Steven Hill wrote about the origins of the glaze on the Clayart listserve in 2006. The recipe and variations of it have appeared in many places, and this discussion is intended to provide a central place to bring collaborative and open research into the glaze, modifications, variations, and existing and new ways to use it at Cone 6. To provide context I'm going to reproduce Steven's post from the Clayart listserve Archive.


"Steven Hill on sun 8 jan 06

I don't normally communicate through ClayArt, but I recently heard
through the grapevine that my use of glazes has been discussed in
somewhat disparaging terms and I would like to take this opportunity
to set the record straight. My Strontium Crystal Magic glaze did
start out as a Tom Coleman glaze. The following recipe and text
appeared several years ago in a Geil Kilns ad in CM... Including the
words Thanks Tom at the end... I sent the text and photo directly to
Tom Coleman and he was the one responsible for using it in the Geil
ad. I also use Tom's Water Color glaze and Spotted Black. I have not
changed the names of these glazes and just assumed that due credit
would be given. Every other glaze I use is either mine or borrowed
from another source. If I borrow a glaze I always use the exact name
that I originally saw attributed to the glaze. If I alter a glaze
somewhat, but not enough to justify a new name, I still use the
original name followed by (altered).
________________________________________________________________

Strontium Crystal Magic

Custer feldspar 40
Whiting 15
Strontium carbonate 11
#6 Tile kaolin 12
3124 frit 4
Lithium Carbonate 4
Zinc oxide .5
Titanium dioxide 15
Bentonite 2
103.5

This glaze began as Tom Coleman “Yellow Crystal Mat”. First I
substituted strontium for barium (because barium gets so much bad
press), then frit 3124 for Gerstley Borate (gerstley is notoriously
difficult for single firing), then I added bentonite (for better
adhesion to raw clay), then I took out the yellow iron (to make it
more versatile in combination with other glazes).

Try it under ash and fake ash glazes, oribe, iron saturates, and magnesium mat glazes. It can be magic!

Thanks Tom,
Steven Hill
________________________________________________________________

I have been spraying glazes since 1974 and have been using fake ash
glazes (first my own, SH Fake Ash and now Hanna's Fake Ash) in
conjunction with other glazes ever since then. I started purposely
applying runny fake ash glazes so that the rivulets would run through
mat glazes in the late 70's. My original reason for spraying fake ash
glazes was to emulate the atmospheric effects I had been achieving in
the salt kiln. At this time Tom was glazing his pots with
transparent glazes and decorating with oxide brushwork. Tom Coleman
certainly has influenced me. Both his pottery and The Mud Pie Dilemma
influenced many potters of our generation and I have given him credit
over and over.

Steven Hill"

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Comment by June Perry 7/6/2011

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.

 

Here is the orange version of Strontium Crystal Magic.

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