iglasgo on fri 7 sep 07
Hi all-
I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyg/
I'm kind of at a loss to understand what's going on here. Could I have
mixed them both wrong two times in a row??? Is my iron oxide on
steroids? I have noticed that in some other high iron glazes I get
unexpected results, but so far I have just chalked that up to my
inexperience. For instance I tested Floating Red and got a dull black
matte. I tested Cream Breaking Red and got mostly red with little or
no cream. I really like that, but it's not what I was expecting to
get. Some of my high-iron glazes seem fine. I get picture-perfect
results from Waterfall Brown (though it is more towards black), and
decent results from my iron red.
I talked with my supplier and he said that the iron oxide I'm buying
is a mix of natural and synthetic, with an iron content "guaranteed to
be above 90%". He said it's actually a product that is used in
coloring concrete. Is this the same as what other suppliers carry, or
should I chuck it and get RIO from somewhere else?
-Ivy G.
Nancy on fri 7 sep 07
Ivy
I don't have much advice on what happened but I will say I love the
second test picture! Whatever you did I think it's wonderful. what
clay body are you using?
nancy
iglasgo wrote:
> Hi all-
> I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
> side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
> Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
> thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
> remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
> photos at:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyg/
>
> I'm kind of at a loss to understand what's going on here. Could I have
> mixed them both wrong two times in a row??? Is my iron oxide on
> steroids? I have noticed that in some other high iron glazes I get
> unexpected results, but so far I have just chalked that up to my
> inexperience. For instance I tested Floating Red and got a dull black
> matte. I tested Cream Breaking Red and got mostly red with little or
> no cream. I really like that, but it's not what I was expecting to
> get. Some of my high-iron glazes seem fine. I get picture-perfect
> results from Waterfall Brown (though it is more towards black), and
> decent results from my iron red.
>
> I talked with my supplier and he said that the iron oxide I'm buying
> is a mix of natural and synthetic, with an iron content "guaranteed to
> be above 90%". He said it's actually a product that is used in
> coloring concrete. Is this the same as what other suppliers carry, or
> should I chuck it and get RIO from somewhere else?
>
> -Ivy G.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots2@visi.com
>
>
Terrance Lazaroff on fri 7 sep 07
Hi Ivy;
You may not have received the blue you wanted but these glazes are great.
Work with them.
Terrance
Linda White on fri 7 sep 07
> Hi Ivy!
It's possible that you're just applying the glazes too thin. If a
glaze is cream breaking red, that means that it's cream where it's
thick and breaks red where it's thin on edges. I'd try messing with
application thickness.
Linda
LickHaven Pottery
Dushore PA
Forrest on fri 7 sep 07
Hi,
I've used these two glazes. My RIO is the natural, Spanish variety, so that
may make a difference but I think maybe you are not getting enough glaze on
your pieces. I've noticed these glazes are brown when thin. The floating
blue needs a pot with shoulders for best effect. Good luck!
Rosemary
On 9/7/07 1:12 PM, "iglasgo" wrote:
> Hi all-
> I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
> side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
> Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
> thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
> remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
> photos at:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyg/
>
> I'm kind of at a loss to understand what's going on here. Could I have
> mixed them both wrong two times in a row??? Is my iron oxide on
> steroids? I have noticed that in some other high iron glazes I get
> unexpected results, but so far I have just chalked that up to my
> inexperience. For instance I tested Floating Red and got a dull black
> matte. I tested Cream Breaking Red and got mostly red with little or
> no cream. I really like that, but it's not what I was expecting to
> get. Some of my high-iron glazes seem fine. I get picture-perfect
> results from Waterfall Brown (though it is more towards black), and
> decent results from my iron red.
>
> I talked with my supplier and he said that the iron oxide I'm buying
> is a mix of natural and synthetic, with an iron content "guaranteed to
> be above 90%". He said it's actually a product that is used in
> coloring concrete. Is this the same as what other suppliers carry, or
> should I chuck it and get RIO from somewhere else?
>
> -Ivy G.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots2@visi.com
Ron Roy on fri 7 sep 07
Hi Ivy,
Looks like you forgot to put in the cobalt?
RR
>Hi all-
>I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
>side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
>Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
>thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
>remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
>photos at:
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyg/
>
>I'm kind of at a loss to understand what's going on here. Could I have
>mixed them both wrong two times in a row??? Is my iron oxide on
>steroids? I have noticed that in some other high iron glazes I get
>unexpected results, but so far I have just chalked that up to my
>inexperience. For instance I tested Floating Red and got a dull black
>matte. I tested Cream Breaking Red and got mostly red with little or
>no cream. I really like that, but it's not what I was expecting to
>get. Some of my high-iron glazes seem fine. I get picture-perfect
>results from Waterfall Brown (though it is more towards black), and
>decent results from my iron red.
>
>I talked with my supplier and he said that the iron oxide I'm buying
>is a mix of natural and synthetic, with an iron content "guaranteed to
>be above 90%". He said it's actually a product that is used in
>coloring concrete. Is this the same as what other suppliers carry, or
>should I chuck it and get RIO from somewhere else?
>
>-Ivy G.
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots2@visi.com
Ron Roy
RR#4
15084 Little Lake Road
Brighton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 1H0
William & Susan Schran User on fri 7 sep 07
On 9/7/07 1:12 PM, "iglasgo" wrote:
> I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
> side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
> Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
> thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
> remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
> photos at:
I looked at your images. The iron you're using might be affecting the
results, but I would also ask if your clay body is a very dark brown?
That could certainly provide the results you're experiencing. These glazes
also need to be applied a bit on the thicker side, so you may want to run
more tests with thicker glaze application.
--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com
Gail Fullerton on fri 7 sep 07
Could it be your firing schedule?
I have been using MC6 variegated blue for a while and the results have be=
en
very blue, very reliable, and very pretty. I fired with a schedule very
similar to that recommended by Ron and John in their book.
Last week I tried a new firing schedule with a much slower cooling period=
=2E =
The spearmint green and licorice pots were just beautiful, lots more dept=
h,
small crystals, and vibrant color than previous firings. And my previous=
results were just great!
The variegated blue pots from that firing looked just like your test. Th=
ere
was almost no blue at all.
Everything was the same except the firing schedule.
Gail Fullerton =
____________________________________________________________________
=
John Hesselberth on sat 8 sep 07
On Sep 7, 2007, at 1:12 PM, iglasgo wrote:
> I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
> Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue.
Hi Ivy,
Variegated Blue is very sensitive to thickness of application. See
figures 2-5 and 2-6 --pages 32 and 33-- in MC6Gs. Of course when the
glaze is applied thinly the clay body shows through more also. Try
thicker application.
Regards,
John
John Hesselberth
www.frogpondpottery.com
"Man is a tool-using animal....without tools he is nothing, with
tools he is all" .... Thomas Carlyle
Fred Parker on sat 8 sep 07
Hello Ivy:
I have used MC6G Variagated Blue on a couple of different bodies and
concluded that:
1. You MUST apply fairly thickly. If the glaze is too thin it will go to
the iron-dominant brown color.
2. For me, the clay body doesn't make as much difference as I expected it
would. SOme examples are on my website. See
for images.
Items #0602 through #0606 are Variagated Blue. The first, (#0602) is on
Standard's dark brown body (whose number I cannot recall), #'s 0603-0605
are on 119 and #0606 is on terra cotta.
3. Firing DOES make a difference. Too much lightens the blue and less
seems to strengthen it. Best to do some tests for this. I haven't done
many with Variagated Blue but I have with Bright Sky Blue and for that
glaze a short soak and rapid cool brings out the best blue and nicest iron
reds.
The most critical of all seems to be thickness with Var Blue. If it's
thin it WILL be brown.
Happy testing...
Fred Parker
On Fri, 7 Sep 2007 17:12:32 -0000, iglasgo wrote:
>Hi all-
>I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
>side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
>Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
>thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
>remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result.
iglasgo on sat 8 sep 07
I don't hate the results. In fact I really like the almost-all-red
version of cream breaking red and want to keep it in my repertoire. I
just want to understand why the results are so different from what I
expected. That way I can reproduce them if I choose, or move on to try
to make a more conventional variegated blue.
I am using Laguna B-Mix and IMCO Great White. I do tend towards
applying glaze thinly, especially the CBR (since I really am going for
the all-red look). I'll try a couple chips with thicker glaze in the
next firing.
Gail said:
"Last week I tried a new firing schedule with a much slower
cooling period. The spearmint green and licorice pots were just
beautiful, lots more depth, small crystals, and vibrant color
than previous firings. And my previous results were just great!
The variegated blue pots from that firing looked just like your
test. There was almost no blue at all. Everything was the same
except the firing schedule."
Aha! I think this might be the real key to my results. I don't have a
controller, so I fire 'by eye'. After the ^6 in the sitter bends, I
wait about 30 minutes, then turn the kiln back on at half power and
hold for four hours, then shut off and cool naturally. At the end of
the firing the self-supporting ^6 is just touching all shelves. I get
great results from matte glazes, Licorice, and Waterfall Brown, and
cute crystals up to 1/2" in a zinc-nickel crystalline glaze. This
suggests that I'm getting a nice slow cooling.
I have a little kiln that I bought to use as a test kiln but it just
doesn't fire the same as the big kiln since it cools so much faster.
My matte glazes come out glossy, crystals don't grow, WFB is boring.
So I use it only for small batches that are glazed with things that
like a faster cooling. I will re-test these blues in the little kiln.
Thanks for the insights everybody.
-Ivy G.
--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, Nancy wrote:
>
> Ivy
>
> I don't have much advice on what happened but I will say I love the
> second test picture! Whatever you did I think it's wonderful. what
> clay body are you using?
>
> nancy
> iglasgo wrote:
> > Hi all-
> > I have been testing Floating Blue and the MC6G Varigated Blue
> > side-by-side. I haven't been getting the expected results from either.
> > Both came out very dark brown with only hints of cream and blue. I
> > thought I had accidentally put too much iron in each, so I tried
> > remixing both from scratch. I got exactly the same result. I posted
> > photos at:
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivyg/
> >
> > I'm kind of at a loss to understand what's going on here. Could I have
> > mixed them both wrong two times in a row??? Is my iron oxide on
> > steroids? I have noticed that in some other high iron glazes I get
> > unexpected results, but so far I have just chalked that up to my
> > inexperience. For instance I tested Floating Red and got a dull black
> > matte. I tested Cream Breaking Red and got mostly red with little or
> > no cream. I really like that, but it's not what I was expecting to
> > get. Some of my high-iron glazes seem fine. I get picture-perfect
> > results from Waterfall Brown (though it is more towards black), and
> > decent results from my iron red.
> >
> > I talked with my supplier and he said that the iron oxide I'm buying
> > is a mix of natural and synthetic, with an iron content "guaranteed to
> > be above 90%". He said it's actually a product that is used in
> > coloring concrete. Is this the same as what other suppliers carry, or
> > should I chuck it and get RIO from somewhere else?
> >
> > -Ivy G.
> >
> >
___________________________________________________________________________=
___
> > Send postings to clayart@...
> >
> > You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> > settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
> >
> > Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots2@...
> >
> >
>
>
___________________________________________________________________________=
___
> Send postings to clayart@...
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots2@...
>
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