Anne Doyle on tue 30 jan 07
Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get distilled
water for using in my glazes...
As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? There are
bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, bottled
waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
Thanx
Anne, in Saint-Sauveur where the weather has warmed to an almost balmy -
18=BAc... LOML is in Savanagh, Georgia on business this week and i'm just a
teensy bit jealous...:)
Don Goodrich on tue 30 jan 07
Hi Anne,
This is a question that has some mileage on it.
Many, myself included, use distilled water for the sake of consistency
and in hope of something resembling predictability. Since I use
quite a bit of the notoriously cantankerous Floating Blue, it seems
a good idea to minimize my unknowns.
My well water has a lot of mineral content, so it could be a factor in
the glaze formulation. It does seem that since I started using distilled
water the pinholes and crawling have gone away.
That being said, your glazes may be just fine with your well water.
The bottom line is whether they work in a way that pleases you.
You can try testing parallel batches of glaze, using well and distilled
water and see if there's a noticeable difference.
As for the availability, it's surprising that the stores don't sell
distilled water there. However, you may have other resources.
I don't know which Saint-Sauveur you're in, but mightn't there be some
clean snow available for you to melt (once the temperature reverts to
an un-balmy 0=B0C)?
Cheers,
Don Goodrich
Anne Doyle on tue 30 jan 07
Hi Don,
for availability i will try harware stores instead of groceries and maybe
they'll have some. As for the snow, we tried melting some during the ice
storm since no power meant no water, but it was full of little black bits
when it melted probably from ppl's fireplaces... i could try removing the
bits by strianing through a coffee filter cause i sure have quite a lot of
snow i could melt!!
As for the weather, that should have read -18=BAcelcius...
Thanx,
Anne
Stephanie Wright on tue 30 jan 07
Hi Anne,
Distilled water can usually be found in the pharmacy section of the
grocery store.
Using snow might be a good idea. However, I have heard that rain and snow
can pick up pollution in the air. Don't know how much, but it's possible
any chemicals in the water might skew your results as much as minerals in
your well water might.
If you find distilled water, it may be interesting to fire 3 test batches
of the same glaze side by side - snow, well, and distilled - and see if
there are any differences to speak of.
Stephanie
WJ Seidl on tue 30 jan 07
Anne:
Chances are, the water from your well is going to be fine in your =
glazes.
There "might" be a small amount of iron or calcium in it. It shouldn't
really make a difference, unless your glazes are really finicky, or =
you're
trying for a super-duper-dazzlingly white glaze. (Then, the iron might
affect the color just a bit.)
Try a small batch of glaze using that water on some test pots first. No
sense in spending good money for "special water" if you don't have to.
Best,
Wayne Seidl
in chilly Key West Florida...only 15=B0C!
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Anne Doyle
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:41 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Distilled water for glazes?
Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get =
distilled
water for using in my glazes...
As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? There =
are
bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, =
bottled
waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
Thanx
Anne, in Saint-Sauveur where the weather has warmed to an almost balmy -
18=BAc... LOML is in Savanagh, Georgia on business this week and i'm =
just a
teensy bit jealous...:)
_________________________________________________________________________=
___
__
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David Berg on tue 30 jan 07
I'm not an expert glaze chemist so I may be wrong about this, but it
makes sense to me that that the amount of dissolved solids in most
ground water is going to be miniscule compared with the amount of
material one is adding in preparation of the glaze. The amount of
dissolved solids in ground water is typically going to be measured
in tens to hundreds of milligrams per liter. In contrast we are adding
thousands of times more solids in preparation of the glaze - i.e.
it takes hundreds of grams of clays, frits, silica etc to make a =20
liter of
glaze.
So, if dissolved solids in ground water are at least 1000 times less =20
than
the solids one adds to prepare a glaze, how can it make any appreciable
difference?
David
David Berg
dberg2@comcast.net
http://bergstoneware.com/
On Jan 30, 2007, at 10:40 AM, Anne Doyle wrote:
> Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
>
>
> I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get =20
> distilled
> water for using in my glazes...
> As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? =20
> There are
> bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, =20
> bottled
> waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
>
> Thanx
> Anne, in Saint-Sauveur where the weather has warmed to an almost =20
> balmy -
> 18=BAc... LOML is in Savanagh, Georgia on business this week and i'm =20=
> just a
> teensy bit jealous...:)
>
> ______________________________________________________________________=20=
> ________
> 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 =20
> melpots@pclink.com.
Bonnie Staffel on wed 31 jan 07
I feel that investing in distilled water is a waste of money. I had =
iron
water in our country well and used it for about 20 years with no ill
effects. Perhaps my glazes adapted easily, but I have used the same =
glaze
recipes in the various parts of the country where I have had studios =
with no
change in the look of the glazes. =20
Regards,
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
DVD Throwing with Coils and Slabs
DVD Beginning Processes
Charter Member Potters Council
Snail Scott on wed 31 jan 07
At 10:40 AM 1/30/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
>
>
>I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get distilled
>water for using in my glazes...
>As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? There are
>bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, bottled
>waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
Try your well water first. It might
be just fine. If not, then try a
bottle of the cheapest gallon-jug
'drinking water' from the supermarket.
Some people hold out for distilled,
but they are rare. Can it change the
mineral balance of the glaze? Maybe,
depending on your water. Will it matter?
It may not. Test to find out, before
getting fancy. Try what you've
got, first, and compare it with the
purer waters. If you can't tell the
difference, then don't bother. If
you can, maybe you'll like the well-
water version better!
Variations in water tend to result in
subtle changes to glazes, since even
really mineralized water doesn't have
that much mineral in it, compared to
all the stuff you're mixing into it.
If your glaze recipes don't work like
they should, you can try mixing them
with purified water, but it won't make
big changes unless your water is WAY
nasty. Purified water can be a way of
controlling the variation in water,
especially if you have a product line
that MUST remain consistent over years
of production, especially if you might
move. For most people, their own water
is just fine.
-Snail
Donna Kat on wed 31 jan 07
Do you have a dehumidifier? If so, the water from that is going to work
as well as store bought distilled water. I have never used bought
distilled water in my glazes and have always been happy with my glazes (I
have lived in CA, NJ, CT, NY, etc.). The only reason I use the water from
my dehumidifier is that it is available and I hate dumping it down the
drain or carrying it up to the plants.
Donna
On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:40:30 -0500, Anne Doyle
wrote:
>Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
>
>
>I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get distilled
>water for using in my glazes...
>As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? There are
>bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, bottled
>waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
>
>Thanx
>Anne, in Saint-Sauveur where the weather has warmed to an almost balmy -
>18=BAc... LOML is in Savanagh, Georgia on business this week and i'm just a=
>teensy bit jealous...:)
Roly Beevor on thu 1 feb 07
Anne
This may seem marginal compared to firing your work, but do you consider
your carbon footprint (or your water footprint for that matter)? Distilled
water is expensive stuff, energy went into making it and transporting it.
If your well has extreme pH you might want to consider its effect, but it
will be a lot less wasteful to correct it than to import water.
Roly Beevor
Thinking global, acting global, for once.
-----Original Message-----
From: "Anne Doyle"
To:
Date: 30 January 2007 17:59
Subject: Distilled water for glazes?
Hi again, & I apologize in advance if this is a dumb newbie question:
I have a well for water in my home. I was thinking i should get distilled
water for using in my glazes...
As i can't seem to find any, i was wondering what other ppl use? There are
bottled waters that are demineralized or low in mineral contents, bottled
waters from the grocery stores would they be good enough?
Thanx
Anne, in Saint-Sauveur where the weather has warmed to an almost balmy -
18ºc... LOML is in Savanagh, Georgia on business this week and i'm just a
teensy bit jealous...:)
____________________________________________________________________________
__
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.
Anne Doyle on thu 1 feb 07
Hi Roly,
As much as i appreciate where you're coming from, i have a differing point
of view. I do use a dehumidifier in the summer so i'll have my own
distilled water i can use then, just not now. There is nothing wrong with
my well that needs fixing, just hard water thats all. Its delicious and we
wouldn't trade it for municipal water(yechhh) but it might be causing
problems with some of the glaze recipes that are a bit fussier, like the
FB. For now i was able to find demineralized water which is supposedly the
same as distilled, at the drugstore near my home.
I think this business of mixing my own glazes is a slippery slope if i end
up mixing, testing and retesting only to waste chemicals and heavy
metals... what happens to them if the glazes are unuseable? They would need
some heavy duty recycling... If i put $5-10-or more worth of chemicals in a
glaze, i think the $0.99 for the water is worth it if it gives me a glaze i
can use and get consistent results with. It's a controllable variable.
i think my ecological footprint would be significantly bigger and more
damaging if i were to make dozens of test glazes only to have them all be
unuseable. My approach is more "do the least harm"...
I guess pottery in general is perhaps not the most environmentally friendly
of pursuits, but if we each try to do the least harm, i think we can make
our footprints smaller.
Thanx,
Anne
Maid O Mud on fri 2 feb 07
I need to 2nd Ron here. When I moved to the country, my glazes
behaved completely differently than when I lived in Mississauga (Ontario,
Canada).
I purchased a Reverse Osmosis filter, and it solved the problems. Lately,
I tried mixing up one of my darker glazes with the well water (figuring a
high
mineral content couldn't hurt the colour) and immediately went back to
problems (glaze dropping off the pot during firing to name one!). After
chipping several shelves, I've re-mixed the dark glaze (argh!)
Sam Cuttell
Maid O'Mud Pottery
RR 1
Melbourne, Ontario
N0L 1T0
CANADA
"First, the clay told me what to do.
Then, I told the clay what to do.
Now, we co-operate."
sam 1994
http://www.ody.ca/~scuttell/
scuttell@ody.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Ron Roy
?
I'd like to agree with Stephanie here - there are very good reasons to apply
some of our creativity to solving some of our problems.
In my case - when we moved to the country - all my glazes staring settling
out - for the first time. I don't know if it's the water softener or the
well water (lots of calcium and some iron) or both but there was a problem
and it's solved with DI water (deionized water.)
Well water is different from one area to another - I see no value in saying
mine works OK and therefore yours must as well.
Doing a few simple experiments will solve most of the issues we find
ourselves arguing about.
About snow and rain water - remember - both can be contaminated.
RR
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2:28 PM
Ron Roy on fri 2 feb 07
I'd like to agree with Stephanie here - there are very good reasons to
apply some of our creativity to solving some of our problems.
In my case - when we moved to the country - all my glazes staring settling
out - for the first time. I don't know if it's the water softener or the
well water (lots of calcium and some iron) or both but there was a problem
and it's solved with DI water (deionized water.)
Well water is different from one area to another - I see no value in saying
mine works OK and therefore yours must as well.
Doing a few simple experiments will solve most of the issues we find
ourselves arguing about.
About snow and rain water - remember - both can be contaminated.
RR
>Distilled water can usually be found in the pharmacy section of the
>grocery store.
>
>Using snow might be a good idea. However, I have heard that rain and snow
>can pick up pollution in the air. Don't know how much, but it's possible
>any chemicals in the water might skew your results as much as minerals in
>your well water might.
>
>If you find distilled water, it may be interesting to fire 3 test batches
>of the same glaze side by side - snow, well, and distilled - and see if
>there are any differences to speak of.
>
>
>Stephanie
Ron Roy
RR#4
15084 Little Lake Road
Brighton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 1H0
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