Mary Higgins on mon 14 may 01
Hello Clayarters,
First the turpentine:
When I was a child my mother dripped turpentine onto a spoonful of honey
that had gone to sugar and forced me to swallow it. She had been told it
was good for loosening a chest cold. It was nasty. I promised myself I
would never do something like that to my children and I didn't.
On to the glaze tests:
I mixed up Tony Hansen's 5x20 ( my very first glaze tests).
Used alone, this glaze is a satiny translucent, not quite opaque. It
looks very nice on porcelain, but milky on red stoneware.
With 1% cobalt oxide, a strong blue.
With 6% red iron, a pleasant brown.
With 2% copper carbonate, a very pretty green, emerald I think (I don't
own any emeralds so I couldn't compare).
With 7.5 % rutile, a pretty golden honey color. I used this inside some
cups (porcelain and white stoneware), with Javier's Warm Jade on the
outside. They look good together.
With 7.5 % ilmenite, a brownish smoky color with a lot of character. The
ilmenite is more mottled. I like the effect.
Both the rutile and ilmenite have a cloudy appearance where the glaze is
thicker. The ilmenite has many tiny pinholes in the bottom of the cup. I
think it may work better on the outside of a vessel, maybe with the base
glaze on top of it.
When the base glaze is put on top of any of the these glazes with
colorant, the colorant is softened. It is a nice effect.
I brushed these on so the coverage is not even and the glazes largely
transparent. I will try dipping and pouring next time. They look best on
white clay. I didn't like them on red clay, except maybe the cobalt and
the iron.
I hope this helps other new clay people who are wanting to test glazes.
It's fun.
Mary Higgins
In sunny, dry Florida
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