cHuCk on thu 21 sep 00
Dear Clayarters,
After 18 years of successful commercial pottery production I have =
committed myself to improving my glazes.=20
We used Gerstley Borate in the popular base glaze: (from article in =
C.M. by very reputable glaze teacher)
=20
G.Borate 21.00
Neph. Sy. 16.00
Kaolin 11.00
Whiting 20.00
Flint 32.00
It has been a pretty good glaze and I felt OK about it having seen =
it hold up well over the years, although at times it was inconsistent. =
Now I know (Thanks to the Clayart list) it was due to the variability of =
G.B. in the mix. It made a mess of the shelves and kiln at times. This =
was partly due to all the out gassing of the G.B. and the CaCo. Elements =
wore out more quickly too.
=20
Anyway, my point is that now I am in the process of changing to a =
different base glaze and I want to recommend to those of you in my shoes =
to really think about looking at Digital Fire's Homepage and inspect the =
excellent info they have there. To those of you that are just getting =
started my advice is if you are going to make functional ware just =
forget any glazes that have Gerstley Borate in them and watch out for =
high contents of Neph. Sy. I am not a glaze expert, I don't play one on =
T.V. and I didn't stay at Holiday Inn Express last night, but I did =
attend three good ceramic departments at major universities and up until =
I started reading the Clayart List I fancied myself pretty sharp on =
using glazes and firing them correctly. Turns out I am a good potter, =
but I still had a lot to learn about making the best glaze I can for my =
customers.
Below is the address/link for the glaze that I am now working with
http://digitalfire.com/education/glaze/g1214w.htm
"It is what you learn after you know it all that really counts!" =20
"I can except failure, evveryone fails sometimes, but I cannot accept =
not trying" M. Jordan
Chuck Wagoner
Billie Creek
I am not affiliated with Digital Fire in anyway and have never met Tony =
Hansen....although I would like to thank him and Ron Roy for all their =
expertise.=20
Diane G. Echlin on thu 21 sep 00
cHuCk wrote:
....and watch out for high contents of Neph. Sy.
Why Chuck?
Diane, curious in CT
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