Andi Cody on wed 24 jun 98
Hi all,
My husband and I are setting up a small studio in a small room at the back
of our house (not much storage) and will be starting to formulate our own
cone 6 glazes (we've been using already mixed Laguna glazes so far). This
is a big step for us and we would like to know which chemicals we should
stock as basic glaze ingredients (and which ones might be ones we would
want to get for special effects, etc.). Also, how much should we order at
a time (we are a small time operation right now). Any other things that I
haven't thought of that anyone wants to advise me on would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Andi
Frank & Dorothy Horner on thu 25 jun 98
the following basic ingredients will start you out--nephlyne syenite, potash
feldspar, kaolin, flint, gerstley borate and some coloring oxides ( copper,
cobalt, iron, rutile, chrome)
-----Original Message-----
From: Andi Cody
To: Multiple recipients of list CLAYART
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 5:52 PM
Subject: basic glaze ingredients
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi all,
My husband and I are setting up a small studio in a small room at the back
of our house (not much storage) and will be starting to formulate our own
cone 6 glazes (we've been using already mixed Laguna glazes so far). This
is a big step for us and we would like to know which chemicals we should
stock as basic glaze ingredients (and which ones might be ones we would
want to get for special effects, etc.). Also, how much should we order at
a time (we are a small time operation right now). Any other things that I
haven't thought of that anyone wants to advise me on would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Andi
Paul Lewing on thu 25 jun 98
Andi,
I would get:
Silica 50#
Custer Feldspar 50#
EPK Kaolin 50#
Whiting 10#
Gerstley Borate 10# (If you find glazes you like that use GB, buy
more, maybe 50#, immediately from the same batch. It's variable, so
you'll want a consistent supply.)
Frit 3134 10#
Talc 5#
Dolomite 5#
Zinc Oxide 5#
Nepheline Syenite 5#
Ball Clay 1#
Bentonite 1#
Magnesium Carbonate 1#
You'll be able to make 90% of cone 6 glazes with those ingredients,
and that will be about the proportion you'll need them in. For more
special effects, you may need to add a little Barium Carbonate,
Lithium Carbonate, Spodumene, Bone Ash, or other frits. But that will
get you started.
Then you will need some colorants. This is really personal, but if
you want to make any kind of a range of colors, you'll need iron
oxide, rutile (ceramic rutile gives brighter colors than milled
rutile), cobalt carbonate, copper carbonate, chrome oxide, manganese
dioxide, and either Zircopax, Ultrox or Opax. Or you may find you
want to get into stains.
Also be sure to get a good gram scale, either triple beam balance or
digital. And a small blender that will hold about a cup or two of
liquid will make glaze test making a lot easier and faster.
Happy Testing, and welcome to the world of glazes.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
June Perry on thu 25 jun 98
For your basic ingredients, I would recommend the following:
Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay(Nice plastic ball clay good for engobes and glazes)
Whiting (good inexpensive source of calcium)
Talc(Good inexpensive source of magnesium and silica)
Flint(200mesh)
Gerstley Borate (source of boron,soda, calcium and sodium. A much used
material for cone 6 glazes)
EPK or other china clay like Grolleg or #6 Tile clay. The Grolleg can give
intense color response and it will be more plastic then EPK. It's the most
expensive of the three and #6 Tile clay would be more reasonable. It can be
quite plastic but recent reports say that some batches are not as plastic as
the material that was available a couple of years ago.
Borax or boron frit for glazes and engobes
Potash Feldspar like Custer or G200.
Soda Feldspar like Nepheline Syenite or Kona F4 Sodaspar.
And then you'llneed some colorants:
Red Iron Oxide
Chrome Oxide
Cobalt Oxide or Cobalt Carbonate
Copper oxide or Copper Carbonate
Nickel Oxide
Rutile (Ceramic Grade)
Tin Oxide
Superpax or Zircopax
Zinc oxide
These would be your most basic raw materials --what you need for a good range
of cone 6 glazes.
If you want a few extras, then I would also suggest: Bone Ash and Cornwall
stone. Both of these can supply phosphorus which can help with chun type
glazes and give some variety. Another optional ingredient would be either
Barium carbonate or Strontium Carbonate if you want those incredible copper
blues (only use high Barium glazes on decorative, non-functional pots.) It
does give beautiful matt glazes and intense colors with copper and cobalt as
the coloring oxides, either alone or in combination. Dolomite is another basic
material which supplies equal amounts of calcium and magnesium. You can get
calcium from the whiting and magnesium from the talc, but if you are going to
be using other peoples recipes and don't have the knowledge or means to
convert dolomite to talc and whiting, then also get a bag of dolomite.
If you are going to do reduction and getting into shino glazes, then I would
also recommend Soda Ash and Spodumene. These can also be purchased in small
quanities as well.
This is a good basic beginning material list that also gives you some
interesting things to work with for texture and color variation.
If you have the room, get the bag size of the basic ingredients because it's
such a large saving. They charge a lot to break open the original bag and
weight out and bag small quanitites, and once you begin making a few basic
large batches of glaze, you will find yourself using those things up pretty
quickly.
The oxides can be purchased in smaller quantities. For example:
1lb each of cobalt,chrome,tin and three to five pounds zircopax or superpax. I
would get a larger amount of iron oxide - 5 lbs.
Regards,
June (hoping I haven't forgotten a basic ingredient!)
Kelly Young on thu 25 jun 98
Here is a great starting point. I am a newbie to mixing my own glazes and this
page was a great help. In fact, I really liked the glazes and the variations.
As it turned out, I made six different glazes and they all came out the first
time. Check it out.
http://digitalfire.com/education/glaze/cone6.htm
Kelly,
Anchorage, AK
Barbara Lewis on thu 25 jun 98
Dear Andi:
What I did when I was first started acquiring my "chemisty set", was to
decide on what glazes I wanted to use and then ordered the appropriate
materials. I filled in with other materials as I went along. I also kept
my ears open for people who were selling their studios. I bought glaze
materials from three such potters so that now I have a very complete
selection.
If you don't have access to glaze samples with corresponding recipes, like
you might if you were taking classes at a studio or art center, it might be
difficult to decide on what glazes to use. However, you might be able to
network with someone else who's firing to ^6.
When I was firing ^6, I used a recipe from CM, December, 1981 by Gerald
Rowan, "A Versatile Oxidation Glaze." The base glaze is:
Frit 3134 20%
Dolomite 20%
Spodumene 20%
Ball Clay 20%
Silica 20%
However, I used Frit 3124 instead of 3134 because I found it didn't run as
much. All of the ingredients are very common glaze materials, so much so
that you might decide it is more sensible from the standpoint of economics
to buy a 50lb bag of at least the Ball Clay and Silica. There is a big
price increase when buying materials by the pound. The article lists 23
different colorant combinations, plus I have a few more of my own. A good
reason to start with this approach is it will avoid glaze mishaps from
combining incompatible glazes.
If you want to try this recipe and don't have access to old CM's, e-mail me
and I send you a copy. Good luck and best regards, Barbara
At 04:37 PM 6/24/98 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi all,
>
>My husband and I are setting up a small studio in a small room at the back
>of our house (not much storage) and will be starting to formulate our own
>cone 6 glazes (we've been using already mixed Laguna glazes so far). This
>is a big step for us and we would like to know which chemicals we should
>stock as basic glaze ingredients (and which ones might be ones we would
>want to get for special effects, etc.). Also, how much should we order at
>a time (we are a small time operation right now). Any other things that I
>haven't thought of that anyone wants to advise me on would be helpful.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Andi
>
Wellspring Clayworks
5412 Well Spring Road
La Plata, MD 20646
blewis@crosslink.net
Gregory D Lamont on fri 26 jun 98
Hi Andi,
I have worked extensively in the temperature range you describe. I do a
lot of experimenting; if you have a particular base glaze that you can
adapt, fewer of these materials may be needed. Here's what I inventory:
Larger quantities (25-100lbs):
325 mesh silica
EPK
Ball Clay
Frit 3134
Whiting (or Wollastonite ...more expensive, but less loss-on ignition)
Gerstley borate
Nepheline Syenite
Spodumene
Custer (potash) feldspar
Kona F-4 (soda) feldspar
Smaller quantities (< 25#):
Dolomite
Lithium Carbonate
Strontium carbonate
Many colorant oxides and carbonates--depends on what colors you want to
make and how important foodsafe glazes are to the type of work you produce.
Regards,
Greg
At 10:22 AM 6/25/98 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>the following basic ingredients will start you out--nephlyne syenite, potash
>feldspar, kaolin, flint, gerstley borate and some coloring oxides ( copper,
>cobalt, iron, rutile, chrome)
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Andi Cody
>To: Multiple recipients of list CLAYART
>Date: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 5:52 PM
>Subject: basic glaze ingredients
>
>
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi all,
>
>My husband and I are setting up a small studio in a small room at the back
>of our house (not much storage) and will be starting to formulate our own
>cone 6 glazes (we've been using already mixed Laguna glazes so far). This
>is a big step for us and we would like to know which chemicals we should
>stock as basic glaze ingredients (and which ones might be ones we would
>want to get for special effects, etc.). Also, how much should we order at
>a time (we are a small time operation right now). Any other things that I
>haven't thought of that anyone wants to advise me on would be helpful.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Andi
>
Greg Lamont
3011 Northwood Dr.
Ames, Iowa 50010-4750
515.233.3442
gdlamont@iastate.edu
Rick Hugel on fri 26 jun 98
I see you have gotten some good ideas and advice from some of the members.
but i wonder if you understand what all those things talked about do. If
you have the time, reading "Clay and glazes by Daniel Rhodes" might be a
good place to find out.
All the best and good luck
Rick
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi all,
>
>My husband and I are setting up a small studio in a small room at the back
>of our house (not much storage) and will be starting to formulate our own
>cone 6 glazes (we've been using already mixed Laguna glazes so far). This
>is a big step for us and we would like to know which chemicals we should
>stock as basic glaze ingredients (and which ones might be ones we would
>want to get for special effects, etc.). Also, how much should we order at
>a time (we are a small time operation right now). Any other things that I
>haven't thought of that anyone wants to advise me on would be helpful.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Andi
Marley Wolhud on fri 26 jun 98
I am at the same point as Andi in the glaze process. I would love to
see the colourant combinations if you can easily email them.
Thanks so much
Marley
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