looking for a nice gold-ish glaze

[Sherri Donlon]

Hi all, I'm a newbie, but have been working with an awesome potter.  She has developed a glaze used around the lip of pots.  It leaves a wonderful runny gold-ish over all her glazes.  Anyone seen any glazes like this or have recipes?

[Norm Stuart]

Gold glazes, to the best of my knowledge, all have very high percentages of manganese dioxide with small amounts of iron. Most of these recipes become extremely fluid, but require the addition of lead to make them melt at ^05.

I can strongly recommend "Black Gold Matte" which is available in our "Insight-Live Glaze Database".  It's well-behaved in that it doesn't run all over the place at ^6.  If you want a runny gold, you want "Saturation Gold" which is also in the glaze database. 

If you want a low-fire gold I'd suggest buying a pint of Western Pottery "Aztec Gold" rather than mixing a lead based glaze yourself. The example photo shows a nonuniform surface which is rarely the case. It is more typically a uniform bright gold color.   http://shop.clay-planet.com/pint-722-aztec-gold.aspx

As with gold lusters used at ^016, copper and cobalt are used in varying amounts to change the shade of the gold color. Reduce the percentage of manganese dioxide and you get "Gunmetal Black", also in our glaze database.

Gold Black Matte  ^6
Redart Clay	49.000	35.90%
Manganese Dioxide	35.000	25.64%
Ball Clay	40.000	29.30%
Silica	4.000	2.93%
Bentonite	2.000	1.47%
Copper Oxide Black	4.000	2.93%
Cobalt Oxide	2.500	1.83%

[Sherri Donlon]

Hi Norm,

Good info!  However, I definitely need something without lead.  And I fire to ^6.  My teacher may or may not share her recipe,  I wanted to see if there are alternatives,  just in case.  Below is a header for a website I'm making for her with an example.

Thanks!

Norm Stuart said:

Gold glazes, to the best of my knowledge, all have very high percentages of manganese dioxide with small amounts of iron. Most of these recipes become extremely fluid, but require the addition of lead to make them melt at ^05.

I can strongly recommend "Black Gold Matte" which is available in our "Insight-Live Glaze Database".  It's well-behaved in that it doesn't run all over the place at ^6.  If you want a runny gold, you want "Saturation Gold" which is also in the glaze database. 

If you want a low-fire gold I'd suggest buying a pint of Western Pottery "Aztec Gold" rather than mixing a lead based glaze yourself. The example photo shows a nonuniform surface which is rarely the case. It is more typically a uniform bright gold color.   http://shop.clay-planet.com/pint-722-aztec-gold.aspx

As with gold lusters used at ^016, copper and cobalt are used in varying amounts to change the shade of the gold color. Reduce the percentage of manganese dioxide and you get "Gunmetal Black", also in our glaze database.

Gold Black Matte  ^6
Redart Clay	49.000	35.90%
Manganese Dioxide	35.000	25.64%
Ball Clay	40.000	29.30%
Silica	4.000	2.93%
Bentonite	2.000	1.47%
Copper Oxide Black	4.000	2.93%
Cobalt Oxide	2.500	1.83%

[Norm Stuart]

The photo you have supplied title beautiful handmade pottery is not a manganese dioxide Gold glaze. This is a photo of the Gold Black Matte.  I'd suggest you take some time to browse through the images in the glaze database to become familiar with what is possible.

Another method is to use an underglaze which provides movement to the glaze on top.  This is a bowl made with Randy's Red over Strontium Crystal Magic underglaze posted by another member here.

Some at our studio apply a wash of Potassium Carbonate (pearl ash) or Sodium Carbonate (soda ash) over their glaze to create movement, particularly over our style of studio made colored underglazes.

Your sample photo. I'd guess your teacher has applied rutile, or a very fluid iron rutile glaze on the rim.

Sherri Donlon said:

Hi Norm,

Good info!  However, I definitely need something without lead.  And I fire to ^6.  My teacher may or may not share her recipe,  I wanted to see if there are alternatives,  just in case.  Below is a header for a website I'm making for her with an example.

Thanks!

Norm Stuart said:

Gold glazes, to the best of my knowledge, all have very high percentages of manganese dioxide with small amounts of iron. Most of these recipes become extremely fluid, but require the addition of lead to make them melt at ^05.

I can strongly recommend "Black Gold Matte" which is available in our "Insight-Live Glaze Database".  It's well-behaved in that it doesn't run all over the place at ^6.  If you want a runny gold, you want "Saturation Gold" which is also in the glaze database. 

If you want a low-fire gold I'd suggest buying a pint of Western Pottery "Aztec Gold" rather than mixing a lead based glaze yourself. The example photo shows a nonuniform surface which is rarely the case. It is more typically a uniform bright gold color.   http://shop.clay-planet.com/pint-722-aztec-gold.aspx

As with gold lusters used at ^016, copper and cobalt are used in varying amounts to change the shade of the gold color. Reduce the percentage of manganese dioxide and you get "Gunmetal Black", also in our glaze database.

Gold Black Matte  ^6
Redart Clay	49.000	35.90%
Manganese Dioxide	35.000	25.64%
Ball Clay	40.000	29.30%
Silica	4.000	2.93%
Bentonite	2.000	1.47%
Copper Oxide Black	4.000	2.93%
Cobalt Oxide	2.500	1.83%

[Judy Smith]

Can you please tell me the recipe for the soda ash wash?  How much soda ash to a cup or water or something like that?  Are there any other ingredients? I really want to try this over some of my glazes.

Thanks,

Judy Smith

Norm Stuart said:

Some at our studio apply a wash of Potassium Carbonate (pearl ash) or Sodium Carbonate (soda ash) over their glaze to create movement, particularly over our style of studio made colored underglazes.