Paul Lewing on mon 15 may 06
on 5/15/06 2:47 PM, Neal at neal126@YAHOO.COM wrote:
> When a glaze gets low and its time to make more,
> should I (1) test the new batch and then add it
> to the old glaze in the bucket,
This is the smart thing to do, after you know the new batch looks just like
the old one.
(2) don't bother
> testing it separately, just add it to the old
> glaze (not really considering this, but thought
> maybe it's what some potters do),
This would definitely be my option, smart or not.
or (3) test it
> and keep it separate from the old glaze (using
> up the old glaze on its own)?
Nah, nobody does that. Unless the new batch is different.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
Neal on mon 15 may 06
I'm still fairly new to making my own glazes (as
opposed to having them made for me in city and
university clay studios).
When a glaze gets low and its time to make more,
should I (1) test the new batch and then add it
to the old glaze in the bucket, (2) don't bother
testing it separately, just add it to the old
glaze (not really considering this, but thought
maybe it's what some potters do), or (3) test it
and keep it separate from the old glaze (using
up the old glaze on its own)? (Or is there
another option I've missed?)
Neal O'B.
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Crista Nelson on mon 15 may 06
We always just add to the existing bucket, never had any problems doing it
this way...Crista
Steve Slatin on mon 15 may 06
Neal --
Think of reality as Clint Eastwood. Think of
yourself as one of his smarmy villians. The
glaze bucket (stay with me, I know I'm stretching
the metaphor) is Clint's 357. And while you're
staring at the bucket, Clint (reality) is saying
to you ...
wait for it .....
..... "FEEL LUCKY, PUNK?"
If anything goes wrong, you'll have a huge batch
of an unknown problem. And not even a little bit
left of a tested, good glaze.
The best thing to do is to make up a big batch of
a glaze you know and like before finishing the
old batch, and run a test of the new batch --
along with a test of the old batch. If the new
batch comes out perfectly, then mix it with the
old one.
If it's not OK, you've restricted the range of
confusion, and by retesting the old batch in the
same firing, you can eliminate (or isolate!) kiln
firing issues as the reason for the glaze
failure.
Best wishes -- Steve S.
(Watching 'City of God' -- as a
Brasilian-crime-favela movie it's right up there
with Pixote.)
--- Neal wrote:
> I'm still fairly new to making my own glazes
> (as
> opposed to having them made for me in city and
> university clay studios).
>
> When a glaze gets low and its time to make
> more,
> should I (1) test the new batch and then add it
> to the old glaze in the bucket, (2) don't
> bother
> testing it separately, just add it to the old
> glaze (not really considering this, but thought
> maybe it's what some potters do), or (3) test
> it
> and keep it separate from the old glaze (using
> up the old glaze on its own)? (Or is there
> another option I've missed?)
Steve Slatin --
The angel lay in a little thicket. It had no need of love; there was nothing anywhere in the world could startle it ...
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Lynn Goodman Porcelain Pottery on mon 15 may 06
Neal--ALWAYS test a new glaze batch before using. The one time you
don't will be the one time it's wrong.
After it's tested you should be able to combine the new with the old,
but sieve it to remove the debris that tends to show up in the bottom
of buckets.
Lynn (who has ruined many a pot by not following this advise!)
>
Lynn Goodman
Fine Porcelain Pottery
548 Court St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231
718-858-6920
Cell 347-526-9805
www.lynngoodmanporcelain.com
Ellen Currans on mon 15 may 06
Dear Neal,
We mix up a separate new batch and add it to the old one without testing, but
we do it very carefully. We have cards made up for each glaze we use with a
check off square for each ingrediant as it is measured and dumped. If it
takes two weighings on the gram scale to fill out one ingrediant there are two
check off squares for that ingrediant. This has saved our bacon many times when
we have been interrupted and can't quite remember where we stopped. This is a
separate card from the recipe card, and we only do it for the commonly used
glazes.
I dip most of my work and I keep it in beer brewing buckets which are 14 1/2
inches deep and in diameter. This allows me to dip anything up to a 13 inch
platter or a square plate if the bucket is full. These buckets are wider than
the 8 gallon paint buckets usually available. (Anything larger requires
dipping the glaze out into a horse feeding trough or several other plastic tubs I
have on hand.)
I try to keep my buckets full all the time and refill them when they are down
a couple inches. I dip the larger pieces first and follow up with smaller
ones. The key to this is to have a separate lineup of buckets (8 or 6 gallon
buckets) of newly mixed glaze,
sieved but not thinned to the proper consistency yet. This can be done long
before I start in with a series of back to back firings so I don't have to
stop to mix glaze.
When the primary bucket gets too low to dip what I am glazing, I add some
from the smaller bucket, add water to the consistency I need, mix well with a
cordless drill, and glaze away.
Each glaze I use (about 6 or 7) has its own viscosity number on the bucket,
and before using, I weigh a small plastic bottle full and adjust the glaze in
the bucket with water until it is correct. Saves lots of guessing, since I
have found that a newly mixed glaze sometimes "feels" and acts thicker than it
really is. In my situation, my husband, who is not a potter, does a great many
other things around the studio, and mixing our standard glazes is one of them.
He likes it that he doesn't have to worry about getting just the right
amount of water.
That doesn't answer your question about testing to be sure the new glaze was
mixed correctly. I never have time to wait until I can fire a test of a new
batch of an old glaze. Adding just a gallon or so each time of the new to the
old would probably even out minor mistakes anyway. I have never had a
problem with this. I think you just have to be very careful and "in the moment"
when you are weighing your glazes, and then get on with it.
Ellen Currans
at "Cedar Pond Pottery", in Oregon, where it was 90 degrees today - a new
record for you water soaked NCECA people to ponder. We named our studio Cedar
Pond 40 years ago when the beaver had backed up a small pond into a little dip
filled with Cedar trees on our property. Several years later the county people
came along and carted off the beaver because they were also chopping down
filbert trees and making a mess of our little valley. So no pond now, but still
Cedar trees and still a pottery.
I use my name as well as Cedar Pond Pottery on everything. Cedar Pond looks
nice on cards and stationary and is registered with the state - my name is
more recognizable at fairs and on my pots.
Lee Love on tue 16 may 06
On 5/16/06, Ellen Currans wrote:
>
> I dip the larger pieces first and follow up with smaller
> ones.
I learned at my teacher's workshop, to glaze small/thinner
pieces first. Because glaze thickness is very important for allowing
the inlay to show through, but not be so thin for the iron body to
break too much, the application thickness is critical.
If you start with thin work, you can add water to thin the
application as you get to the thicker work.
When you start a new glaze cycle, the water is dipped out of
the top of the settle glaze, and then a set measure of ladels is put
back before you begin glazing.
The importance of glaze application was one of the valuble things
I learned there.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/
"The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us.
Everything. The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not,
but in who knows it and ho don't."
--Burley Coulter (Wendell Berry)
Ellen Currans on tue 16 may 06
In a message dated 5/16/06 2:15:53 PM !!!First Boot!!!, togeika@CLAYCRAFT.ORG
writes:
> Subj: Re: Glaze Batch Questions
> Date: 5/16/06 2:15:53 PM !!!First Boot!!!
> From: togeika@CLAYCRAFT.ORG (Lee Love)
> Sender: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG (Clayart)
> Reply-to: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG (Clayart)
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>
>
>
>
> On 5/16/06, Ellen Currans wrote:
>
> >
> > I dip the larger pieces first and follow up with smaller
> > ones.
>
> I learned at my teacher's workshop, to glaze small/thinner
> pieces first. Because glaze thickness is very important for allowing
> the inlay to show through, but not be so thin for the iron body to
> break too much, the application thickness is critical.
>
> If you start with thin work, you can add water to thin the
> application as you get to the thicker work.
>
Dear Lee,
I agree that application thickness is critical. I think I didn't make it
clear by what I meant as the "larger pieces". My larger pieces are those which
require the full depth of the bucket to dip. I dip those first while the bucket
is most full and then do smaller pieces - thrown bowls, 8 inch square plates,
etc. The glaze may only go down a couple inches before I add more. I do a
few larger slab pieces that require dipping in a horse trough (black plastic)
but they are the same thickness as the others and do not require a thinner
glaze.
I don't really do any thick large pieces which would soak up the glaze too
quickly. My slabs are generally 3/8 or sometimes .350 for smaller items. When I
glaze the thinner, smaller work I wash them earlier and let them fully dry
before I dip, I dip more slowly.. My glazes are fairly thin because I have
found that dipping textured surfaces in thick glazes leaves air bubbles in the
texture and slow runoffs where I don't want them. I dip twice for each piece and
I reverse the side that goes into the bucket first. (I am not trying for
artistic variations but a clean even covering, since it is the texture that is
the decoration, not the glaze application. If I were using multiple glazes I
wouldn't fuss so much.) I don't have a problem with the glaze getting thicker as
I work because I am topping off the buckets with new glaze and bringing it up
to the optimum viscosity fairly often.
Ellen Currans
Ron Roy on tue 16 may 06
Hi Neal,
A few ideas to make mixing mistakes less likely to happen.
Always buy materials in the original bags if you can afford to - that way
you eliminate the problem of the supplier making a mistake - it happens.
If you de bag materials into other containers - always mark the container -
not the lid - and tear off the name from the bag and leave it with the
material.
Only have one material container open at a time - that way you will never
dump what is left over in your scoop into the wrong bin.
If you are weighing on a small capacity scale and you need to weigh several
lots of the same material - leave them in piles on wax paper - so you can
count em to see if you have the right number of piles.
It is very handy - when you have finished - and not sure you did it right -
to be able to weigh the whole batch to see if you have the right amount.
Always better to test fire the batch before using it - don't add to the old
batch till you do that.
You will be interrupted - no mater how hard you try not to be - you want to
be able to pick up where you left off - but I do agree with Mel -
concentrating is want you want to be doing and weighing out glazes is not
the most fascinating job.
RR
>I'm still fairly new to making my own glazes (as
>opposed to having them made for me in city and
>university clay studios).
>
>When a glaze gets low and its time to make more,
>should I (1) test the new batch and then add it
>to the old glaze in the bucket, (2) don't bother
>testing it separately, just add it to the old
>glaze (not really considering this, but thought
>maybe it's what some potters do), or (3) test it
>and keep it separate from the old glaze (using
>up the old glaze on its own)? (Or is there
>another option I've missed?)
>
>Neal O'B.
Ron Roy
RR#4
15084 Little Lake Road
Brighton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 1H0
lee love on tue 16 may 06
Neal,
Beacause my main glaze is an ash glaze, I don't have the luxuary
to think it will be exactly the same every time I mix it up. I
always test it at least 3 times before I use it: twice on tiles
(small batch and then big batch) and then once on a medium sized pot.
Typically, I test more than three times, adjusting the glaze
according to what I see in the tests.
What I end up doing is having more than one batch going at a
time. Sometimes one is "softer" than the other, and I use that in
the cool spots of the kiln. The current "new" batch is with a new
bag of ball clay and has some rust color in it. So I treat it as a
separate glaze.
When the old batch gets low, I add it to the new batch.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/
Neal on wed 17 may 06
Thanks to all the responses to my question about
mixing different batches of glazes.
One important point that no one has mentioned
yet is to make sure you have enough of each
ingredient before starting. I discovered I was
out of nepheline syenite--fortunately before I
started mixing the glaze that needed it.
I mixed up two 5 kg batches of glaze: my white
and my blue variations on Tony Hansen's 5x20
glaze. The bisque kiln is cooling this morning.
I'll be testing one piece in each glaze in
tomorrow's glaze firing to see if the new
batches of glaze are the same as the old ones.
Neal O'B.
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lee love on wed 17 may 06
I put a box next to each item in the recipe. I make a diagonal
line when I start with that item and then make a second line,
completing and "X", after putting the item in the mixing bucket.
http://www.google.com/notebook/images/arrow_large_open.gif
▼
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
My google Notebook: http://tinyurl.com/ozpx3
"Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire;
Bring me my Spear; O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire! "
--William Blake
Heloisa Nunes on thu 18 may 06
>
> One important point that no one has mentioned
> yet is to make sure you have enough of each
> ingredient before starting.
To add to all the things people said, just two things I do:
Keep a calculator handy.
i have a notebook for glaze mixing so that I can go back to my notes to
check source of ingredients ( I buy from many sources, therefore it is
important to me), changes/experiments with glazes, If I forgot to check a
box...
If I run out of an ingredient, I just calculate how much I am missing and
put a box on the side with the grams missing. I attach that sheet to the
bucket with tape so that I don't forget that an ingredient is missing. Later
I just add what is missing, sieve and TEST, always.
Cheers from crazy São Paulo this past week...
Heloisa Nunes
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