Paul Lewing on fri 30 aug 02
on 8/29/02 5:11 PM, J Cox at joe3cox@MSN.COM wrote:
> I am new to the list and have a question on what I can use in place of a
> ferro frit. I teach high school ceramics and we are starting to develop
> our own glazes and I find many glaze recipes ^6 range that call for ferro
> frit 3124, 3110 and others, and they are a little pricey so I was wondering
> if there was a cheaper substitution?
Every frit is different so, no, there isn't one thing that you can
substitute for a Ferro frit. (Ferro is a brand name, by the way). There
may be combinations of other ingredients that would result in similar glaze
effects, but usually the reason recipes call for frits in the first place is
that those combinations of cheaper ingredients caused other problems. Foe
instance, someone has already posted a substitution for frit 3110 that they
calculated using Insight. That combination of ingredients is almost half
borax and soda as, both of which are soluble. In a glaze that called for a
significant amount of 3110, that would probably cause problems.
Also Omar posted you two recipes that called for no frit. One called for
almost 50% Gerstley Borate, which can cause problems of its own. The other
one called for Nepheline Syenite, which often will make a glaze settle like
a rock. I found it very odd that, of those two recipes, the one with the
Neph Sy had no bentonite in it, while the one that was half GB, which will
turn to pudding, and had also a bunch of EPK, had 1% bentonite in it.
Totally unnecessary there.
Anyway, there are cone 6 glazes that do not contain frits, but in any case
all glaze materials, even the colorants, are very cheap compared to what the
finished work is worth. I wouldn't pay any attention at all to what a glaze
costs if it meets your needs. And especially in a high school situation,
they will want consistent results. This whole process is unpredictable
enough as it is. And they just can't be using much glaze anyway. Buy the
frits.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
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