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Need Help With Old Glazes/wrong Clay Body


Lindylou

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Hello,

 

First off let me say I am not as proficient as most of you in clay.  I don't make my own glazes or clay and I don't do big pieces or throw.  I make jewelry pendants, beads and bracelets.  I have 2 small kilns, an aim 88 and a skutt 609, both on 120v.  I'm not on most of your levels but I love making my small items in mud.  I buy ready made glazes and clay.

 

Ok I have to set up my question.  Due to moving etc, most of my items were in storage or not used for 3 years.  I just started back again.  Of course, my clay is hard as a rock as are my glazes.  I read you can refresh the glazes which I have been doing.  I bought a mixer just for this reason and am slowly bringing my glazes back.  I am adding water to the clay to get it moist.

 

Being impatient I went out and bought more clay.  I bought cone 5 clay. I fired it at cone 5.  I glazed at cone 06 as that is what most of my glazes are and this is where I think I made my mistake. ( I hope because this would be easy to fix)  I know some of you are shaking your heads. My pieces are not coming out like they usually do.  The colors are very blah.  I do a lot of glazing and wiping off so the glaze gets into the lines and the words or image on the piece pops out but the colors are not right. They are very muted and not popping at all.  The words are getting lost in the glaze.  I also used some clay that was 06 and fired at 5 and then glazed at 06.  Now the rest of you are shaking their heads, I know.  Ok, my questions ( and please don't hate me cuz I'm uninformed.) Are the colors not coming out because I am 06 glazing on a 5 body?  Or i fired an 06 body at 5?  I've glaze fired some of the pieces again to check.  I am now re-firing  in the other kiln to see if the first kiln has an issue and wasn't hot enough although I've never had a problem with it.  I've had many mishaps with these firings.   I blew the circuit breaker one time and then another time it shut off too early (I set the timer wrong.  I know I sound like an idiot (I'm really not) but I think I was so exciting about doing clay again that I forgot the steps and I really need some help.  The first load i fired on low for 2 hours, then medium and then high. The high wasn't long enough because the kiln shut off too early.  I then fired a load, 1 hour low, 1 hour medium and then high.  It shut off at 4 hours and the cone was perfectly arched.  The results were the same.

 

I guess I want verification that I used the wrong glaze on the clay body and that's why the colors are so not popping and not glossy.  I put a layer of clear gloss glaze over them.

 

Although I have always before bisque fired to 06 and glazed 06, I've been reading that the bisque fire should be hotter than the glaze firing.  I bought 04 cones for this reason.  My 06 clay is back to normal so should I bisque fire to 04 and then glaze to 06?  Do you think my glazes are dead?  I did do a test firing with clay sticks I made and the glazes seemed to come out ok.  Some better than others. I also bought one new 06 laguna glaze and the results were the same with that.  I'm so hoping my error is the wrong glaze on the wrong clay body.

 

Thank you for your help.

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Although you mention you always fired to 06 you don't say what clay you were using. I think 

1. it is not a good clay for those glazes

2. because you fired the clay to vitrifying temperatures , it isn't absorbing the glaze -that could explain the blahness.

3.It could also be the glazes have lost something when they dried out, if there were soluble materials that evaporated away. I doubt that, but maybe.

 

To rectify you problem with clay, get your old clay working and do some tests. I had an old 88 , not that big to use as a test firing.

Otherwise, you may need to start over and get new clay and new glazes that match. 

Was your old clay a low fire clay? 

Marcia

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Hi Marcia,

 

I was always using 06 clays and 06 glazes.  I am going to do some tests.  I first am going to make some pieces from my old 06 clay.  I have buff for low firing and terracotta low fire both say 06.  Should I fire this clay at 04 as I've read it would be better?  Does it matter? I am then going to glaze them with my old "renewed" glazes and with the one new glaze I bought.  Both the old glazes and the new glaze are 06.  Being that my cone bent perfectly and the kiln shut off by itself, I'm thinking that it's not the kiln and may be my human error with the glazes not matching the clay body.

 

Can you recommend a good low fire terracotta clay?  I'm looking at all the different shades of terracotta in low fire earthenware clay. It's confusing on which one would be best for what I'm doing, small jewelry pieces, beads, pendants, cuffs.

 

Thank you for your response, Marcia.  With what you said, I'm crossing my fingers that I used the wrong clay bodies for the glazes I used.  If my kilns are ok, the worse thing is buying fresh clay and new glazes.  I can live with that.  After my tests, I'll post my results. Thank you again.  

 

Linda

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There are some minor advantages for bisque firing to 04 and then glazing to 06. You won't notice them in your piece size.

 

You should just continue to use low fire clay and bisque and fire to 06. There will be no harm in this.

Using a ∆6 clay and only firing to ∆06 will look alright but will chip more easily. So try to get an earthenware clay.

When you remix the old glazes it is easy to get them too thin. I will recommend buying some fresh ones as a reminder.

 

I didn't get good glaze results for the first few firings after I setup a new studio. And I kinda knew what I was doing!

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Linda,

It is best to talk to your supplier. There are so many different clay in different regions and countries, I can't say what will work for you. 

I got some terra cotta from a supplier that fired to ^2. But is is the strangest clay I have ever worked with.

So talk to local sources and tell them what you need.

 

Marcia

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