elizabeth priddy on sat 8 sep 01
If you read about a glaze and follow the recipe as
carefully as you can and then fire it according to the
schedule that was described with it...
you have only successfully made someone else's glaze.
If you learn how to use a pallette of bought glazes,
designed by a professional, you are making your OWN
pots and with your own designs, just as much as you
would be using anyone else's recipe that you looked
up.
The making of a glaze is not the following of a
recipe.
There are only about 14 people that I know of who make
their own glazes. The rest of you are using glazes
that you make at home. And in that case, why don't
you just go ahead and use commercially prepared glazes
that:
A. are warrenteed to be at least close to what they
said it would be or you can have it replaced and not
have wasted valuable resources(time/money/chemicals)
making yet another baby shit brown glaze
(you who mix your own know there was at least one
batch of this in your past...one that you thought
would be green or blue...and you probably made about
five gallons of it, didn't you? And no matter what
you did to it, the color stayed atrocious and even
when you did miraculously turn it blue, you never were
able to make it again...)
B. have been tested professionally for toxicity,
health label safety, osha use regs, and consistency
per batch produced
C. have a known firing range and clean fit
D. have variety and depth when explored thoroughly
and put through tests and various firing methods and
clay bodies to find THE BEST EXPRESSION OF YOUR
ARTISTIC INTENT
Why is it you can buy clay, but you can't buy glaze
and be a RE-al potter?
Or is this just a little conceit potters indulge in
just to keep the playing feild full of rocks and
pitfalls?
"Oh, so your work is handmade...do you fire your own
kiln? So your work is handmade and you fire your own
kiln...do you make your own glaze?"
There always has to be something that keeps any class
of people in an internal heirarchy.
I have worked with the same battery of glazes for 14
years. I can match almost any look (any firing, too,
but with more effort) in my electric kiln with bought
commercial glazes. I mixed my own for years under the
pressure to be a RE-al potter, so if they go out of
business, I can still do business and would look
forward to really mixing some new glazes of my OWN.
But I don't LIKE to muck around with chemicals. And I
don't LIKE the wasted time and resources of a large
batch of milky clear when I can get a truly crystal
clear that fits for a few dollars. And I mix 5 gallon
buckets of this stuff...it stays in suspension, works
every time, and I make truly righteously beautiful
pots, sometimes.
My success rate is high because I do not have the
hubris to assume that I can be both a master potter
and a master chemist. Many of us chase our tails
trying to become an expert at every little thing and
eventually remain mediocre because of a lack of focus.
If I was still dicking around with glaze recipes,
when would I have had the time to learn to paint? It
is about priorities.
And I also believe that solitary studio potting is a
fad of this era and not in keeping with the philosophy
of old-school potteries who each had a turner, a
fireman, a glazer, and many worker bees. The maker
did not glaze, nor mix a glaze. I proudly claim Bob
Stryker as my glaze man and an L&L Econo kiln or two
as my fireman. And I do indeed make the damn handmade
pots, thank you very much.
You can look at my website to see my priorites:
beauty in the reflection of nature (no, those
paintings are NOT decals-they are painted with a
chinese brush)
and teaching how to throw ( can teach anyone, easily)
You will notice, if you are a reader of my posts, and
hence, my friend. That this is one of the few post I
have ever made about glaze. I believe that you should
stay out of it if you have nothing of value to add.
(I said I believe and thusly TRY to do this, I am not
a saint!)
I will reserve glaze making for my old age, when I am
done with the back laboring work and the hauling and
lifting...when it is my mind that matters and not my
back and hands. And if I find that I still hate the
chemicals then, I will read good books and rest on my
laurels.
And those amongst you with no pug mill, no wheel, no
electric kilns, no bags of commercially ball milled
chemicals, and no buckets of glaze made by someone
else's recipe...go ahead and cast the first stone...
( a conversation with some clayarters who were
visiting has put me in a mood....a good but
rambunctious, mood)
=====
Elizabeth Priddy
epriddyclay@yahoo.com
www.angelfire.com/nc/clayworkshop
252-504-2622
PO Box 2342
Beaufort, NC 28516
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John Hesselberth on sun 9 sep 01
Hi Elizabeth,
I just have to comment on one of your premises about commercial glazes.
on 9/8/01 7:10 PM, elizabeth priddy at epriddyclay@YAHOO.COM wrote:
> And in that case, why don't
> you just go ahead and use commercially prepared glazes
> that:
>
> B. have been tested professionally for toxicity,
> health label safety, osha use regs, and consistency
> per batch produced
Some glaze manufacturers test their glazes and some don't. Always ask for
their results if you go this route. I am only aware of one manufacturer that
I know leach tests their glazes and sends the results to a professional
toxicologist for an opinion. There is probably more than one--I have only
directly asked about 4--, but I know for certain some do not.
I also know for certain there are some glazes labeled as "food safe" that
leach badly. I can draw the colorant right out of them with 30 minutes--more
or less-- exposure to lemon juice. The glaze may or may not poison
anyone--I'd just as soon not start that debate--however it is certain that
it is not satisfactory for use on functional ware. Yet the term "food safe"
carries with it the implication that it is a good glaze for use on
functional pottery. The law in the U.S. only requires that glazes leach less
than specified amounts of lead and cadmium in order to be used on a
food-bearing surface. Therefore, any lead and cadmium-free glaze can be
called "food-safe". That would appear to be the criteria some manufacturers
use; others are more careful to varying degrees.
When you start asking for data on commercially prepared glazes I think you
will be surprised how little testing is done by some manufacturers. I
personally would never used a commercial glaze without serious probing of
the testing a manufacturer has done. By the way, the one who does the leach
testing has told me they will share their results with those who ask.
Regards,
John
Web site: http://www.frogpondpottery.com Email: john@frogpondpottery.com
"The life so short, the craft so long to learn." Chaucer's translation of
Hippocrates, 5th cent. B.C.
Linda Rosen on sun 9 sep 01
John,
How about applauding the companies that DO test ( as far as you have been
able to discern) by disclosing the Company names of the Good guys.
Thanks
Linda
Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On
Behalf Of John Hesselberth
Sent: September 9, 2001 10:31 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: authenticity, glazes, and casting stones
- clip-
When you start asking for data on commercially prepared glazes I think you
will be surprised how little testing is done by some manufacturers. I
personally would never used a commercial glaze without serious probing of
the testing a manufacturer has done. By the way, the one who does the leach
testing has told me they will share their results with those who ask.
Regards,
John
John Hesselberth on sun 9 sep 01
on 9/9/01 2:10 PM, Linda Rosen at linda.rosen@SYMPATICO.CA wrote:
> John,
>
> How about applauding the companies that DO test ( as far as you have been
> able to discern) by disclosing the Company names of the Good guys.
>
> Thanks
>
> Linda
> Toronto
Hi Linda,
OK, that's a fair challenge but I do it with some trepidation.
Spectrum leach tests their glazes and has the results evaluated by a
professor at Duke University. I have talked to both father and son at
Spectrum and to the Duke professor about their program; although I did not
ask to see any results. They told me they would make them available to
people who wanted to see them.
Opulence has their glazes designed (or approved, I guess I'm not sure which)
by a well known ceramic consultant--they told me his name, but I'm not sure
that is public information. At any rate, I know that he knows how to make
stable glazes. I don't know what level of testing they do, but they were the
only ones I saw who put lemon slices on a couple of their glazes immediately
after my NCECA talk last March when I showed lemon juice leaching the color
out of some glazes. That took some confidence or guts or both. I had a good
conversation with Tami Archer, VP, at NCECA about their program.
Standard Ceramic has vinegar tested their glazes and Julie, their tech rep,
tells me they all passed.
Beyond that, the people I have talked to either had no idea what level of
testing they did or the company didn't do any. In fairness, some of the
people I talked to were their floor reps at NCECA and they may or may not
have known what was going on. As I said I have found commercial glazes (not
from the above 3 companies) that were terrible in vinegar or lemon juice.
I hope this message will cause other glaze manufacturers who monitor Clayart
to brag a little bit about their testing program. Here's an opening to give
yourself some free publicity with 3000 potters. If it is all quiet---well,
I guess we will all draw our own conclusions.
Regards,
John
Web site: http://www.frogpondpottery.com Email: john@frogpondpottery.com
"The life so short, the craft so long to learn." Chaucer's translation of
Hippocrates, 5th cent. B.C.
Alisa og Claus Clausen on mon 10 sep 01
Dear Elizabeth,
One of the things that really prompted me to make my own glazes had little
to do with authenitcity, but everything to do with how I wanted my pots to
look.
After a year of using commercial cone 6 glazes, I was frequently
disappointed with the outcome. At first they looked all right, but then
they looked deader and deader. Plus, because I they are so finely milled,
they settle too fast. I started to restudy glazes. I could have used
maybe another year to work with all the commercial glazes I had been using,
testing every variable of application and firing I could think of. But
instead I went to the glaze table. I used over a year to test loads of
everyone's recipes and eventually either tampered with those recipes or
made up some of my own after my wants.
A year tweaking commercial glazes or a year tweaking raw
materials. Personally I am more satisfied with the raw materials because
of a basic affection for them. I like all the drudge work. For me it is
part of my process. Does not make a great divide between you and me as
potters, good or not good, real or not. We are both potters. You like
commercial glazes and I cannot find any here I like. I like the mechanics
of glaze making and mixing. It is all right for me if I get a
disappointing brown. The reward is that they are rarer and rarer, because
I am learning more and more how to get the glaze I aim for.
I see your point in pure practicality. It is more prudent to mix up a
glaze you know is going to give a sure result. This infinitely true for
your production. But as we may be at different points in our creative and
economic careers, we are also stemming from different points of interest
and focuses. I am always the soap box speaker for same materials in
different hands make equally valid and different pots. That is partly why
I do not like to think of any process as purely magical or mysterious,
secretive or elite. As different as you and me. Think of it. Great there
are really smart glaze gurus making commercial glazes that save you from
work you do not like. Great there are people like you who use commercial
glazes to keep the glaze gurus busy making stable glazes for the public.
It all fits together and there is space for everyone.
Best regards,
your friend in Denmark, Alisa
Elca Branman on wed 12 sep 01
Hooray for the priddy perceptions!
Elca Branman.. in Sarasota,Florida,USA
elcab1@juno.com
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