Steven Hill Oxidation Project

Achieving atmospheric glaze effects in electric kilns at mid-fire temperatures, through the layering of sprayed glazes. The starting point recipes are given in two discussions "Strontium Crystal Magic . . ." and "The Companion Glazes"

Load Previous Comments
  • Teresa Wooden

    Nice photos! Although Steven doesn't use a respirator when spraying (inside or outside), please be aware that it is the safest way to go about it. Some of his glazes (or any other glazes) have some toxic elements you don't really want to be breathing.
  • CM Partin

    I am Steven's resident artist. Good news! We are now successfully firing at cone six. Great results... Beautiful rich colored pots.
  • Robert Seele

    Would you be able to post Steven's firing schedule here.
  • CM Partin

    Steven has placed a cone 6 bowl on the home page of his web site.... www.stevenhillpottery.com
  • CM Partin

    Steven has posted about 25 cone 6 pots on his Facebook page. You don't have to be friends to look at them.
  • CM Partin

    Yes, the home page pot and the Facebook photos are truly fired to cone 6. He and I reformulated all his glazes to work at this temperature. He no longer fires to cone 8.
  • CM Partin

    As a resident artist I have to send you to www.stevenhillpottery.com and ask you to email him directly from the sight. I do not have the authority to release his info. But I know he will be happy to discuss everything with you.
  • George Lewter

    This group was set up in Sept. of 09 after I attended Steven's Oxidation vs. Reduction workshop. It was my hope that he would participate and take a leadership role here, but for his own reasons or time constraints he does not participate.
    Rather than asking for Steven and his resident artist to give us the results and benefits of their work, we should be continuing to work on our own taking the work forward. The base recipes are published at Lakeside Pottery. Strontium Crystal Magic has strontium, lithium, calcium, and alumina, which are all crystal forming components in addition to their fluxing or stabilizing properties in the glaze melt. We know that SCM will melt at cone 6, but that is at the very low end of it's range and it might not give all the interative effects that we see when it's fired higher. Our job is to lower the melting point just a little, and retain the interactive qualities that are so desirable. Any one have any ideas on how we might do that? Anyone willing to do some testing to check out those ideas?
  • CM Partin

    I can tell you that SCM, the watercolors, the juicy fruits and pier black have not been changed. Ferro Frit 3124 and 3134 work well in the lowering process. We due to my tests have even added a few new cone 6 glazes which all of you can do since they are so numerous.
    It is my recommendation that you all use Hyerglaze or Insight to balance your formulas (recipes). It's not hard just time consuming.
    George I am just trying to get everyone excited not give all the answers. I was a member before before I was his resident. But I agree that everyone should be doing their own work and not depending on someone to tell them what to do or hold their hands. I cannot due to proprietary restraints.
    I guess I do whole-heartedly agree with you! Everyone get to work.
    REMEMBER HIS EMAIL IS ON HIS WEBSITE...www.stevenhillpotteyr.com.
  • CM Partin

    Genie, please accept my apology. I am sorry and embarrassed.
  • CM Partin

    Steven is on the road but has an iPhone now so he can bet text and emails. sahill@me.com. He is great returning emails. Just takes a few days sometimes.
  • Teresa Wooden

    Thought I'd post a pic of a couple recent experiments with some of Steven's glazes, some of Coyote's glazes, on stoneware at cone six.

  • Teresa Wooden

    Another casserole with Steven's glazes and Coyote's, on stoneware at cone six. (I use Coyote's Rust Brown and Shino for the orange/tawny color, as I've had trouble with spotted black.) SCM base, Hannah's fake ash very lightly, Rust Brown, splash of Shino, MC6G Spearmint, 2D blue.

  • Teresa Wooden

    Oh, that's SCMO, not SCM, and I also sprayed Pier Black.
  • CM Partin

    Beautiful pots! What kin of spray booth do you use?
  • Teresa Wooden

    Thanks, still working out the kinks. My husband built a spray booth using an "all house" fan and some pvc piping to run water down the walls. He has plans to build an improved version this winter. Works pretty well.
  • Dave Hodapp

    Teresa:
    Beautiful cassaroles. Both style and glazing. May I ask what is SCMO? I am familiar with the other glazes but don't recognize SCMO.

    Thanks
  • Teresa Wooden

    Strontium Crystal Magic for Orange.
  • Michele Hartung

    Teresa, thanks for showing your beautiful work. I have been having trouble with the spotted black also. How are you using both the Shino and Rust Brown to obtain the orange, are they layered one over the other or used independently. Which gives you the richest orange?
  • Teresa Wooden

    Michele, spraying the Coyote Rust Brown over SCMO will give a nice soft matte warm brown surface with some almost dark plum margins. I wanted more orange, so tried spraying a streak of Coyote Shino over the Rust Brown, and it gives a nice gloss orange splash. MC6G Spearmint gives a soft green, think I'll apply it heavier next time.
  • George Lewter

    One of the effects I like is the sparse "snowflakes" that Steven was getting by very lightly laying 2D blue over the other glazes.  I haven't gotten it to work for me. Is this working for anyone else?  Do you have any specific info on how to get it to work?  Should it be large droplets or a fine mist that gathers together?  Which other glazes does it work with?

  • George Lewter

     Does anyone have the colorant percentage for Water Color Blue? I have the green recipe, but not the blue.

  • Teresa Wooden

    2D blue works for me on most all glazes.  I spray it lightly.  My sprayers don't make a fine mist...more of an atomized mist but not big droplets.  A couple things I've noted if it is sprayed heavily...makes a big splotch instead of snowflakes; and if on a gloss glaze on porcelain will run like crazy.

  • John Lowes

    Question on December 12, 2010 at 3:27pm :

     Does anyone have the colorant percentage for Water Color Blue? I have the green recipe, but not the blue.

     

    I am fresh off of a Steven Hill workshop 4/10/2011.  If the recipe you have for WC Green has 8% copper carb, reduce that to 6% copper carb and add 1% cobalt carb per Steven Hill.

  • J dubats

    I will be attending Steven's workshop this summer and I am looking forward to reading about others results post workshop. I would also like to ask previous attendees how many bisque pieces they took for glazing.
  • John Lowes

    I expect this will be limited more by where you are taking the workshop than by the workshop format itself.  In my instance, the workshop flier said bring up to (lol) two small pots to glaze and fire.  Since the workshop was local to me, and I intended to fire my own pots, I asked the workshop's venue director if the limitation was for firing or glaze amount.  He indicated firing, so I asked him if I could discretely fire two more, to which he agreed.  The glazing was set up in 11 spraying workstations, so my adding a couple more didn't affect anyone else. I also saw a number of folks glazing more than two, some many more. My workshop was a two day, one day Steven demonstrating throwing, the next glazing.  Firing was post workshop, so no next day critiques.
  • Joe Shaw

    I just started the micro-crystalline glazing techniques used by Steven Hill. Attached is a photo of Lager glasses glazed with SCM, White Satin Matte and Randy's Red. Note the gold crystals in the RR.Lager.jpg

  • Joe Shaw

    This is a bowl with SCM and Weathered Bronze Green (Pete Pinnell). Pretty dry. Considering the base for Weathered Bronze Green is Pinnell Strontium Matte. I'm going to be trying the Pinnell Strontium Matte as you would with SCM. It has double the Strontium. We'll see.SCM &
  • Joe Shaw

    Is anyone using pedestals and.or catch basins? Or do all of your glazes behavie nicely and stop just before touching the kiln shelves?
  • George Lewter

    I took to heart Steven's advice and example of putting flanged glaze catcher feet on most pots, and it works most of the time to stop glazes from running off my pots. If you are pushing the envelope of glaze layering effects, you are inevitably going to be chipping, scraping, and grinding shelves on occasion. If that isn't happening with some regularity, then you may be too timid with your application of glazes, and will likely miss some spectacular effects.
  • June Perry

    George, Wright's Water color blue:

     

    Wright’s Water Blue Glaze
    (Cone 1–6)
    Lithium Carbonate. 3 %
    Strontium Carbonate. 9
    Frit 3110 . 59
    Edgar Plastic Kaolin . 12
    Flint. 17
    100 %
    Add: Bentonite. 2 %
    Copper Carbonate. 5 %
  • June Perry

    George, I don't have the recipe for SCM close by, but if it has potash feldspar, try subbing Neph Sye for the Custer, or other spar. That can lower the maturation of the glaze by two cones. That's one quick fox to try. If that isn't enough, you can lower the clay content by 5, for instance, and up the frit by 5. These are qucik fixes to try without having to run the glaze through a glaze chemistry software.

    Often, glazes listed as cone 10 for instance, may actually work one or two cones lower or higher, and the Neph Sy substitution may be enough to reach a desire result.

     

  • Charna Schwartz

    have you asked Steven Hill?

  • Teresa Wooden

    Just watched Steven's new video ('The Surface Techniques of Steven Hill').  He has a nice clear demo on spraying glazes that this group might find helpful.

  • pat parker

    I have this video also.  I wonder if the glaze recipes in this video are suitable for bisque?

  • Teresa Wooden

    I use Steven's glazes on both bisque and greenware.  They should be a little thicker if you're glazing greenware, I think.  Otherwise they're fine.

  • Dave Hodapp

    Does the DVD (The Surface Techniques of Steven Hill) include firing schedules?

  • Tracy Minarik

    <---- Has firing for both bisque & Greeenware...

    tracy@bluewaterspottery.com

    Just sayin....

  • Teresa Wooden

    Dave, yes I think it does.  At least it says "firing schedules and recipes" on the bonus features.  I haven't looked at them yet.  But as Tracy just suggested, the firing schedules for bisque and greenware are different.  The main difference is that the greenware program will ramp slowly and will essentially put a slow "bisque" ahead of the main firing program.  At least that's my impression.

  • Dave Hodapp

    Thanks for the responses. I'll go ahead and order the DVD.

  • Tracy Minarik

    Sarah ~

    I use the smaller of the two Harbor Freight guns for all my spraying.  The nozzle right up front of you , if you turn it all the way in , will spray a perfect circle instead of a wide vertical/horizontal line...  Excellent way to spray for the detail accent colors...!

  • Ceci

    I've used the spray guns from Harbor Freight.  It's ok but seems to clog often. I've since bought a gravity feed spray gun from an auto detail shop...better quality spray gun for about $120.00  Works much better, no clogging and saves me time and aggravation.

  • John Lowes

    At a workshop in May 2011, Steven Hill was recommending the TCP Global 10 piece set (Part# TCP G7000) at this site:

    http://www.tcpglobal.com/spraygundepot/tcpgate.aspx

    and, hey, they sell parts for them too!

    I use the Harbor Freight HVLP guns, and I use their Detail Gun (HF Item 92126) for accent colors as recommended by Steven and the bigger gun to lay down  SCM and other bigger coverage glazes. I was having a clogging problem before the workshop and Steven told me to take out the little plastic filter.  That cured most of my problem, and an occasional block of the tip and backpressure of air to the cup cures the rest. I use a 60 mesh sieve before putting the glaze in the gun.

  • Joe Shaw

    I've used the Harbor Freight Professional (64 oz.) HVLP gun for several years. It has a pressurized detached pot that makes using the gun much easier than having to hold up a quart or so of liquid. Spraying a odd angles is much easier. Clogging is usually (for me) a matter of sieving the glaze prior to spraying. I had read that Steven had some tendonitis problems with his hands caused by holding the spray guns for long periods of time.

  • June Perry

    Just use your claybody and sieve it through a kitchen strainer to remove lumps. If you want to deflocculate it, you can use Darvan 7, adding few drops at a time till you get it the way you want it, which may take a bit of practice. Too much and the slip won't hold shape and too little, or too thick slip and the slip won't move the way you want.

  • Margie Cleveland

    Recipe for easy, foolproof slip: (1) spread out your slop clay .5-1" thick; (2) when bone dry, break into pieces and place in bucket; (3) cover with water which will quickly be absorbed by the clay; (4) use hand-held mixer to get smooth consistency (may need to add more water); (5) use rib to push it through 80 mesh sieve. 

  • cp dunbar

    June, why are you using Darvan 7 again ?  (sunday morning, brain not working etc )  cp -  by the pond

  • June Perry

    Not sure if I'm the June you're asking, but I'm not currently using Darvan 7 in any of my glazes or slips.

  • Charna Schwartz

    I had thought that all of Steven Hill's Glazes are food proof..as far as liners, I have been using the Baily's Red, the white glaze. But Steven uses all his glazes for plates, bowls to serve food.

  • Joe Shaw

    Here's another example of my dipping these glazes - SCM on the rim, Randy's Red and Jen's on the rim (lastly).Cognac%20Gold%20Bowl%20-%20fresh.jpg