Triaxial Glaze testing

[Kabe Burleson]

I was looking for a good place to ask this Question and this group seems to be the place. I am getting ready to do some triaxial glaze tests. I have a large triangle set up to keep track of the 65 cups that will be holding the test material and the associated percentages. Is there a easy way to measure out all these different measurements or is it like scraping paint. Just pick up the scraper and start scraping. Happy firing

[Dave Hodapp]

Kabe:

You have probably already gone ahead and done this, but here is what I did for a triaxial blend. At the three corners will be Glaze A, Glaze B, and Glaze C respectively. I went to a feed supply store and got a plastic horse syringe (without a needle) that holds about 75 mL. I filled the syringe with Glaze A and added the appropriate amount of Glaze A to each cup according to my calculations. Then I filled the syringe with Glaze B and repeated, then again for Glaze C. It helps to be systematic in your filling and to check off each cup after filling in case you get called away.

Good Luck

Dave

[Kabe Burleson]

Thanks Dave. I was planning to do it all with dry material, but I see how doing it with a syringe would be easier.  Happy firing Kabe

[George Lewter]

This is a very good method, but you must be careful about keeping your source glazes suspended when drawing off syringe fulls. Drawing thinner and then thicker samples will mess  with your results in a serious way.

[Kabe Burleson]

That makes sense, George. I think doing it wet would be simpler than doing it dry, although dry might be a bit more accurate. That would be an awful lot of scale work. Happy firing

[Brent Farler]

There is a good discussion of this in Ian Currie's on-line book (see chapters 1 & 4).  Here is the link:  

http://stonewareglazes.currie.to/book/toc

He recommends filling the syringe with only the amount required for the cup you intend to add to rather than trying to fill the syringe and dispense multiple times from the syringe.  This would suggest using a smaller syringe as well.

[Kabe Burleson]

Thank you Brent. I will take a look. I have made plasticine tiles but I have not made a plaster cast of them as of yet. I am casting them so I can make duplicate test tile displays that can be hung. The casts can be used to cast different clay types. Differences in types of clay and firing temps can be compared, making the information they provide easy to access. Sort of a mural on ceramic glaze chemistry. To me some of the chemistry involved is so abstract it is hard to visualize. I hope that the displays will work well enough that I can post them when finished and they can be useful to other clay mongers. When I was in college my fellow art students refered to the science and math building as the "twilight zone". Maybe this project can help us all. Thanks again 

[Brent Farler]

John Post did something similar using Ian's grid method.  Check out his grid tiles at www.johnpost.us

I think you will have a winning way of showing students the outcomes of differing glaze chemistry.

[Kabe Burleson]

I went to the link. WOW!!! Between this link, the information provided by digitalfire insight and a stack of books that I keep rereading, maybe someday I will understand what is happening during the magic time of a kiln firing. I have a friend at the college I work at who teaches chimistry. When I first came to him asking for help with the math involved, he not only helped me with the math he got on line and bought himself copies of the books I was using. Pretty cool huh! Ain't clay fun! Thanks again for the info.

[Kabe Burleson]

Yes John's results are what I hope to get from my tests. The tiles with the severe crawing at the top of the display (I am not sure which test set it was) would be a great effect on a lid of a pot or on mural tiles. thanks