Marianne Eshleman on mon 30 oct 06
Good Morning All:
I haven't been in the group very long - probably less than a week; but I have been reading, reading, reading.....all the wonderful and informative posts that come to Clayart. All of you are so smart and seem to be where (in your craft) I so wish I could be -- but alas, I am but a novice and finding some things very frustrating and sometimes illusive. This post is about the magic of glazes.
I've only been throwing and playing with clay for less than a year. But am hooked enough that I have gotten my own wheel and electric kiln and enough chemicals to make up many gallons of glaze. I have scoured the glaze books, the internet, the forums, and found several recipes that I like the looks of and want to pursue -- last week, I made my very first glaze batch and had a problem; of which alot of you helped me fix. (Again, my thanks for that).
I am making mostly pottery used in and around the kitchen. Casseroles, plates, collanders, mugs, etc. Construction of such things is getting easier. I started out with Earthenware - which is the category of clay that the school used where I took some lessons. But now I am working primarily with stoneware which is usually Cone 6. When I was working with Earthenware, I used Amaco's commercial glazes and that was alright as I would look for lead-free and dinnerware safe glazes that would look nice on my pots. But now......now that I have the glaze-making bug; how can I know and how do I make decisions on glazes that are safe to use on such pots? I've read where some of you talk about "leaching", especially with the use of copper chemicals or cobalt chemicals. Is there a way for me to check the
glazes I make or do I just not use anything that has a toxicity level of any kind in my glazes? This topic, for me, is overwhelming right now.
Any information that you can send my way (and maybe other novices would like to know too) would be greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Marianne Eshleman
Mountaintop, PA
Marcia Selsor on mon 30 oct 06
Marianne,
John Hesselbreth and Ron Roy published a book called Mastering Cone 6
Glazes.
It is a great resource book and explains glaze chemistry well enough
to get you tweeking your own glazes.
To test for leaching, put a slice of lemon on you glaze and leave it
overnight. See if there is a discoloration in the morning.
Marcia
On Oct 30, 2006, at 9:14 AM, Marianne Eshleman wrote:
> Good Morning All:
>
> I haven't been in the group very long - probably less than a week;
> but I have been reading, reading, reading.....all the wonderful and
> informative posts that come to Clayart. All of you are so smart
> and seem to be where (in your craft) I so wish I could be -- but
> alas, I am but a novice and finding some things very frustrating
> and sometimes illusive. This post is about the magic of glazes.
>
> I've only been throwing and playing with clay for less than a
> year. But am hooked enough that I have gotten my own wheel and
> electric kiln and enough chemicals to make up many gallons of
> glaze. I have scoured the glaze books, the internet, the forums,
> and found several recipes that I like the looks of and want to
> pursue -- last week, I made my very first glaze batch and had a
> problem; of which alot of you helped me fix. (Again, my thanks for
> that).
>
> I am making mostly pottery used in and around the kitchen.
> Casseroles, plates, collanders, mugs, etc. Construction of such
> things is getting easier. I started out with Earthenware - which
> is the category of clay that the school used where I took some
> lessons. But now I am working primarily with stoneware which is
> usually Cone 6. When I was working with Earthenware, I used
> Amaco's commercial glazes and that was alright as I would look for
> lead-free and dinnerware safe glazes that would look nice on my
> pots. But now......now that I have the glaze-making bug; how can I
> know and how do I make decisions on glazes that are safe to use on
> such pots? I've read where some of you talk about "leaching",
> especially with the use of copper chemicals or cobalt chemicals.
> Is there a way for me to check the glazes I make or do I just not
> use anything that has a toxicity level of any kind in my glazes?
> This topic, for me, is overwhelming right now.
>
> Any information that you can send my way (and maybe other novices
> would like to know too) would be greatly greatly appreciated.
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Marianne Eshleman
> Mountaintop, PA
> ______________________________________________________________________
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> Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
L. P. Skeen on mon 30 oct 06
You need a book called _Mastering Cone Six Glazes_ (often referred to
here as MC6G) by Ron Roy and John Hesselberth. You can get it (at a
discount) and support one of our own by buying from Steve Branfman at
The Potter's Shop http://www.thepottersshop.com .
Lisa Skeen
Get your 2007 Clay Lover's Calendar at
http://www.living-tree.net/calendar.htm
Marianne Eshleman wrote:
> But now......now that I have the glaze-making bug; how can I know and
> how do I make decisions on glazes that are safe to use on such pots?
Timothy Joko-Veltman on mon 30 oct 06
On 10/30/06, Marianne Eshleman wrote:
>
>
> Good Morning All:
> Any information that you can send my way (and maybe other novices would like
> to know too) would be greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Tony Hansen's website is invaluable. It has an enormous amount of
material - all available free of charge on the internet. A good place
to start on that site (becuase it really is huge) is:
http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/education/index.html
I go there frequently, and if I don't learn something new, it's a good
reinforcement, and I definitely need it, the art of glaze making is
extremely complex.
Happy learning!
Tim
Cheers,
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