Food Coloring - dying glazes for better application.

[Joseph Fireborn]

What type of food coloring and what color do people use? I need to dye a white glaze I use as the other glazes are also white, so it is tricky to tell how good the application is when I spray. I had read somewhere on here that people use food coloring, but no one said what brand or what colors work best without interfering with the glaze.

Is this just a test and see what happens thing or is there not a common Walmart brand and color I can just go pickup?

 

[bciskepottery]

I use food coloring for wax -- few drops of green.  Just burns out without a trace.  Might be a good starting point. 

[Min]

I've used lots of different brands, blues, reds, greens and neons in purple, aqua and orange and have never had a problem with it not burning out completely. I've also used Crayola liquid paint for kids  (blue) and it works like a flocculant plus colouring and also burned out cleanly. 

[Joseph Fireborn]

Fantastic. So it doesn't seem to make much of a difference! Wooo. Hoo! Thanks Min and Bruce.

[Benzine]

The only issue I experienced, was that I added some red food coloring to my clear glaze.  It applied fine, and the color obviously burned out.  However, the food coloring, in the glaze, stained my glaze brushes a bit.  It didn't affect the brushes performance afterwards, just the look.  

I usually just get a clear that is colored pink, but accidentally bought a type that didn't have the pink.  The students kept mixing it up with other glazes, so I added the food coloring.  Apparently, whatever the company uses to dye their's isn't as strong as standard food coloring...

[perkolator]

I sometimes use food coloring in my glazes - because I'm colorblind and many raw glazes look identical to me.   Doesn't matter which brand you use, they will all make color and burn out in the firing, i've been using McCormack from grocery store.

 

I first started doing it when I was spraying glaze - I'd put a drop or two into my sprayer pot, spray it on and change the color enough to see each layer.

[Guest JBaymore]

Another "trick" with food coloring is for brushwork.  I use red food coloring like "ink" to do a "layout drawing" on a piece before going with a ceramic pigment.  red always burns out.   (I had a blue that left traces once.)

best,

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

[Joseph Fireborn]

Thanks for all the info folks. I appreciate it.