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Underglazes And Such


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My wife is interested in painting designs on her pots and is looking at underglazes. Unless we're missing something all the products I'm finding is low fire and we glaze fire at ^6.

 

If there is a ^6 undergalze available can you recommend a brand?

 

Thanks in advance.

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Many underglazes will work fine at cone 6. Most Speedball, Amaco Velvet, Coyote, etc will work well. It's good to test them first, though, since some may color shift a bit. Speedball red and royal blue tend to flux out a bit too much.

I have trouble with the purples, too. They really fade. I'm doing some test tiles, with more coats of the purple to see if that makes it better. 

Nancy

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Thanks, good to know

 

My wife found Mayco Fundamentals which she believes is also an underglaze. Has anyone tired this brand? She likes the idea it comes in a kit of 12 colors.

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I have used Amaco underglaze and Duncan and I have a couple of bottles of Mayco.   I fire to cone 6 and have had great luck with all of them.  I hear good reports about Speedball and Spectrum as well.  As was mentioned above, Maroon, rose, pink all seem to burn out or fade at cone 6.  But I have had good luck with Amaco's lilac, violet, amethyst.....A set like you mentioned might be a good way to see which colors she likes and just to get a feel for the underglazes.  They are very "blendable" so you can get the color you want, easily. 

 

Roberta

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The underglazes that use cadmium stains like the speedball pink and lilac should be okay with most glazes. Pinks, some reds and purple tones etc underglaze that use chrome / tin stains need a glaze that is free of zinc and high in either calcium or strontium. Same kind of base glaze that you would use for chrome / tin pinks, reds, purple (with cobalt plus the chrome / tin).

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kim kirchman, who teaches at st. petersburg community college in clearwater, uses vivid colors.  at a recent workshop she showed us how to transfer bright colors onto greenware.  she fires hot with gas or wood  and uses soda in her firings.  i  know she uses a protective slip because they go so hot.   because i only fire to cone 6 i did not write it down.  it is named Hoag Slip.

 

her colors are both amaco velvets and mayco stroke & coats blended into the same space in the big plastic palette.  she uses them spread thickly in huge squares and allowed to dry out. ( what a great idea for those of us who use color so rarely that the 2 ounce bottles dry out inside the bottles!)  she sprays the whole palette with water when she is ready to work.

 

she paints an outline with black designer liner fine tip bottles and then brushes brilliant reds, oranges, purples, etc. onto newsprint paper.  she does these in the house in the evenings and winds up with a pile of colored patterns on paper, ready to re-constitute as wet paint when she has the freshly rolled wet slab ready.  then a quick spritzing of water on the back of the paper, pressing the patterns with a red sherril rib and carefully peeling off the paper exposing the design on the clay.

 

picture 1 shows the palette.  2 is bisqued and the third shows the final soda fired pieces.

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Kim does lovely work

 

So I'm understand you correctly, she pours the colors into a palette as if they are watercolors, lets them dry and uses a wet brush to paint her designs?

 

Also, I guessing when she transfers the patterns to greenware the same side that had the newspaper is facing out like a decal and maybe adds some detail on top?

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i took a number of photos during the demo.  i am glazing a load for a show may 12,13, 14.  promise to start a new thread with it all spelled out.  obviously i did not do a good job describing what i saw.  will try to simplify step by step.

 

draw black lines with designer liner on paper.  put color on paper.  paper can dry out.  when ready to use, wet back of paper with a spray bottle of water  and put on wet clay, color side down.  rub back of paper carefully.  pull paper off carefully. decoration is finished.  throw away used paper.  use clay to make whatever you want, kim makes round things with thrown bottoms. see her website.

 

just trying to add that underglazes and stroke & coat, a glaze, and can be mixed to make whatever color you want.   

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thanks, ron.   as you know since you are in Pa, the week has been a cold and rainy one.  it took 4 days instead of one long session with the sprayer to get things glazed.  2 hours at a time doesn't get much done outside.  and i guess i really have to admit i am getting old.  

 

i realized that i had posted the paper printing process i explained above in the gallery.  look at my gallery after clicking on my avatar to go to the profile page.  see the bottom of the list at the top right corner.  i do not understand the gallery section and cannot understand the posting of things NOT by date chronologically.   will do it properly soon, lots of things happening here.

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masco's stroke and coat - aren't they a glaze?  a glaze that holds its color good if you fire at the right temperature. i remember reading they can be used on greenware (weren't allowed to do that in our class) but they weren't allowed to be stacked like slip coated greenware can be to be fired. 

 

i think they recommend firing temperature to ^05. their bottles gives specific instructions for higher firing and the resultant color. I've tried taking some of their colors to ^5 and they turned another color. i specifically remember the one named wine to go. it turned a very light lavender on me. yet hot tamale keeps its color in ^5.

 

old lady that makes sense that kim would dry out the stroke and coat. that makes complete logical sense to me. because you can't really draw with stroke and coat the same way you would with an underglaze or slip (using a brush). i've had to brush on many layers to get a deep color. even though they recommend 2 or 3 coats, the colors do much better with many more coats on. i recall other students using 8 to 10 layers to truly get a vivid even color. 

 

ronsa - this is one of my favorite decorating video. having been a printmaker first i really enjoy the reductive technique. there is another video i can't find of a potter transferring different layers of slip and powder he used on newspaper and transferred to a slab. i prefer to do abstract so i purposely don't peel off the paper well.

 

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duh OL serves me right to be on the internet at 3 in the morning. yes u did say it was a glaze. when you say mix with underglaze. that is very interesting that you say SnC can be mixed with underglazes to create new colors. you mean mix like paint or blend two colors together like kim's flowers. in the pottery world at school we've been told mixing like paint is a big no no. if you do mix slip, test it first. 

 

ron if your wife gets super adventurous and wants to play with black clay - the velvet underglazes especially do very very well on them. i saw a cone 10 black mountain sculpture with contrasting light and medium Amaco's velvet underglaze colors and it was stunning.  i assume if the colors were so bright in ^10 then they should be good in ^6 too.

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OldLady: Are these colors applied thick?

 

===

 

I let my watercolor pigments dry out in ammo boxes.

 

I'm thinking they would be a good way to store Mayco's stroke & coat and Amaco Velvet underglazes. They are priced between $2US to $10US depending on the size.

 

 

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ron, i cannot define thick.  a full brush seems enough.   i  do not think your box would work as well as the palette because it is so deep.  the point of a flat palette is the visibility, ease of wetting down and mixing plus having the colors dry out rapidly.

 

 that box looks like a good one to store colors in bottles but not to let them dry out.

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