Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics
Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
Cone 6 Glaze Recipes
Glaze Recipe Etiquette
Many recipes are already posted on this network, and you can search for them yourself by typing in the name in the SEARCH box at the upper right hand corner of all of our pages. A thousand or more are listed on the Sankey glaze database which is also posted on this network. With the Sankey database, which is an enormous web page, you need to go to the edit menu of your browser and select "Find", then type in the glaze name you are searching for. Look down the page with the "Find Next" button until you've checked all the possibles. The next step would be to do a Google search of the Internet for the recipe you're looking for. If you find the recipe, it would be generous and helpful to post it on our network yourself, giving credit to the source where you found it.
If these three techniques don't turn up the recipe you seek, THEN it is a reasonable thing to request one of our members to either post the recipe on the network or to email it to you. Asking for recipes without due diligence on your part is like asking someone else to do your job for you. It will not enhance your reputation.
Cone 6 Glaze Recipes
As a starting point, here is a list of online sources of cone 6 glaze recipes.
Group 1 - Having both photographs and commentary on the glazes.
- John Post generously shares his glaze research, and coats his simple forms with spectacular glazes. He has extensive information on a technique of glaze testing.
- Alisa Clausen has the most extensive photo-documented cone 6 glaze test collection (on flicker) that I have found. Most of the recipes are for cone 6 glazes. The right column of her page links to groups of glaze tests. Her source of recipes is largely the Sankey Glaze Database which is available right here on our network.
- John Anthony's Red Hill Pottery has some great shots and notes on his tests of many published recipes.
- June Perry does extensive glaze testing and shares her results generously on her Website.
- James Jacobs has a set of ^6 recipes with pictures on his Website. Caution -- all of the photos of finished examples were fired in reduction. He says only the cobalt blues and heavy iron formulas would be useful in oxidation.
Group 2 Recipes not as well documented as Group 1
- The clayart discussions at potters.org are a prodigous source of ^6 glaze recipes, but you won't find pictures here. Some of the discussions give links to Websites with pictures, but generally you will only find recipes and written descriptions of glaze characteristics. The SDSU ceramicsweb glazebase seems to be offline. The creator of GlazeChem glaze calculation software downloaded the entire glazebase in 2001, and has it available for downloading in GlazeChem format. I've extracted the cone 6 recipes and commentary and converted it to a Word document. Here is a link for you to download the 275 page document - CeramicsWebClayartCone6Glazes.doc
- Lakeside Pottery has an extensive list of their glaze recipes, but they refer you to their gallery to see the glazes in use without a one-to-one match up of recipe to picture. These appear to be worth exploring as they produce some very nice pieces.
- Val Cushing had an article in the June 1977 issue of Studio Potter that listed a number of his recipes for glazes and engobes (or slips). Note that a number of the glazes utilize Barium Carbonate which in the intervening years has fallen from grace for its toxicity. It would be prudent not to use these glazes on the interior or mouth contact surfaces of table ware or cookware.
Group 3 Recipes lacking significant documentation.
- I have a collection of them in a Word document totalling 61 pages. I am posting the document here for you to download and test as you like. If you do test any of them, please report your results in detail here. Good Luck. collectedglazes.doc
Let's see if our members have any interest in sharing glaze recipes. If you want to post a recipe, please follow the following guidelines.
- Use the conventional 100 unit batch formula and the full descriptive names of all ingredients.
- Include the source of the recipe
- Include application methods, best thickness of application, and cautions about defects you've encountered
- Include any special firing techniques
- Post a picture of the fired glaze
- If known, include the coefficient of expansion, and the clay body you've used with the glaze.
Please do not post recipes from copyrighted sources.
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Comment
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Comment by George Lewter on June 28, 2012 at 5:34pm
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The Vals Turquoise recipe from Alisa Clausen that I posted is not missing anything. It was just not normalized to 100 units for the base recipe plus additives.
I normalized it to
Custer Spar 35.6
Gerstley Borate 21.8
Silica 27.5
Dolomite 3.7
Whiting 11.4
__________________
Total 100
Additives
Copper carbonate 2.9
Bentonite 1.0
My test of the recipe yielded results very similar to those in Alisa's photo.
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Comment by Donna Ferrara on April 23, 2012 at 4:21am
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Red River
Flint 28
EPK 18
Neph Sy 18
Bone Ash 9
Dolomite 9
Gerstley Borate 9
Talc 9
Spanish Red Iron Oxide 20%
the dr brown on the bottle is this glaze fired w/o a hold or slow cooling. I think when fired properly it should be rust, breaking dr brown.
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Comment by EE on April 6, 2012 at 10:45am
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Hillman, you posted a pic of one of my antler mugs below, saying you are interested in getting a hares fur glaze finish. I use commercial glazes on anything meant to be food safe as I have never tested my own glazes for food safety. If you would like to duplicate the finish on my mugs use Coyote black (2 to 3 coats) as the base, followed by 2 coats Coyote Shino and sometimes I add some leopard shino too. This combination over a brown speckled clay gives a nice range of color falling into what I call camoflauge color palette.
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PPPPPPP
ppPpp
here are the pictures to go with the orange brown glaze
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Very nice glaze Donna. Looks and behaves a little like the "nutmeg" variation I have been working on recently. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
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Orange/Brown Glaze
by Bill SChran
Dolomite 17.5%
Gerstley Borate 8.0
Frit 3134 5.0
talc 3.5
Soda Feldspar 5.0
Spodumene 17.5
EPK Kaolin 1.0
kentucky ball
clay om#4 17.5
Sillica 25.0
add
Bentonite 1.5%
RIO 1.0
yellow ochre 2.5
tin oxide 3.5
I've used this on standard 112, and 308 with great results, its a reddish orange glaze where thin and as it gets thicker it gets creamy.
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Thanks Donna. Much appreciated you sharing this glaze recipe. I have been mixing up a few 'whites' this week. I will add this to my list and see how it goes for me.
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here is the matte white base recipe i posted on my page. this picture has the addition of 4% rutile , which results in a semi matte glaze. the clay body is standard 112. Again, has only been tested in my dishwasher in everyday use
from Andy Quient (not sure if he developed this or not)
matte white
Cornwall stone 21%
Ferro 3134 22%
Dolomite 21%
Om4 Ball Clay 15%
Flint 20%
_______________________
99%
bentonite 2%
this is a flat matte white glaze, smooth surface,my experience has been firing it from cone 5-6 1/2 with good results
for colors add
.50% periwinkle blue
4% rutile for a semi matte white, that breaks over dark clay nicely
4% CuCO3 for a copper matte
3% RIO, 1.75% CuCO3, .375% magansese dioxide, .50% rutile for a mustardly brown green
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thanks for changing the typeface!
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Comment by Barbara Hanselman on March 10, 2012 at 7:15am
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John Wright's site is no longer available.
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Thanks Lorn. Nice to have that wide firing range.
June
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What cone was the test fired? Thanks for the updated recipe, I just wanted to make sure that something wasn't omitted.
June
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This doesn't add up to 100%. Is the recipe you posted correct? It's a fascinating glaze. What cone was that test fired to?
June
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Comment by Brenda Phillips on March 5, 2012 at 6:27pm
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I like Jen's Juicy Fruit, but I have trouble with small craters over the glaze. Am I putting on too thick? Not holding the temp long enough for it to smooth out?
Has anyone had this problem and cured the problem?
Thanks
Brenda Phillips
Manchester, CA
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Here are some you can try:
Slips for ^6 by Don Reitz in GA used in Callanwolde art center in Atlanta
kaolin 600 300
g 200 feldspar 150 75
flint 150 75
ball clay 100 50
total 1000 500
for: add:
dark brown 10-20% red iron oxide
tan 2-3% red iron ox
honey 10% rutile
grey blue 1-2% cobalt carb
Blue blue 2-4% cobalt carb
green 3% chrome oxide
copper green 5% copper carbinate
green charcoal 3-5%copper oxide
yellow 8-10% vanadium stain
Nice reliable Engobe
ball clay 250 125
kaolin epk 350 175
neph sy 225 113
flint 225 113
talc 75 38
soda ash 25 13
total 1150 677
for the large batch use 2 1/2 cups water
For a nice terra cotta tan use 1/3 each
iron, manganese and rutile
my notes:
for small batch above add:
black 30gm mason stain
rose 120 gm mason stain
yellow 60 gm mason stain
tourquoise 90 gm mason stain
[I don't know the numbers...whatever I had in my cabinet and was using]
you can try:
tourquoise:
1% copper carb
1-2% red iron
1/2-1% chrome oxide
black
1-2% copper carb
3-5% red iron oxide
2-3% manganese dioxide
specks:
2-3% illmenite or granular manganeseEngobe C 5-7 Wet or Leather Don Davis
30 EPK
10 Ball Clay
15 #6 TIle Clay
15 Nepheline Syenite
10 Talc
20 Silica
Alone it's good for whiteJune
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I am in need of a cone 6 engobe recipe to use on B-Mix 5 clay in the bisque stage. The simpler the better. If suggested percentage of colorants are available, I could use that info as well. I will be using oxides and carbonates not Mason stains. If this should have been posted elsewhere, please redirect me. Thanks for any help. -carl
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There are two types of matt glazes, those that are matt because they are under fired, and those that are matt due to the right proportion of of silica and alumina and fired to maturity. An under fired matt glaze will exhibit some of the problems listed; but there are matt glazes that can be safe and functionally stable.
Even gloss glazes can be unstable and leach if there isn't enough silica in the glaze to absorb a large amount of a potentially unsafe oxide, like copper carb, for instance.
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Comment by Morty Bachar on July 2, 2011 at 7:20pm
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Can matt glazes be used for food ware? We have received several questions regarding the use of matt glazes for functional ware and have found that the answer is not that straight forward. The following is our recommendation:
What is Matt Glaze?
One or all of the symptoms below may occur with matt glazes. What is acceptable to you is an individual decision. Testing to discover which of the three will be presented in your matt glaze is advisable.
1) Food Staining (e.g., coffee, tomato sauce or other acidic foods)
2) Food particles might not wash off thoroughly because of the porous/ unsmooth surface and can result in bacteria growth
3) Matt glazes may be more likely to leach hazardous glaze materials into the food while a glossy surface acts as a tight seal
Testing items 1 and 2 above is not difficult and will determine
For more details: http://lakesidepottery.com/HTML%20Text/Tips/Are-matt-glazes-food-sa...
For more tips:http://lakesidepottery.com/Pages/Tips.html
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Go buy the book, MASTERING CONE 6 GLAZES by Ron Roy and John Hesselberth. In it you will find that glazes are classified as 'stable and durable' not as 'food safe'. Since we no longer use lead in our recipes, glazes are food safe; they just may not be stable and/or durable. John also has a program called GLAZE MASTER which you can purchase. When you put the ingredients from your glazes into his program you will get a lot of information about the glaze and can tell whether the glaze will be stable and durable. Of course firing also plays a big part in all of this - read the book!
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Juicy Turquoise ^6 by Linda Pahl
41.0% Cornwall stone
5.0% EPK
5.0% Lithium Carbonate
12.5% Strontium carbonate
10.0% Whiting
16.5% Silica
ADD:
2.5% Copper Oxide
4.5% Tin Oxide
2.0% Bentonite
A glossy surface when fired in oxidation which breaks nicely on textures especially in high iron clay bodies.
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