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Mayco Cone 5-6 Glazes Unreliable


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I am supposed to go to a birthday party for a friend this week.   So I made 6 stoneware coffee mugs to glaze and give as a gift.

 

I had stupidly bought 5 blue and 1 blue/green Mayco Cone 5-6 glazes.   So I glazed the cups, put them in the kiln with pyrometric cones for cone 6.   Set my brand new Scutt kiln to cone 6, which I've used many ties before.   I know what I'm doing.   I've been doing pottery and ceramics for 12 years.

 

Five of the cups came out looking like mud, not blue.  The Sapphire one wasn't sapphire blue.   They all look like ######.

 

My conclusion:   Mayco Cone 5-6 glazes are not "reliable" as advertised by their manufacturer.   If you haven't already wasted your money on Mayco Cone 5-6 glazes, don't waste your money on them.  If you have already wasted your money on Mayco Cone 5-6 glazes, don't use them on anything important because they are UNRELIABLE.

 

Much better to mix one's own glazes using tried and true formulas.

 

Please don't bother posting helpful comments or asking me simplistic questions.   I just want readers of this forum to know to ignore Mayco's self-promotional b.s.

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I've never used Mayco glazes.

 

I have had some less than stellar results with commercial glazes, but those are few and far between.

 

The makers do a whole lot of testing to ensure a good, consistent product. By doing so, they keep customers happy and stay in business.

Because of this, I would probably trust a commercial glaze more than one I made. I simply don't have the time and resources to test and retest it as much as they do.

 

Also, any of the aforementioned less than stellar results, were probably due to an error of my own. They just didn't fit into my standard firing schedule along with my usual suspects.

 

So I can't say I would chalk it up to an inferior product. It could be that the glaze didn't work well on your clay body, or that your firing schedule caused issues. A lot of factors to take into consideration, and testing that can be done.

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I stick pretty religiously to Amaco Artist's Choice and Opalescents for my stuff (I work in lowfire). The colors are gorgeous and tend to behave pretty well. I only use Mayco for their underglazes (not black!), which tend to have the consistency of Elmer's glue (exactly like it), so they can be kinda difficult to apply evenly... but, ohhh... dat Dragon Red. ♥

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Jennifer

With no offence.Why blame the whole body "Mayco".No business prefer to run their business in inferior ways.....If they are in the maket,forsure they have ethics and do follow the rules.

 

Just making them culprit, wont solve.Its better if you complain in their grievance cell/ department,that would be helpful.

Maximum companies these days are "customer centric".

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OK, I'm going to jump in here and state the obvious.  It is not a good idea to "test" something new on an important final product.  Period.  That goes for commercial products, your own products, everything.  I do hate test tiles but will make a few small inconsequential pieces first to try new things things out whether it be clay, glazes, techniques, etc.

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OK, I'm going to jump in here and state the obvious.  It is not a good idea to "test" something new on an important final product.  Period.  That goes for commercial products, your own products, everything.  I do hate test tiles but will make a few small inconsequential pieces first to try new things things out whether it be clay, glazes, techniques, etc.

 

+1

 

Slating any manufacturer on one bad apple is "in my view" - not cool.  Many glazes don't come out exactly as the picture in the catalogue, but by testing you find out what/how/thickness/firing schedule etc works best.

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