Marilu on tue 23 mar 04
Hello, I am trying to follow a recipe for
making my own crayons and can't find anything
in the archives on it. The recipe says to make
your own crayons by mixing body stains and oxides with china
clay and firing them to 1830 degrees OR to make them by using
plaster as a binder. Mix a small amount of plaster
and water in the usual way. Then before it sets
add some color/stain. Prepare a mold from a slab
of clay and pour mixture into the mold to make crayons.
The recipe does not say to fire the ones made with plaster.
Has anyone tried this or is there any reason it might not work?
Is Plaster of Paris okay to use?
Should the crayons with plaster be fired before using?
Will the plaster interfere with MC6 glazes which I plan
to use on top of them? Thanks-Marilu
Ababi Sharon on wed 24 mar 04
Hello Marilu.
I will give you an evil and dangerous advice. Will they feat in with
Mastering Cone Six glazes? I do not know.
The stains are the matter. I try not to paint inside plates that are
planed to be used for food.
Using an engob in its powder state, weigh 100 gram a few times - each
time in a different bowl.
Add to each bowl a stain or colorant oxide.
It must be more concentrated than regular engob otherwise it will be
looked washed under the glaze therefore I add 50-100 grams stain.
Here we have another point.
These pastels are no different than the painter's soft pastels.
If you want a strong tint add more colorant/oxide. You can even make
different tints of the same colorant by adding more or less to the 100
gram mix.
The problem of course is the red. In the way I offer you will get it
pink!
You mix it with well and add the water, much less than usual:
You make small "meat bowls" than roll them to coils and dry in the kiln
to 110C
It should work on greenware too.
I do these things with gloves.
Ababi Sharon
Glaze wizard
Kibbutz Shoval Israel
ababisha@shoval.org.il
http://ababi.active.co.il
http://www.matrix2000.co.nz/Matrix%20Demo/Ababi.htm
A fast link Ceramics forum in Hebrew:
http://www.botzpottery.co.il/kishurim.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Marilu
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 4:15 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Plaster and crayon question
Hello, I am trying to follow a recipe for
making my own crayons and can't find anything
in the archives on it. The recipe says to make
your own crayons by mixing body stains and oxides with china
clay and firing them to 1830 degrees OR to make them by using
plaster as a binder. Mix a small amount of plaster
and water in the usual way. Then before it sets
add some color/stain. Prepare a mold from a slab
of clay and pour mixture into the mold to make crayons.
The recipe does not say to fire the ones made with plaster.
Has anyone tried this or is there any reason it might not work?
Is Plaster of Paris okay to use?
Should the crayons with plaster be fired before using?
Will the plaster interfere with MC6 glazes which I plan
to use on top of them? Thanks-Marilu
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Snail Scott on wed 24 mar 04
At 09:15 PM 3/23/04 -0500, you wrote:
>Should the crayons with plaster be fired before using?
I'vce never used plaster as a binder, but it should work
OK. Don't fire it, though. Plaster gets calcined back to
its 'starting point' at mere oven temperatures. Just
wait for it to set and harden, then use them. I wouldn't
expect any problems using them under glaze unless the
dustiness of the marks causes crawling.
-Snail
Jim Tabor on thu 25 mar 04
"....The recipe does not say to fire the ones made with plaster.
Has anyone tried this or is there any reason it might not work?
Is Plaster of Paris okay to use?
Should the crayons with plaster be fired before using?
Will the plaster interfere with MC6 glazes which I plan
to use on top of them? Thanks-Marilu"
Marilu-
It's been a couple of decades since making crayons and pastels but I'll share anyway and hope it is useful info.
For crayons, I used more paraffin than beeswax melted as a melted binder for a blend of ^6 glaze with stains or oxides. Stains ranged from 20-40% and oxides were much less. DO NOT put wet blends into melted wax, only well blended powders. My mold was a soft block of moist clay with a pointed paint brush handle pressed into them to the depth I wanted for the crayon's length. The molten blend was poured into the mold and left to cool. They gave good results on bisque for a crayon effect but the wax will resist the subsequent glaze application.
Pastels were made with whiting, gum, and stains or oxides. Make into a thick paste and roll into coils of a suitable length. Go light on the gum. They are hard and need to be used on bisque. Use line blends for a good range of colors. No firing is needed. I have always wondered if underglaze would work too if dried enough to be rolled into a coil and left to dry completely.
Plaster in clay was another post and also brought up in yours so I thought I'd throw this out because I would like to know if anyone reading this has any experience with PLASTER clays other than the usual pop outs from contamination. A long time ago I was amazed at intricate cast whiteware works from rubber molds using a "PLASTER" claybody. They were somewhat thick and set so the mold could be stretched enough to be removed as you would do for any other plaster cast; however, they were a fired ceramic. I believe the person was from Arlington, Texas but am not sure of that. Please post if you try the plaster adventure.
Jim Tabor
Flying high from NCECA, Empty Bowls dinner last night with my 150 bowls donation, and looking foward to the Marilyn Levene workshop in San Angelo this April.
http://www.members.cox.net/taborj/index.html
Marilu on fri 26 mar 04
Hi Ababi Thank you for your advice on coloring crayons
I will try it and see what happens. I like your roll
up like meat balls idea.-You are making me hungry too!
I think we will have spaghetti and meatballs
supper! See you solved lots of problems for me
today-Thank you, Marilu from York, Maine USA
Marilu on fri 26 mar 04
Hi Jim Thank you for the information. I was
reading about using wax and coloring it for
different resist colors. Is that what your
wax crayons do-make different color resists
that retain their colorafter firing but resist
the glaze? It is close to
the recipe I was looking at.Or do
they accept glaze over them and are more of
an underglaze look? I am going to try the
plaster as binder too-Snail thought it should
work. A couple people want to know if it will
work so I will post what happens after I test it
-It will be within a few weeks thanks again-Marilu
Ababi Sharon on sat 27 mar 04
You are welcome.
I learnt to make pastels for painting from an old German book/
My teacher said (That was wrong!) That you make them with engob- the
"right way" is by warming to 800C but who cares!
Ababi Sharon
Glaze wizard
Kibbutz Shoval Israel
ababisha@shoval.org.il
http://ababi.active.co.il
http://www.matrix2000.co.nz/Matrix%20Demo/Ababi.htm
A fast link Ceramics forum in Hebrew:
http://www.botzpottery.co.il/kishurim.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Marilu
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 4:02 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Plaster and crayon question
Hi Ababi Thank you for your advice on coloring crayons
I will try it and see what happens. I like your roll
up like meat balls idea.-You are making me hungry too!
I think we will have spaghetti and meatballs
supper! See you solved lots of problems for me
today-Thank you, Marilu from York, Maine USA
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
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