Glaze Tests

[Randy McCall]

I have set up a web site with glaze tests for any one interested.  Tried an true recipes that are some of my favorites.

mccallsc.tripod.com

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[martha peddicord]

interestin, I have used Ellen Buff for years with no problems, then this summer, zit city.  Called Highwater, they said I should come take their claze class !! All my other clays do fine, and I love Redstone, both for throwability and glaze color.

But I do want a buff clay.  Waynesboro, from Bryan Fort in Ga, is nice.

I'm interested in the comment you made on you glaze testing site, very nice , by the way.  You reccommend holding bisque for 5 hours at medium temp.  What do you mean, hold at What temp, and for 5 hours ? long time.  I have a computer controll Skutt 1027, and bisque fire to ^04, what Highwater recommends. 

[juli long]

Randy, I really liked your glaze testing and I was going to try your glaze "nutmeg variation", but i have a question before I order the spodumene-gwalia. Can I substitute plain spodumene, or does it need

to be "Gwalia"? Is there a big difference? Hope to hear from you soon.

Juli

[juli long]

Randy, 

I checked with my supplier, and after some research they concluded their spodumene was Gwilia.

I'm good to go. Trinity ceramics in Dallas, supplier .

juli

juli long said:

Randy, I really liked your glaze testing and I was going to try your glaze "nutmeg variation", but i have a question before I order the spodumene-gwalia. Can I substitute plain spodumene, or does it need

to be "Gwalia"? Is there a big difference? Hope to hear from you soon.

Juli

[Norm Stuart]

Juli - According to Digitalfire, Australian spodumene is considered the whitest burning spodumene in the world.

http://digitalfire.com/4sight/material/australian_spodumene_2275.html

Old recipes typically call for spodumene concentrate, either Gwalia Australian or Foote from North Carolina - neither name currently exists.

The Foote mine was exhausted some years ago and the Sons of Gwalia mining company, founded and originally managed by pre-President Herbert Hoover, became insolvent in 2004 and is no more.  Talison currently mines the Gwalia Greenbushes spodumene mine and sells it through a number of distributors who use different marketing names.

Digitalfire has five or so different analyses for spodumene concentrates. You could compare your spodume analysis with the Australian spodumene above. Our 20 year old bag of Gwalia is half-full, so I'll face the same sourcing problem when it's empty.

If your bag is from the old Gwalia mine, it could be labelled Talison, or Chengdu Tianqi the Chinese company which is currently acquiring Talison and their former Gwalia Greenbushes mine.

The Talison Brand

[juli long]

Thanks Norm for all the info!  I just hope it makes my glaze fabulous. Its a tricky word to pronounce.

Juli

Norm Stuart said:

Juli - According to Digitalfire, Australian spodumene is considered the whitest burning spodumene in the world.

http://digitalfire.com/4sight/material/australian_spodumene_2275.html

Old recipes typically call for spodumene concentrate, either Gwalia Australian or Foote from North Carolina - neither name currently exists.

The Foote mine was exhausted some years ago and the Sons of Gwalia mining company, founded and originally managed by pre-President Herbert Hoover, became insolvent in 2004 and is no more.  Talison currently mines the Gwalia Greenbushes spodumene mine and sells it through a number of distributors who use different marketing names.

Digitalfire has five or so different analyses for spodumene concentrates. You could compare your spodume analysis with the Australian spodumene above. Our 20 year old bag of Gwalia is half-full, so I'll face the same sourcing problem when it's empty.

If your bag is from the old Gwalia mine, it could be labelled Talison, or Chengdu Tianqi the Chinese company which is currently acquiring Talison and their former Gwalia Greenbushes mine.

The Talison Brand

[Sofia Donovan]

Great. I will try your glazes