Tom Sawyer on sun 21 may 06
Perhaps I need a disclaimer here because I am a "serious" hobby potter and
not a professional. In addition, I am not a glaze guru or do I have any
special skill that would allow me to make the following observations.
It is obvious that in addition to cone number, oxidation and reduction are
important.
I have for years largely mixed all the glazes I use; a few years ago, I
switched from cone 10 to cone 6, I found that, for myself, the higher glaze
formulas didn't transfer to lower firings as I hoped and I soon gave up and
developed my own palate of cone 6 glazes; some of my new glazes I liked as
well as those fired to cone 9-10 but few better. I started using commercial
glazes to reglaze pots that didn't turn out as I wanted; commercial glazes
are particularly suited for this purpose because they are thicker and less
viscous and stay on a fired glaze pot better than my own creations or copies
of others on this listserve. This introduced me to layering and I now have
several medium fired layered glazes that are as good as my cone 10 glazes.
Prior to going to NCECA this year, I read something I already knew but this
time it stuck; namely, many wonderful painters do not mix their paint
pigments and instead work from commercial paints. I asked if I wasn't
fooling myself; most of the formulas I use are copies others have posted on
this listserve or that are found in books. Did I mix glazes for ego
purposes? It is certainly lots of trouble to mix glazes and there are some
associated health risk. Perhaps, I told myself there are reasons a
professional production potter would want to mix his/her own glazes for
economic reasons but what was my reason? Thinking thusly, I was struck at
the 2006 NCECA at the quality of exhibitors especially those hawking glazes.
Coyote glazes stand out in my memory along with Laguna and Spectrum but
there were others. The medium fired electric kiln glazes from an historical
perspective just haven't been used for anywhere near the length of time
either high fire or low fire glazes. During the last decade and especially
the past few years, for instance, the improvement has been astonishing. I
now believe that a large number of potters might wish to reappraise their
prejudices. What was particularly impressive at the exhibits were the
examples of layering [especially Coyote] and the crystal glazes [especially
Laguna] exhibited. Those selling commercial glazes have an unprecedented
opportunity that we as individuals would find difficult to match. How many
of us have taken workshops where we mixed glazes. We often break up into
teams and each team mixed a dozen or so samples to fire. The glaze companies
such as those mention sell glazes to thousands and as layering becomes more
popular their customers will experiment with thousands and thousands of
combination that are gorgeous; If these companies would award token prizes
for wining combinations [a few bottles of free glaze], they would have a
silent work force of thousands and the potential for testing millions of
combinations and for increasing sales. After coming home from NCECA, I began
experimenting with commercial glazes from each of the three companies
mentioned above; what is really interesting are combinations from different
manufacturers [I have a couple that are beautiful] which could be a project
of this listserve. Indeed, I think a book on the subject composed of
commercial combinations from this listserve would be worthwhile. There are,
of course, some problems such as the safety of combinations on functional
ware without testing but these can be overcome.
Thanks Tom Sawyer
Linda Ferzoco on sun 21 may 06
Hi Tom,
Yes, I too am impressed with the Coyote glazes and
yesterday I was at Clay People in Richmond, California
and bought a bunch of pints to test - and especially
to layer. BUT they are quite costly. And the
ClayPeople folks said that Coyote doesn't discount
very much for the dry glaze.
So, I think I'll still end up creating a bunch of cone
6 glazes for myself. My application will not be for
food use, so I have slightly more latitude in material
selection.
Linda Ferzoco
Pacifica, California
where we're getting blankin' rain again!! It's May,
almost June and we're supposed to be dry.
--- Tom Sawyer wrote: I was
struck at
> the 2006 NCECA at the quality of exhibitors
> especially those hawking glazes.
> Coyote glazes stand out in my memory along with
> Laguna and Spectrum but
> there were others. The medium fired electric kiln
> glazes from an historical
> perspective just haven't been used for anywhere near
> the length of time
> either high fire or low fire glazes. During the last
> decade and especially
> the past few years, for instance, the improvement
> has been astonishing. I
> now believe that a large number of potters might
> wish to reappraise their
> prejudices. What was particularly impressive at the
> exhibits were the
> examples of layering [especially Coyote] and the
> crystal glazes [especially
> Laguna] exhibited.
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