aliceb Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 I recently purchased the potters choice Saturation Gold glaze and I fired in my electric kiln, the cone 5 did not bend at all. I also had a self supporting cone 05 in the kiln and that bent only a little. clearly the kiln did not reach the temperature it was supposed to reach.. but I now have this issue, all the pieces that I glazed with the saturation gold are now black with a matte finish instead of gold. I am really disappointed and discouraged. I then decided to re-fire on medium instead of going through the process of low then med then high for my three knobs. I believe the kiln is not getting hot enough? I have an electric kiln, not digital. and not hard wired. I apologize for being so detailed I just want to be sure to get the right diagnosis. when I start the kiln I go by the manual which says to turn each knob after each hour. There are three knobs. so I put the first knob on low for an hour, after the hour I turn the second knob on low for an hour, after the hour I then turn the third knob on low for an hour, after the hour I now turn the first knob on medium for an hour, after that hour, I turn the second knob on medium for an hour, after that hour I turn the third knob on medium for an hour then the same goes for turning it on high after each hour i go to the next knob and turn it to high I apologize for being so detailed I just want to be sure to get the right diagnosis. Do you think I have done the right thing by refiring on medium ? Is this okay? do you think the glaze will come out now? or have I done the wrong thing? will it still be black? anyway to fix this? should I have reglazed it with the gold before firing again? I greatly appreciate all your help, it really means a lot! I am working on a piece for my church and it was supposed to be gold and I now I am so upset that I cannot deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliceb Posted September 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Good Afternoon, I would greatly appreciate your help with some glazing / kiln issues I am experiencing. Your help is so appreciated!! I recently purchased the potters choice Saturation Gold glaze and I fired in my electric kiln, the cone 5 did not bend at all. I also had a self supporting cone 05 in the kiln and that bent only a little. clearly the kiln did not reach the temperature it was supposed to reach.. but I now have this issue, all the pieces that I glazed with the saturation gold are now black with a matte finish instead of gold. I am really disappointed and discouraged. I then decided to re-fire on medium instead of going through the process of low then med then high for my three knobs. I believe the kiln is not getting hot enough? I apologize for being so detailed I just want to be sure to get the right diagnosis. when I start the kiln I go by the manual which says to turn each knob after each hour. There are three knobs. so I put the first knob on low for an hour, after the hour I turn the second knob on low for an hour, after the hour I then turn the third knob on low for an hour, after the hour I now turn the first knob on medium for an hour, after that hour, I turn the second knob on medium for an hour, after that hour I turn the third knob on medium for an hour then the same goes for turning it on high after each hour i go to the next knob and turn it to high I apologize for being so detailed I just want to be sure to get the right diagnosis. Do you think I have done the right thing by refiring on medium ? Is this okay? do you think the glaze will come out now? or have I done the wrong thing? will it still be black? anyway to fix this? should I have reglazed it with the gold before firing again? I greatly appreciate all your help, it really means a lot! I am working on a piece for my church and it was supposed to be gold and I now I am so upset that I cannot deliver. any advice is so appreciated thank you so very much for your kindness!! Alice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 You're wasting a lot of time with the firing. For a glaze firing, turn all the knobs on low for and hour, then all the knobs on medium for an hour, then all the knobs on high until the kiln is done. You could even shorten all those times to 1/2 each. What shut the kiln off? Is there a Kiln Sitter? Is the backup timer running out before it gets to temperature and the cone bends? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 It seems you picked one of the hardest commercial glazes to get right. Don't let a lousy glaze load ruin your day, I've had and I'm sure I always will have days like that. Making pots isn't easy, lots of failures along the way, just part of it. I cut and pasted the following from when this topic came up another time: Steve Lampron, on 01 Mar 2011 - 10:52 AM, said: Palladium and Saturation Gold Users,My name is Steve Lampron and I am the ceramic engineer here at AMACO. I want to give some simple tips about firing the Palladium and Saturation Gold glazes.Palladium: This is what I call a float glaze. This means that in order to get the shiny silver look you need to actually allow the supersaturated metallic particles to float to the surface and form the skin. There is no trick to this other than to make sure you put a good thick layer of glaze on the piece. This is true of many glazes (commercial and made at home) which need a good thickness ofglaze in order to make the surface. If you do not put enough glaze on, you will not have enough excess material to float and the glazewill look totally wrong. In the case of Palladium, it will be a fairly ugly green color. We fired this glaze on all of our clay bodies at both cone 5 and cone 6 with great results. I have a caution; this glaze can be very fluid and run so make efforts to allow for this. When you first try glazes you need to run test tiles (pieces) that are fired vrtically where you vary the thickness from what you think is too thin to what you think is too thick. This will show you where to go to get the look you want, it will also show you what it looks like when it is wrong. You will then know what went wrong when you get a pot that looks wrong. This glaze will be fine at cone 5 or 6 and requires no soak (it will make it run more). A medium / 8 hour firing is good. Cool normally. I see that a few people have gotten some blisters on pots that are fully glazed. This has happened on some clay bodies I found out after releasing it. It never seems to happen on poecelain bodies and these will also give the best surface. Please try your pots again on porcelain.Saturation Gold: This is also a float glaze so thickness is important as well. The glaze doesn't turn out a bright shiny gold like goldlusters or the old leaded cone 05 golds. It turns out a dark kind of wrinkled bronze gold. It is not an easy glaze to get to look smooth and perfect. The suggestion that applying it over another glossy mid-range glaze is something that I find also helps the surface. The plain fact of the matter is that this type of glaze is difficult to use and requires alot of trial work. The kiln Gods probably didn't want this type of glaze to be made. It can be beautiful when perfected but it is not as simple to perfect as a pretty little matte white glaze.I can't stress enough how important it is for all potters (especially new ones) to test glazes well before making pots. I know the desire to just make a pot but this method will only lead to disappointment and bad pots. Let me know if this helps or if I can address any other concerns you have.Steve.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cf66 Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Hi Steve, Would you be so kind to share a successful firing schedule for your saturation gold glaze? I will be using it on stoneware (Laguna B-Mix 5). And I will first dip it into a glossy white, is that what you would suggest before brushing the saturation gold on? Thanks so much. Palladium and Saturation Gold Users,My name is Steve Lampron and I am the ceramic engineer here at AMACO. I want to give some simple tips about firing the Palladium and Saturation Gold glazes.Palladium: This is what I call a float glaze. This means that in order to get the shiny silver look you need to actually allow the supersaturated metallic particles to float to the surface and form the skin. There is no trick to this other than to make sure you put a good thick layer of glaze on the piece. This is true of many glazes (commercial and made at home) which need a good thickness ofglaze in order to make the surface. If you do not put enough glaze on, you will not have enough excess material to float and the glazewill look totally wrong. In the case of Palladium, it will be a fairly ugly green color. We fired this glaze on all of our clay bodies at both cone 5 and cone 6 with great results. I have a caution; this glaze can be very fluid and run so make efforts to allow for this. When you first try glazes you need to run test tiles (pieces) that are fired vrtically where you vary the thickness from what you think is too thin to what you think is too thick. This will show you where to go to get the look you want, it will also show you what it looks like when it is wrong. You will then know what went wrong when you get a pot that looks wrong. This glaze will be fine at cone 5 or 6 and requires no soak (it will make it run more). A medium / 8 hour firing is good. Cool normally. I see that a few people have gotten some blisters on pots that are fully glazed. This has happened on some clay bodies I found out after releasing it. It never seems to happen on poecelain bodies and these will also give the best surface. Please try your pots again on porcelain.Saturation Gold: This is also a float glaze so thickness is important as well. The glaze doesn't turn out a bright shiny gold like goldlusters or the old leaded cone 05 golds. It turns out a dark kind of wrinkled bronze gold. It is not an easy glaze to get to look smooth and perfect. The suggestion that applying it over another glossy mid-range glaze is something that I find also helps the surface. The plain fact of the matter is that this type of glaze is difficult to use and requires alot of trial work. The kiln Gods probably didn't want this type of glaze to be made. It can be beautiful when perfected but it is not as simple to perfect as a pretty little matte white glaze.I can't stress enough how important it is for all potters (especially new ones) to test glazes well before making pots. I know the desire to just make a pot but this method will only lead to disappointment and bad pots. Let me know if this helps or if I can address any other concerns you have.Steve.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sai Posted October 28, 2015 Report Share Posted October 28, 2015 Does both color glaze have high chance of success in their most potental color if fire in a gas klin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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