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Purchased Glazes For Dipping


Brian O.

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    I currently am using a midfire amaco clear glaze on my pieces. The bottle says it can be used for dipping, brushing, or spraying. It crazes when applied with any thickness, I cannot get the look I want with this glaze without crazing. I have dipped, and brushed, and have concluded with much testing, that I need a new glaze.

A glaze that I can buy in large dry amounts to dip multiple pieces efficiently.

  I looked online and I found that a very good option could be the Spectrum 1500 series NOVA Stoneware Dipping Glazes 4-6. This seems like the right glaze because it is formulated specifically for dipping stoneware. The last glaze was sort of a one size fits all for porcelain, brushing, spraying and dipping. This would also be much cheaper than the last glaze and I think it is the next step up in my glazing.

    I am hesitant on the other hand as It only comes in large quantities so I wouldn't be able to test it out before going all in. There are no customer reviews of this glaze online. does anyone have experience with this glaze or similar kind of thing? Also I plan on progressing to formulating glazes eventually after I gain more experience with pre-formulated purchased glazes. Any help or wisdom on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

   

  

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Brian, what clay are you firing to what temperature. Please also describe your dipping process. . . everything you do to dip the pot in the glaze.

 

You should find that there are several glazes out there that are available in dry bulk. This allows you to mix them to the thickness you desire.

 

 

best,

Pres

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The method of application will not affect crazing. It's all about the fit between your clay and the glaze. Before you buy any bulk glaze, get a small sample and test it on your clay body. Every glaze is different.

 

I'm very wary of brushing glazes that say they can also be dipped. The very nature of brushing glazes is that they have a high water content, higher than dipping formulas, so if you thin them to the point that the viscosity is good for dipping, the water content is much too high and you don't get a sufficient layer of glaze material on the pot. If you don't thin them, they're too thick for dipping. I see it as yet another misleading thing done by the commercial clay and glaze industry trying to convince their customers that they have a one-size-fits-all solution, like cone 6-10 clay bodies. Dipping formulas and brushing formulas are too different beasts IMO.

 

But again, the method of application has nothing to do with crazing.

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  • 1 year later...

Hello, 

I'm new here and relatively new to pottery, although I love it so incredibly that I have purchased a decent sized kiln, and usually fill it weekly. I'm finding that the brush on glazes are not giving the effect I want on the pots, and I'd like some information on where to order the dipping style of glaze.(Like we used in High school) Im sure they must be in a powdered form to mix with water? Any info would be awesome!

Thanks :)

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Most any ceramic supply shop will carry dry mix glazes as well as brushing mixes. The selection will probably not be as good, though. It will also get very expensive very quickly, since you'll be buying enough dry mix to fill a bucket, rather than just buying a pint. The most cost effective thing to do is ix your own from raw materials. Once you learn a bit about glaze formulation, you'll also be able to tweak recipes to make them do what you want.

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In the first ceramics course I took at a community center, the instructor suggested a glaze could be dipped or brushed on. I brushed a few times and concluded that brushing always looked terrible.

When I then set up my own modest studio in the basement, intending only to hand-build, I went to my local supplier and could see right away that it would make no sense for me to get glazes intended to be used by the bucketful. I simply do not generate the volume or have the space to be thinking in buckets.

So I bought a few Amaco brushing glazes with low expectations and found they looked gorgeous.

This is my long way of saying what Neil has said. Do not believe a glaze that says it can be used every different way.

In terms of clear, I use the Amaco Sahara to brush on.  No problems at cone 5.

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