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Will Ilmenite Work At Cone 6?


Shelly M

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I used to use a cone 6 glaze that contained Granular Ilmenite. It make pretty little black specks. Try it!

 

I've never fired Ilmenite to cone 10, so I can't say what happens when fired hotter.

 

If you want more melted, larger, softer brown-ish freckles, try Granular Rutile.

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I have used Ilmenite at ^6, powdered when I was running out of rutile. I went to a book with substitution listings and did a little calculation. glaze was a rutile green, test tiles turned out slightly lighter than the rutile tiles, but surface, actual green was till in the right range as a layer glaze over my others. Used it til it ran out, and by that time obviously had rutile on hand for next mix. The glaze mix was about 2/3 of the normal percentage rutile, and 1/3 Ilumenite.

 

best,

Pres

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I have used Ilmenite at ^6, powdered when I was running out of rutile. I went to a book with substitution listings and did a little calculation. glaze was a rutile green, test tiles turned out slightly lighter than the rutile tiles, but surface, actual green was till in the right range as a layer glaze over my others. Used it til it ran out, and by that time obviously had rutile on hand for next mix. The glaze mix was about 2/3 of the normal percentage rutile, and 1/3 Ilumenite.

 

best,

Pres

You always have such helpful information! Thank you :)

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what kind of ^10? Gas? Or electric

 

I've only used ilmenite in my claybody.

 

And discovered it is beautiful in oxidation but not in reduction. The colors of the glazes disappear in reduction.

 

I've chatted with a very knowledgeable staff at our local supplier who carrys different mesh sizes. He told me it does go up to ^10 but does not do well in reduction. The specks get larger at 10 than ^6 if you were using the same size ilmenite in the claybody. However we talked about claybody not glaze.

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what kind of ^10? Gas? Or electric

 

I've only used ilmenite in my claybody.

 

And discovered it is beautiful in oxidation but not in reduction. The colors of the glazes disappear in reduction.

 

I've chatted with a very knowledgeable staff at our local supplier who carrys different mesh sizes. He told me it does go up to ^10 but does not do well in reduction. The specks get larger at 10 than ^6 if you were using the same size ilmenite in the claybody. However we talked about claybody not glaze.

Thank you for your helpful comments!  I'm firing in oxidation ^6 for most of my work. I might give it a try in my B-Mix clay body next time then see what happens when I use a matte white glaze.

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Or you could just buy speckled buff clay which has ilmenite in it. At 04 bisque it looks pink no specs. At 6 you will see the specs.

 

I think speckled buff is the same price as b mix. However the specs do a number on your hand. But in a couple of days your palms and fingers stop catching on things. Also important use a rib at the very end to burnish the clay so the the specs don't stick out.

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I have several favorite cone 6 glazes that use ilmenite in both granular and powdered form. I tried finding a replacement when starting my own glaze operation so that I wouldn't have to buy one more thing, but I just couldn't live without my favorite glaze--there was not replacement!

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I only used the Ilmenite if out of Rutile, and usually then to make up an amount using some rutile. As you will find though in Quiz 22 if not requiring tan coloring, use another ingredient from the answer list.

 

best,

Pres

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