Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics
Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
The Accidental Glaze Project
The Accidental Glaze Project
“Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.”
Mark Twain
Has this happened to you? Out of the kiln comes a new set of glaze tests. One of the tests is incredibly beautiful!! It’s a blood red at cone 6 or a green glaze with only cobalt as a colorant or maybe it’s just the best glaze you’ve seen. You want to share it with the world! But then you realize:
a) That was the test you tossed in 10 grams of… (oh gosh what was that) just to see what would happen.
b) It’s the garbage (scrap) glaze
c) You know what’s in it then try to reproduce it and it doesn’t work. It could be the firing cycle but you can’t be sure.
d) You were sure you would remember that formulation
Usually when we design glazes we do just that. There is a huge amount of information out there to help you guide your testing process. What we don’t do often enough is go outside those guidelines. Over 30% of great discoveries are accidental. Scrap or garbage glazes are a perfect example, rarely are they just 5 or 6 ingredients in intelligent well thought out proportions. Likely you will have upwards of 15 different ingredients. This large number of variables can have the most amazing results. Remember how hard it was to reproduce “Albany Slip”?
Enter “The Accidental Glaze Project”
Project goals:
The goal of this project is to gather a very large number of accidental glazes (any glaze with an accidental component to them). Through the efficiencies of numbers and the donations of volunteers (testing and administration) we reduce the cost of a full spectrum mineralogical analysis from $100 USD to less than $15 USD (The goal is $10 USD)
From this we make a publication and you or your studio can get full credit for its discovery.
PS (This is a green project encouraging potters to keep their cast away glazes instead of discarding them.)
There are many roles to take in this project. You can be a partner, participant or something in between. If you are interested in finding out what your accidental glaze is, or you want to be published or you just can’t wait to see what everyone’s accidental glaze contains, or you’re a glaze intellectual and want to see what new discoveries this project can uncover.
Let me know if you would like to participate and what role you would like to play. This is definitely a group project.
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Use These Links to Support Us
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.
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If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera
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Tips for Members
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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