search  current discussion  categories  kilns & firing - raku 

lost raku glazes

updated mon 30 sep 96

 

Hendriks; Eleanor D. on tue 24 sep 96


Help! I lost my raku glaze notebook!

Three glazes that I would dearly like to try again are gone.

They are all matte glazes known as:

Rainbow Rust -mostly red iron oxide, some copper carbonate, and something
to make it stick to the pot. It came out as a black velvet with
orange/brown and green/blue flashes. A dark Elvis on Velvet version of a
copper mat.

Pipenburg Patina -remembered ingrediants are lithium carbonate, copper
carbonate, possibly a form of cobalt and ??!. In glaze form this stuff sank
in a second and had to be sprayed or brushed on very thinly. I remember
every application as an exercise in spraying while shaking the sprayer.
This was a silvery based mat
with blue, green, red, and pink flashes when reduced in a can with just a
handful of sawdust or a few sheets of newspaper.

Alligator Crust -don't remember any ingrediants. This was a yellowish
gold mat with flashes in green and brown, not much blue or red.

If anyone out there has any mat raku glazes that sound even remotely like
any of these I would appreciate the recipies. Please include any firing
and reducing tricks that you use, if possible.

I will trade my Mellow Tomato Chutney Recipie and a Digest of all replies.

While you're in your glaze books please include any white crackle raku
suggestions. I have one that I'm not completely happy with.


Eleanor Hendriks
elan@freespace.net
Elan Fine Pottery
Fergus, Ontario, Canada

Dannon Rhudy on wed 25 sep 96

>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>Help! I lost my raku glaze notebook!
>


Here are two Alligator raku glazes, both from a Jim Watkins workshop:

Crusty Lusty

8 cups Colemanite
2 cups Bone Ash
l/2 cup Copper Carb
1/4 cup Cobalt Oxide

Blue/green/brown with some flashing. Never fluxes, so judge firing time
by 1)experience or 2) put in a piece with one of the 80 - 20 glazes
on it, and take out at same time.

Alligator

4 cups colemanite
2 cups bone ash
l cup neph syenite
1 cup Copper carb.


Wonderful crusty surface, if too thick makes bubbles which will burst later,
leaving cutting edges. Intense greens/rusts, with a lot of flashing (one CUP
of copper, right?) in purples and other brilliant hues. Never fluxes (at raku
temperatures, see above). Flashing can be controlled by method of
reduction.

Dannon Rhudy
dannon@koyote.com

katie rose on thu 26 sep 96


Alligator

4 cups colemanite
2 cups bone ash
l cup neph syenite
1 cup Copper carb.


Wonderful crusty surface, if too thick makes bubbles which will burst later,
leaving cutting edges. Intense greens/rusts, with a lot of flashing (one CUP
of copper, right?) in purples and other brilliant hues. Never fluxes (at raku
temperatures, see above). Flashing can be controlled by method of
reduction.
>Dannon Rhudy
>dannon@koyote.com
>

hi,

re: flashing can be controlled by method of reduction... what are some of
the different methods of reduction and the particular colors and effects
they would hopefully bring forth? if the question is too general, please
use the above mentioned glaze as an example.

thanks much!

katie rose

Dannon Rhudy on thu 26 sep 96

>--------------------. Flashing can be controlled by method of reduction.
>>Dannon Rhudy
>>dannon@koyote.com
>>
>
>hi,
>
>re: flashing can be controlled by method of reduction... what are some of
>the different methods of reduction and the particular colors and effects
>they would hopefully bring forth?

>katie rose
>
>Katie Rose,

The surface will flash visibly, changing colors before your eyes once you have
removed it from the kiln. This is a function of all that copper, much like a
copper matt finish. If you place object immediately in reduction chamber
(for which read trash can) with lots of paper, sawdust, whatever, it tends to
stay the brightest wherever it is actually in contact with the combustible
material.
Alternatively, I have seen people leave it out of reduction, watch the flashing
colors, and quench with water from hose when they see colors they like. It
really is a matter of practice and observation; you'll learn a lot more
trying it
than I could possibly explain/describe.

The colors possible that I have observed are reds, purples, golds, bronzes,
blues,
in the metallic range. Non-metallic, rich greens, browns, rusts, tomato.
The surface will range from pebbly to very rough, depending upon thickness of
glaze - variations of thickness seem the most interesting to me.

I can't give much more information, since the metallic surfaces don't appeal to
me I don't spend time trying for them. My students do, however, so I have seen
a lot of variation. Try it on some small stuff, play with it a bit - it is
an interesting
glaze.

Incidentally, it can be fired to cone 8-9; I have gotten a rather pleasing
freckly soft
mossy green from it in moderate reduction, satin matt surface.

Dannon Rhudy
dannon@koyote.com