George, Wright's Water color blue:

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.

have you asked Steven Hill?

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.

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

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.

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

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

tracy@bluewaterspottery.com

Just sayin....

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.

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

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...!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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

CP dunbar,

Here is a link to find the Steven Hill DVD.

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/bookstore/the-surface-techniques-of-ste...

Are the SCM glazes food safe or do you use a liner for inside.  Do you spray the inside as well as the outside?

Steven's new video shows him pouring the glaze into greenware pots.  He comments that the angle is all wrong if you tried to spray the inside.  Of course, all bets are off when the pot is a bowl.  Here spraying is great.

I see a lot of info about SH cone 6 ox glazes but no talk about the clay he uses? anybody know? There seems to be a small window of real vitrification for mid-range stonewares and I would like to find some more clays at that temp.

Try Standard clays. Check their website for descriptions. I believe he uses 551, a very plastic porcelain. 563 might be what you're looking for.

Steven uses Standard 257 porcelain.  I use it now also, but have trouble attaching handles.  Everything seems to crack.  Been doing handles on cups for 15 years. Don't get it??  I'm going to try some "Magic Water" by Tony Clennell next.. We'll see........

Just attended a two day seminar with Steven Hill and he does not use anything but magic water to attach his handles. He made the comment when he used slip he could get cracks also

I'm not using porcelain (b-mix 5). I stopped slipping and scoring about 6 months ago. I use 2 parts water to 1 part white vinegar painted on the surfaces to be joined and I just wiggle and lightly mush the parts together. I have a concern about the sodium silicate in magic water causing a glaze to not absorb at the same rate (thickness) as on pure clay.

I can never remember to buy soda ash, so also use just water with vinegar and have never had problems with cracking as I did when using slip.  No scoring, just water/vinegar on each piece to be joined and, as George said, "wiggle and lightly mush the parts together".  I like things done as simply as possible, as long as they work.

I use slip to attach handles and the like. I "wiggle" them in place. What I've found is that it's necessary for me (I work with porcelain) that my pieces dry slowly. My wife and I went to a restaurant supply store and we found an old two door stainless steel cooler/refrigerator for dirt cheap. Plastic interior, shelves and (most importantly) doors with gaskets in good shape. I really need to slow down/control drying especially when doing slip decoration. This applies to handles and such also. When one recycles clay as I do, vinegar can be an issue, it helps to create and ungodly stench in the slip barrel.

I use Laguna's Frost and Clay Planet's Icelia porcelain. Both fire to translucent. I've suffered with cracking with both clays until I got a grip on the damp-box and controlling the drying.

Thanks for all the comments on clay...now I have food for research. Clays to investigate. I have been using Highwaters desert buff and it is acceptable, but I want something with better vitrification at cone 5/6. 

Drying slow is always good. Cotton sheets or fabric of any type sometimes works better than plastic.

I use Highwaters desert buff and it is made for cone 5/6.  I have had no problems with it at all.  By the way, I also use vinegar and no slip to attach my handles.  I have never, knock on wood, had one crack off:>)

Highwater has an earthenware called Bella's Blend that claims cone 6. I just started cone 6 firing using stoneware and had to make an earthenware peice for my aunt and decided to try the leftover Bella's at cone 6. The glazes I'm using worked as well on it as on my stoneware and it vitrified very well. If you fire it any higher than cone 6 you can have some trouble, obviously.

I highly recommend the the Steven Hill DVD to anyone who wants to learn about layering glazes, use his updated cone 6 glazes and/or firing schedules, get a feel for the man himself before doing his workshops, or as a refresher if it's been a while since you attended one of his workshops.

This  was Posted by eleanor akowitz on December 3, 2010 at 1:59pm in Continuing Education. It got no responses there, so I'm moving it here where more people may see it, and follow the link to see the photos from the Steven Hill workshop she attended.

Hello SHO Project,

Can anyone tell me (or show images) of the difference between the cool and warm versions of Strontium Crystal Magic? I downloaded a free file from Ceramic Arts Daily (free subscription required) and it listed both recipes. Link. Just curious if anyone already has some side by side comparisons. Eventually I hope to post some of my own.

Also, have there been any tests of the "food safeness" of SCM? I've seen it used on the insides of bowls but other people use a liner glaze and only have the SCM on the outside of pots. I haven't seen anyone share actual test results.

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I'm still learning to navigate the site. There is a lot of good info!

Brandon, basically the Warm SCM is a more earthy yellow/brownish color after firing. You use it with warm earthtone color schemes, ie. with yellows, browns, greens, iron saturate reds, etc.  The Cool SCM is more white in color and goes better with a cooler, ice-like pallet of blue, white, grey, black type of glaze colors. If you get Steven Hill's DVD he shows examples using SCM Warm & Cool versions. I mostly work with the SCM Warm but have done a few pots with the SCM Cool.

The two are the same base, but cool is white, warm has iron added that gives it some yellow. Neither is particularly attractive alone, and are always used as base glazes, under several or many layers of other glazes with multiple heavy metal colorants.

How would you reliably leach test all the possible glaze interactions and the stability of those blends? It might give some comfort to have samples of your favorite combinations leach tested, but you still couldn't guarantee future results.    

Brandon,  The Steven Hill portion of the download offers good examples of the SCM Warm versus Cool SCM on pages 5 (warm)and 6 (cool).  He uses a warm palette SCM Warm base, and a cool palette, Cool SCM base).  About 80% of a pot gets the SCM base, then 4-5 glazes are layered over.  The top and bottom, or edges will typically get a contrasting glaze.  Several good examples in that article.

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. I thought the warm and cool versions were pretty similar, I just hoped to see if there was a discernible difference if they were both put under the same glaze. I suppose it could be different for every glaze combination.

George, I was expecting an answer like you provided. Probably too many variables for anything conclusive. It would be interesting to see how stable the glazes over SCM are compared to the glazes by themselves.  I've looked at Steven Hill's site and he has a lot of great functional work but I haven't seen any mention of leach testing. Maybe I'll try to contact him and see what he has to say.

Thanks again.

I know of four different versions of Hannah's Fake Ash, none of which include silica - so you have a fifth recipe!

I obtained this version of Hannah's Fake Ash from the potter Yoko Sekino-Bové.

100.0% Ellen Shankin’s Fake Ash ^5 -10
60.0% Redart Clay
30.0% Whiting
10.0% Barium Carbonate

I too have found the SCM warm and cool very similar.  Cool on the left and Warm on the right.

SCM-Warm is slightly more fluid than SCM-Cool, due to the higher level of Custer Feldspar, and of course yellow-orange colored from the Yellow Iron Oxide not in the cool version of Strontium Crystal Magic.

The Hanna's Fake Ash I've seen around for years and which I use frequently for Cone 6 oxidation glazing is:

Hanna's Fake Ash:

30 - Whiting

10 - Strontium Carbonate

60 - Redart Clay

Add: 3.5% Red Iron Oxide

        3% Yellow Iron Oxide

For Yellow: add 4% Ochre

For Blue Add 1.5% Cobalt Carbonate or around .75% Cobalt Oxide

No Silica in the Hanna's Fake Ash recipe that's been around a long time.

anyone know what S Hill's most recent firing schedule is ?  I know he changes this, holding at approx 1600 degrees.  Trying to program this schedule in my kiln.  

Thank you ,   cp  by the pond , now with two bee hives !

Diane, I look forward to seeing your results.  I switched to Laguna's Red Rock this year.  I love the look of it raw when slightly over fired.  I am having to look for new glazes too.  I love the look of Steven Hills glazes but spraying isn't an option for at this time. I'm wondering if the same effects could be duplicated by pouring with thin glazes.

I just joined the group and I'm reading the posts so excuse me if this is answered elsewhere. I the new updated Steven Hill DVD available here in this site? I am not seeing it on the home page of his site. The DVD on the ceramic arts daily site looks like it is not an updated version. Does someone have the link to the updated version? Thanks