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Finding Environmentally Safe Glazes


Ryan_pelo

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In my high school ceramics class, CAM 17 metals are banned by my school district because it's not environmentally friendly. This limits our current glazes to just a few dull colors and white. I am experimenting with glazes right now but I have yet to find a cone 6 oxidation recipe for any purples, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, or vibrant reds. Does anyone know of any recipes that can produce those colors without using any CAM 17 metals?

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Well, that's an overreaction, and kind of ridiculous if they use electricity in the school produced by anything other than solar or wind power. The amount of metals released into the air by the coal burning power plant during the production of electricity to run the kiln is probably more hazardous than the metals that might get into the waste stream from glazing pots. I get their point, but come on already. Glazes with  those materials can be certified non toxic, meaning you can ingest them without dying, so by the time they get into the environment they would be so diluted as to be a non-issue.

 

Have you talked to them about ways to minimize the glazes getting into the waste stream? For instance, instead of using the sink you can use buckets of water to rinse brushes and sponges, and when the glaze materials settle out in the water they can be collected and fired into glass that can be safely disposed of. Or you can take all that glaze material and add some kaolin to it to stiffen it up and actually use it on non-functional work. The amount of glaze that would get into the environment would be tiny.

 

Which metals, specifically, are banned?

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No chrome ,copper or cobalt -well thats just downright nuts

There are many ways to keep them contained-in use and afterwards as Neil says.

My guess is you are in my state which is California and in a So-cal school district????

Admin or teacher , an overreaction either way.

You can work with iron for reds if they allow iron oxides?

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Guest JBaymore

Well, that's an overreaction, and kind of ridiculous................

 

Amen to that.

 

Are all the school buses electric and charged from solar cells .... that somehow itself was manufactured without using any energy that was non "green"?   An d used materials that are non-polluting in the fabrication of those cells?  (And so o, ...and so on....and so on.......)

 

I call this level of absurdity... "greenwashing". 

 

best,

 

...............john

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The fall-out from policies like that one is once they get into a bureaucratic system they tend to grow roots and become entrenched forever, with very poor odds of getting anyone in authority to make a reasonable adjustment based on the facts, and they also promulgate a transmission of "bad data" to students who will carry forth the misinformation until who-knows-when!

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Yes, I am in a California school district in the Bay Area. They don't want any of the metals getting into the water system. I can use yellow, red, and black iron oxide, rutile, titanium dioxide, tin oxide, and several others I can't bother to name. The disallowed metals include cobalt, copper, chromium, vanadium, Nickel, barium, zinc, and lead. This also rules out any mason stains. Is there any substitute colorant that could produce anything on the blue or green spectrum?

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You can get iron greens pretty easily. They tend to go toward the olive side of green, but they can be quite nice. Add iron to some clear bases and se what you get. You can also get iron to go yellowish, but in an earthy way, sort of mustard. Blue is more difficult. In reduction you could get a celadon blue, but I'm not sure how to get it in oxidation without cobalt. You can get oranges and yellows with the rutile and tin. Iron reds, browns, and blacks. It's definitely going to be an earthy pallet, nothing too bright. Ask them about using wash buckets and such. It really is ridiculous.

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Just as an update, I found a few bright pastel colors that can be made without the disallowed metals. Neodymium oxide can produce light blues in oxidation, erbium oxide can make light pinks in oxidation, and praseodymium oxide can make lime greens in oxidation. One drawback is that they are expensive, but I'm glad to have found a solution

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