Norm on mon 12 jan 98
Hey Folks,
I have been buying glaze from a local supplier. One gallon costs
approximately $25.00.
How much can I save by mixing my own glazes??
Thanks in advance! Norm! 8^o
Cindy on tue 13 jan 98
Norm,
Really, how much you save doesn't matter. The main cost of pottery is the
potter, not the materials. You sell your pots at a price that will pay for
your materials, overhead, etc. (There are comprehensive posts covering this
in the archives.) The reason to mix your own glazes is that doing so gives
you a much-enhanced ability to offer your customers a safe and durable
product.
I've only recently gotten to the point of using mostly my own glazes, and
will soon use exclusively my own glazes. The catalyst? Even though the
glazes I was buying were supposedly made for the clay I was buying, they
had a regrettable tendency to craze. Because I'm using Tony Hansen's ^6
formula as my primary base, my glazes fit now, and I'm in the process of
coming up with some very nice colors. I know what's in the glazes and feel
safe in offering them to my customers.
As to how much you'll save, I don't know. It depends on how much you're
paying now, what type glazes and what type materials you will use to
develop your glazes, how lucky you are in coming up with what you want
relatively quickly . . . lots of things. It takes time, and I've got a long
way to go, but the journey's worth it.
Cindy in Custer, SD (Where the ground has frozen and the temp is 5 F., but
that's the lowest it's been all winter, so who's complaining?)
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hey Folks,
>
> I have been buying glaze from a local supplier. One gallon costs
> approximately $25.00.
>
> How much can I save by mixing my own glazes??
>
> Thanks in advance! Norm! 8^o
Craig Martell on tue 13 jan 98
At 01:54 PM 1/12/98 EST, Norm wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I have been buying glaze from a local supplier. One gallon costs
>approximately $25.00.
>How much can I save by mixing my own glazes??
Hi:
It takes about 2000 grams, give or take, to make a gallon. Find some glaze
receipes that fire in your range and price the raw materials it takes to
make the glaze and make a comparison. I think you'll find that you can make
one hell of a lot of glaze for 25 bucks and you can make any formula that
you want, not just what you supplier has for sale.
regards, Craig Martell-Oregon
Lili Krakowski on thu 15 jan 98
Take it from the top. Some ingredients cost more than others.
Nevertheless the last time I figured it, with colorants and tin oxide
taken out of the equation a pound of material cost about $2.25.WHEN BOUGHT
BY THE POUND> THE PRICE BRAKS FOR BIGGER QUANTITIES ARE EXCELLENT,
however. Now thefrits are costlier, and the clay and such cheaper, but it was t
a couple of years back. If you fire above c.7 more or less, frits do not
matter much, and the spars, dolomite, talc, whiting, even wollastonite are
very reasonable. Meanwhile at the lower temp ranges the frits are
costlier but gadzillion recipes exist for glazes, excellent glazes,
based on F3124, to name just one. WHERE MAKING YOUR OWN GLAZES GETS COSTLY
is when you use glazes that all call for different ingredients, which then
you have to buy in small batches. Try to "rationalize" your glaze
supp;ies so you can buy stuff in 25 lb. lots (cobalt and tin of course you
won't buy in that volume, not till, God willing, you hit the jackpot!) So.
Edit your glaze file, recalculate a lot of your glazes so, let us say,
Gerstley Borate is replaced by a frit, you use either talc (less risk o
crazing) or dolomite, and buy in volume. Treat yourself every year to one
special "new ingredient" and see what it does. (Strontium, for instance.)
Good luck! About 5000 of raw materials make up a 5 gallon bucket. That is
5 Kilo, time 2.2 or 11 lbs.costing you just about what you are paying for
one gallon now, and that should last you quite a while. IF
YOU SELL ALL THAT YOU CAN GLAZE WITH THOSE FIVE GALLONS YOU MORE THAN MAKE
UP THE COST OF THE GLAZE.
Lili Krakowski
mel jacobson on mon 26 jul 10
try this:
150 kids in clay classes, and they make 50 pots each a quarter.
buy jars of glaze for those pots.
about 5 grand worth of glaze jars.
buy a bag of gertsley borate and a bag of vol ash.
about 50 bucks.
and then add what is learned by the kids.
hmmm.
mel
i know, it is just me, but i want to control every step
of every process that is my craft and art.*
clay
glaze
design
process
firing
* and then i want to share and teach it to everyone that
is interested in ceramics.
from: minnetonka, mn
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
new book: http://www.21stcenturykilns.com
alternate: melpots7575@gmail.com
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