Mudnjoy on wed 6 may 98
Yo folks, what do the rest of you do with scraps of old glazes, or just old
glazes you're tired of, besides dispose of properly, donate or ignore, I vant
experiments, specific details, muses on tinkering...
Clay art is like attending a cocktail party with dozens of bright interesting
people, and I don't miss a single conversation, can reflect on my responses,
don't have to comb my hair & attend when my internal alarm clock is out of
whack, here I am again up at 4:45.
Joy in Tucson where the morning light is creeping over my shoulder.
Paula clay on thu 7 may 98
Dear Joy, In the school clay studio, I take all the scraps of old glazes
(sometimes even different temps) and mix them together. This becomes mystery
glaze and is used inside of small mouth containers, where it won't show or
inside of hanging planters. Sometimes we have to throw in a little flux. Often
the glaze is fabulous and then very popular and soon gone because it can't be
duplicated. Sometimes it's a dog and has to be thrown out. The new procedure
at our school is to pack it up in a Hazard-safe container and write a work
order for it's disposal. Acompanying the glaze has to go the MSDS sheet for
the chemicals. You can imagine that this new way is a pain, and we shall be
turning all out mystery glazes into successes OR no waste. Paula Sibrack, in
the woods of Sherman, CT, who just decided to get married.
Caroline and Hedley Saunders on thu 7 may 98
At my local hobby ceramic workshop we have a bucket where we initially wash
glazing tools. (Jugs, stirring sticks, etc..) This eventually becomes a
glaze called pot luck, it always is an interesting glaze which breaks nicely
showing varied colours with different thickness'. It can change during the
life of the bucket and you can never guarantee results though I have yet to
see something come through that didn't look good.
Caroline
delphin@eclipse.co.uk
David Hendley on fri 8 may 98
I think that fooling with scraps of old glazes is a waste of time and,
if you add things to it to try to change it, money. My opinion comes
from years of tying to use scrap glazes, so as to not 'waste' anything.
Maybe one time out of 20 it will look and perform OK, but then it's
soon gone anyway. Meanwhile, you've put a lousy glaze (either technically,
aestheticlly, or both) on countless pots.
The best way to dispose of the scraps is to just add them to the mix the next
time you make clay. A couple of cups of glaze will have no effect on a
hundred pound batch of clay.
Safely, cheaply, and easily disposed of.
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
At 07:53 AM 5/6/98 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Yo folks, what do the rest of you do with scraps of old glazes, or just old
>glazes you're tired of, besides dispose of properly, donate or ignore, I vant
>experiments, specific details, muses on tinkering...
Louis Katz on fri 8 may 98
Dear Mudnjoy,
Here is a little article I wrote on recycling glazes for cone 10 mostly.
Dear Doctor,
Our glaze area sink does not have a trap, so we have been washing brushes,
buckets and other glazing tools in trash cans filled with water. The second
can is almost filled. I would hate to throw away this material. What should I do
Sincerely,
To the Rim in Arizona,
Dear Oops and Rim,
I applaud your desire to conserve resources, protect the environment, save
money and avoid violating the first principle (never throw anything away ). My
first experience with recycled glaze ingredients was when my job was to empty
a fifteen gallon trap built into the floor at the University of Michigan in
5734 (1974). This material without any alterations was an acceptable cone ten
semi-matte black. If I remember correctly we called it Scrap Black. It was not
very popular, it might still be there..
My next experience was while my wife was teaching at University of Missouri,
Columbia. We had inherited a good deal of glaze remnants with little
documentation and a five gallon trap full of glaze material. We mixed it all
together and developed a few glazes with these materials. Named "Moonlight
over Montana" and other colorful names these firing sensitive glazes with
complexly colored and surfaces were studio favorites until they ran out.
In the Island University studio I segregate the clay washing sink from the
glaze sink. This limits the variation in the scrap and insures that the glaze
scrap will at least come close to melting. It also limites the amount of red
clay in the scrap and keeps the scrap glaze from always being a tenmoku. It is
a good idea when possible to keep glaze scrap separated by temperature. Since
we fire most everything to cone 10 this is not a problem for us.
When altering the glaze scrap I try to use only inexpensive ingredients, and
only those that are O.K. to dispose of in landfills. I mix and sieve the scrap
and test it in our normal firing cycle. If the scrap has chunks in it that
don't want to mix in I throw the chunks away.
Runny glazes that craze get additions of clay; sometimes a ball clay,
sometimes kaolin, occasionally a red clay. I use additions of about 2 pounds
to five gallons. I don't bother weighing it. Glazes that craze but are not
runny get silica straight up or talc and silica. I use the talc when I am
short on matt glazes in the studio. Scrap that doesn't seem quite melted
usually gets whiting or dolomite, or occasionally plastic vitrox.
I favor red iron oxide, and rutile as colorants to add to scrap glazes. For
five gallons I use about 250 grams (1/4 pound). When the scrap glazes start to
build up however, some cobalt carbonate will increase usage. If the glaze is
not already too dark, cobalt carbonate 100 grams should make a big difference
in five gallons of glaze. With cobalt's cost, it better make a difference. I
usually prefer to use the big dollar colorants in tested glazes.
A common fault of these scrap materials is over-floculation. This is often
caused by an excess of soluble ingredients in the scrap. Over-floculation can
cause crawling. To wash out the soluble salts, split the materials into a few
1/4 full buckets. Add water until full, stir and let the scrap settle out.
Throw the water from the top of the buckets away. If the problem is severe,
wash the materials twice.
Scrap materials build up fast and fixing five gallon buckets has become too
much work. It seems that with good reclamation about 15 gallons of scrap glaze
appear semester down here at the Island University. I am beginning this
semester to fix the scrap glaze in 15 gallon quantities. We get the buckets
from community swimming pools. They get pool chemicals in them. The buckets
come with nice screw down plastic lids.
When a glaze looks especially nice, or I do a good demonstration pot with it,
it gets used quickly. The students know there will be no more. When I am
demonstrating glazing or onglaze decorating I often use an unpopular scrap
glaze, and wash the pot off afterward, so I can use the bisqueware again.
Gail Busch, my wife, always washes her sigillata brushes in the same cup of
distilled water. Her scrap sig usually comes out a gray blue green.. Scrap
Raku glazes usually need no alteration,. and have been our most popular
surfaces. If they don't look good try adding copper carbonate.
The key to recycling is to spend you efforts where they will do the most good.
If a a batch of scrap just won't work, throw it away, and concentrate your
efforts more productively on a batch that looks promising. If a batch looks
like it will require a large alteration to make it work, throw it away. Teach
your students to use a spatula to recover glazes from pouring containers and
ladles.
Back to the studio.....,
Louis
Mudnjoy wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Yo folks, what do the rest of you do with scraps of old glazes, or just old
> glazes you're tired of, besides dispose of properly, donate or ignore, I vant
> experiments, specific details, muses on tinkering...
>
> Clay art is like attending a cocktail party with dozens of bright interesting
> people, and I don't miss a single conversation, can reflect on my responses,
> don't have to comb my hair & attend when my internal alarm clock is out of
> whack, here I am again up at 4:45.
> Joy in Tucson where the morning light is creeping over my shoulder.
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