Looking for a good clear glaze for little loafers

[Leigh Whitaker]

Im considering switching my clay to little loafers. I need to find a good clear glaze to go over slip decorations.

I'm going to test what I have, of course, but if anyone uses a clear glaze with good success on this clay body I'd really appreciate suggestions.

Thanks!

[Kabe Burleson]

I mix my own clay so I do not know if this will fit Little  Loafers.  You could test it to see. Plan on putting these into insight. I didn't check to see if they are in the data base or not.  The M--# is my own system of keeping track of my glazes. M--104 Clear; cone 6, Dolomite 17,Custar Feld 34.10 Ferro frit 3134 14.9, EPK 17, silica 17.   also    M--105 Clear; cone 6, Ferro Frit 3195 31, Dolomite 14, EPK 19, Flint 36. These fit my clay real well. Happy firing

[Leigh Whitaker]

Thanks!

[Kabe Burleson]

Hey Leigh, If you try these two clear glazes and they do fit, please let me know and I will add it to the notes when I add these to Insight live. If you would please  I am going to add my clay boby recipe in the notes when I put a glaze in the data base. Thank you. Happy Firing.

[Leigh Whitaker]

My test is done, and I'm happy to report that almost everything worked on little loafers. What I did was made a bunch of cups about 4" tall, 3" diameter. I bisqued them to 04 and then poured my test glazes on the inside and brushed 3 coats on the outside.

Here are the glazes I tested in this round:

G1214W- clear low expansion glaze from Tony Hansen's digital fire site, I used g-200 feldspar instead of Kona F4 (COE 66.13)
Glossy Clear Liner from M^6 Glazes (COE 67.92)
TUC-C, variation of Tony's Ultra Clear (COE 67.21)
Standard 1199, commercial glaze that standard sent me to test

The recipe for TUC-C is EPK 21.8, G-200 17.4, Frit 3134 26.1, Silica 21.8, Wollastonite 8.7, Talc 4.2.

The kiln fired to about cone 7. I wanted to go to cone 6, but I'm still learning my new kiln.

I tested the cups for crazing by alternating plunging them in boiling water and ice water 3 times. None of the glazes crazed on Little Loafers.

The only glaze that gave any problems was the commercial 1199 glaze. It didn't craze, but it did pinhole on the inside of the cup, which I had also previously seen on top of another clay body. It could be due to the kiln firing closer to cone 7 than cone 6.

I also tested whether my slips (made from Standard 182 without grog) would fit on top of Little Loafers. Small test cups were coated with about 5 layers of slip and then carved off a little to try to simulate my normal technique. A couple of the different glazes above were tested on the cups, and they all look fine. The slip didn't crack or peel off, and the glazes looked great.

Kabe- if I get around to testing your glazes I will let you know if they fit. I don't have dolomite, so I'd have to get some first.

*note- the COEs were all determined in Glazemaster. I think some programs give different results for the COE calculations.

[Leigh Whitaker]

Oh, I also included some test bars of standard 182, Little Loafers, and Standard 240 to do absorbance tests on them. I'm interested to see the absorbance of LL compared to Standard 182, and see if that could be the reason I couldn't get rid of the crazing on the 182.