Boric Acid and Sodium Carbonate.

The second solution is chemically identical to MOK-623, but only contains 2.31% frit, so will melt very differently and contains even more soluble material.

On the FePO4 spreadsheet page you can see several red iron glazes I was modifying to replace the silica component with isomolecular Iron Phosphate, and as shown below where I was removing the calcium which allegedly works against iron red while maximizing phosphorus which allegedly maximizes the formation and color of red iron oxide.

Through trial and error I've sometimes found a chemically dissimilar glaze which looks identical, which is a different solution.

On the High Fire spreadsheet page you notice in column AW or BH I often create a temporary Comparison column where I can visually focus on the differences between different glazes which look similar, or similar glazes which look very different to try to get a conceptual understanding of what the materials are doing, and see how different people have solved a similar problem.

In this case comparing how the additions copper and titanium turn out differently in a lithium/strontium glaze vs a more typical mix of fluxes with the addition of Zinc Oxide.

I think it would be easier for people to ask questions about the spreadsheet or making substitutions and let myself and others suggest solutions rather than watch a video of essentially how someone works a crossword puzzle.

Having used spreadsheets for so many years it's become my preferred method for collecting information and sorting out my thoughts.  You'll notice I try to add internet links to each cluster of information so I can refer back to the original source if I later need to. Everything from my list of contacts and phone numbers, and my personal budget, invoices, to do lists, medical records and stock trading are stored in Excel sheets, many with sort macros. It's a pretty flexible tool.

George Lewter said:

Google drive has an online spreadsheet that is like excel, cloud based, and works with most computers and devices.Nothing to install. No cost.

Your spreadsheet is great, Norm. I wonder if you would consider posting a short course on exactly how you would use it with "goal seeking" to get to desirable reformulations of several glazes. I think this is a process that very many of us have difficulties with. Let me know if you are interested in turning it into an interactive, real-time seminar.

[Kathy Ransom]

I've downloaded the spreadsheets Norm and WOW!  I'm going to keep an uncorrupted copy so that I don't mess it up while I study them.  My experience with spreadsheets was keeping one for each account I reconciled when I worked as a Finance Manager years ago so will have a bit of a learning curve.  I just watched Tony Hansens video on re-formatting a white silky matte glaze then imported the changed recipe to our Digitalfire account.  He has such a vast knowledge of ceramic materials and I'm hoping your spreadsheet will help me get a handle on some of this.

[Norm Stuart]

I'm delighted you like the Glaze Spreadsheet.  If you have any questions just ask.

I think only the Mastering Cone 6 Glazes are costed-out with links to the Material Cost page, but from that model it's easy to add a "cost column" to any glaze.

My spreadsheets are also our ceramic studio's "institutional memory" of what clay's we've bought at what price and where we keep everything.  It could be quickly changed to adapt to someone else's studio.

[Gina Skillings]

Hi Andrea,

I have been using Glazemaster for many years and like it very much. Unfortunately John Hesselberth will be retiring in a few years so it may eventually not be useable on new computers, although I hope someone decides to keep it going. I have just recently tried out the Cone6pots group version of Insight Live. I find entering glazes more cumbersome with Insight Live as there is not a drop down box as you enter ingredients, which can make entering much more time consuming. I'm guessing that we don't have a full version as I haven't found options yet to see limit formulas next to a recipe here but I thought I saw that option on one of Tony Hansen's videos. I really like that version on Glazemaster and you can choose from different limit formulas. In fact there are all sorts of ways to look at and compare your recipes as well as ingredients, line tests, etc. 

I'd suggest you download Glazemaster and try it out. I see it is available for 60 days to try out. You may be able to do the same with Insight Live. I didn't try any others when I was searching but I did read about them all. 

Have fun!