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Glaze Came out but still feels rough like raw clay?


kraythe

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I have been trying my hand at glazing for the first time as a hobbyist and I fired perhaps 20 pieces. Some of the glaze crawled like mad, other glaze crazed but my tea dust and a third clear did something unexpected. The glaze looks good and not crazed but it still feels rough to the touch I am wondering why that may be. Not enough glaze one the piece? Should I have done more than one layer to solve that? Thanks for the help. 

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A rough glaze surface can be caused by a few things.  One being that your glaze is under fired.  Were the appropriate cones down at kiln opening?

Assuming it's fired properly, it can be that your glaze is applied too thin.  And this might be a good time to ask--how thick/thin are your glazes being applied?

The crawling and crazing could actually be a symptom of applying a glaze too thick.  Even a well-fitting glaze will craze if it's applied like icing to a cake.

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It very well could be too thin. I perhaps even slightly overfired.  Had a really hard time seeing the cone through my tiny peepholes so I only went by my pyrometer. Perhaps I should have let it sit at that temp for longer. When I opened up the cone 6 was curled all the way over to floor. Even the thinnest application with a few second dip crazed. The glaze that came out rough was an FeO2 based tea duct glaze and even where it was double appied, had to pour because I made Amal batches, it was still rough texture and not glassy smooth.

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I'm thinking  you may have some glaze application/consistency issues.  This would explain the crazing, crawling, and rough surfaces.  This can be a challenging thing to get right if you're working solo as a beginner.

Mark C. has a post somewhere where he talks about the use of a hydrometer--read through it and follow its use.  It will help you evaluate failures and successes in a precise, quantifiable way.  The application of each glaze is different and it will take a bit to get right.  It's doable solo--I did it, but you're going to have some failures on the way (I have a pretty epic fail wall).

Testing is key.  Tiles, then a few simple shapes, then pieces that matter.

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