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Starting a Glaze Supply


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Not sure if this belongs in this section or in the Glazes section--I'm just setting up my home studio and don't want technical support as much as suggestions for getting started. I need to stock up on glazes (cone 5-6) and am hoping someone can recommend some good basic glazes to start with. Or just give tips about experimenting with and then landing on a favorite glaze. Maybe there's nothing more to it than going to the store, picking out some colors, and getting started? I'm open to any kind of tips/recommendations...

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Here is the list that I started with when I setup my own glazes last year. Everything is in pounds. In addition to this I went back and purchased some Spodgumene (spelling). Hope this helps.

 

Ball Clay SPG Tennessee 10 Bentonite 10 Bone Ash 5 Borax - powdered 5 Chrome Oxide 1 Cobalt Carbonate 1 Copper Carbonate 1 Cornwall Stone 10 Dolomite 10 Feldspar - Custer 200 mesh 50 Feldspar - Kona F4 50 Feldspar G200 Potash 25 Frit 3134 10 Gerstley Borate 5 Iron Chromate 1 Iron Oxide Red 84% 10 Kaolin - EPK (china Clay) 50 maganese dioxide 5 Magnesium Carbonate 5 nickel oxide 1 OM-4 Ball Clay 5 Rutile fine 5 Silica 50 Soda Ash 10 Sodium Silicate Talc 10 Tin Oxide 1 Whiting (Calcium Carbonate) 50 Zinc Oxide 5 Zircopax plus 5 Alumina Oxide 5 Wax resist 1 gallon Sodium Silcate 1 pint

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Are you looking to mix your own glazes or use commercial glazes?

 

 

Sorry! I want to start with commercial glazes. I've only ever used glazes in a classroom setting (the big buckets of mixed glazes).

 

 

Oops then nevermind my list.

 

 

List is helpful and I'll file it for when I'm ready! Thanks!

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I've done a lot of experimenting with commercial glazes and love using them, because I do a lot of decorative work, brushing glazes onto textured surfaces, and I like to have literally dozens of colours in my palette. Mixing my own 5 gallon buckets of glaze isn't practical for me -- takes up too much room to have the variety I want and I don't need that much glaze at a time.

 

So - I've got a big collection of pint sized tubs of glazes from Laguna, Speedball, and I use a lot of Mayco primary color glazes ("Foundation") in both opaque and transparent varieties. Many of their cone 06-04 glazes can be very successfully used to cone 6. They have a good and for me very reliable list of what is good to cone 6 and what isn't. Same with some Duncan low fire glazes -- some transfer very well, to cone 6 -- and they too have a list explaining what works and what doesn't.

 

I also use Potters Choice Amaco glazes, Spectrum glazes, and some beautiful glazes that are made locally where I live (Toronto) by The Pottery Supply House.

 

So it depends what you are doing - and what kind of glazes you are looking for...solid colour, crackle glazes, transparent glazes...floating glazes... spend some time looking at colour charts from the major manufacturers online and start experimenting.

 

For the most part, I have found them to be very reliable and I love the huge variety of options available.

 

It's more expensive, but gives you a big choice. Plus - if you use the commercial glazes as they tell you to use them - they work beautifully.

 

I use them mostly on cone 6 porcelain.

 

If you see any colours you like on any of my stuff in my Etsy shop and want to know any specifics about what glazes were used, let me know and I'll pass on the source info.

(https://www.etsy.com/shop/Clayshapes)

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I started with about 8 colors that I love- No reason behind it, just pick ones you like. Then as you need colors for specific items add them. I just get a pint at a time- If I fall in love with a color and decide to use it all the time I will get a gallon but pints work perfectly. My kiln is very small so I don't think I could mix up a bucket of glaze and use it all up even if all of my pieces in a batch were that color. I DO however want to make my own jade green and cobolt blue at some point. I also like the plain salt glazes. But hopefully I could get like a 1 gallon recipe. Those colors I would use a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

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Not sure if this belongs in this section or in the Glazes section--I'm just setting up my home studio and don't want technical support as much as suggestions for getting started. I need to stock up on glazes (cone 5-6) and am hoping someone can recommend some good basic glazes to start with. Or just give tips about experimenting with and then landing on a favorite glaze. Maybe there's nothing more to it than going to the store, picking out some colors, and getting started? I'm open to any kind of tips/recommendations...

 

 

I had good luck with A.R.T glazes, and Minnesota Clay glazes. this before the shipping got to be more than I wanted to pay on my school budget. I also started mixing my own glazes when the prices seemed to be higher for the number of glazes I needed to keep the kids happy. I really would look into their glazes with small jars, and then go to powdered glaze of the types you like.

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Definitely test smaller batches of glaze first. Really in the home studio, if you do start cranking out work, most glazing conditions only requires only a couple 5 gallon buckets of glaze you mix and for variations ... commercial glazes are great. Don't go too crazy, just expect pinks to turn grey, iron reds to run brown at first (special firing for that) and glazes with colorful aggregation to really not be colorful. When it comes down to it, you don't need a million ingredients and a huge glaze supply of a hundred colors. Find what works for you the most, find your go to voice in the glazing process and run with it.

 

When you do start making your own glazes, start working with your base ingredients (low fire, gerstley borate and/or ff 3134 or ff 3124, ball clay, kaolin, silica and colorants) (high fire ^6, low fire flux like gerstley, feldspar, ball clay, kaolin, silica and colorants) and really even to start, only 10 pounds of each of the bases and maybe a half a pound for colorants will be overkill until you can tweak out your glazes to be what you want. When I get to glaze testing again I know my glazes will consist of the high fire list, colorants will be cobalt, copper, nickle, rio, ochre and manganese, and i'm going do get dolomite (matte glazes), Rutile (surface variation in glaze) and whiting (whiting for strengthening glaze on functional ware) ... that list can get me just about any effect I need ... especially for my base glazes.

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I use mid-fire glazes, mostly commercial. I look forward to the day when I will have the space to create my own, but meanwhile the commercial solution is the way to go.

 

My system is to pick a few glazes I want to try and buy in small quantity (usually 1 pint). I prefer to pour and dip, rather than brush, so I dump each glaze into a 2.5 qt paint bucket (and usually need to whisk in a little water for the right consistency). See pic for my fav type of small bucket. For the selected glazes I come to love and use the most, I buy larger quantities and keep in 3 gal buckets.

 

Starting out, it helps to think about which glazes will look good layered or party overlapped so you get many combinations out of them. Also consider experimenting with different textures: something opaque and glossy vs opaque and satin, something that breaks nicely over texture and rims, something transparent. I make a lot of test tiles and always have some in the kiln along with pots.

 

Personal favorite glazes have come from Coyote and Georgies; also some of the Amaco Potters Choice glazes. I am not into shopping for other things, but when it comes to glazes I love to web-shop to fine tune my collection.

post-13888-136336925012_thumb.jpg

post-13888-136336925012_thumb.jpg

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I've done a lot of experimenting with commercial glazes and love using them, because I do a lot of decorative work, brushing glazes onto textured surfaces, and I like to have literally dozens of colours in my palette. Mixing my own 5 gallon buckets of glaze isn't practical for me -- takes up too much room to have the variety I want and I don't need that much glaze at a time.

 

So - I've got a big collection of pint sized tubs of glazes from Laguna, Speedball, and I use a lot of Mayco primary color glazes ("Foundation") in both opaque and transparent varieties. Many of their cone 06-04 glazes can be very successfully used to cone 6. They have a good and for me very reliable list of what is good to cone 6 and what isn't. Same with some Duncan low fire glazes -- some transfer very well, to cone 6 -- and they too have a list explaining what works and what doesn't.

 

I also use Potters Choice Amaco glazes, Spectrum glazes, and some beautiful glazes that are made locally where I live (Toronto) by The Pottery Supply House.

 

So it depends what you are doing - and what kind of glazes you are looking for...solid colour, crackle glazes, transparent glazes...floating glazes... spend some time looking at colour charts from the major manufacturers online and start experimenting.

 

For the most part, I have found them to be very reliable and I love the huge variety of options available.

 

It's more expensive, but gives you a big choice. Plus - if you use the commercial glazes as they tell you to use them - they work beautifully.

 

I use them mostly on cone 6 porcelain.

 

If you see any colours you like on any of my stuff in my Etsy shop and want to know any specifics about what glazes were used, let me know and I'll pass on the source info.

(https://www.etsy.com/shop/Clayshapes)

 

 

Thank you!!! This is very helpful. I love many of the colors in your shop and would like to take you up on your offer. Do you want me to email you through etsy or list them on the thread?

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I've done a lot of experimenting with commercial glazes and love using them, because I do a lot of decorative work, brushing glazes onto textured surfaces, and I like to have literally dozens of colours in my palette. Mixing my own 5 gallon buckets of glaze isn't practical for me -- takes up too much room to have the variety I want and I don't need that much glaze at a time.

 

So - I've got a big collection of pint sized tubs of glazes from Laguna, Speedball, and I use a lot of Mayco primary color glazes ("Foundation") in both opaque and transparent varieties. Many of their cone 06-04 glazes can be very successfully used to cone 6. They have a good and for me very reliable list of what is good to cone 6 and what isn't. Same with some Duncan low fire glazes -- some transfer very well, to cone 6 -- and they too have a list explaining what works and what doesn't.

 

I also use Potters Choice Amaco glazes, Spectrum glazes, and some beautiful glazes that are made locally where I live (Toronto) by The Pottery Supply House.

 

So it depends what you are doing - and what kind of glazes you are looking for...solid colour, crackle glazes, transparent glazes...floating glazes... spend some time looking at colour charts from the major manufacturers online and start experimenting.

 

For the most part, I have found them to be very reliable and I love the huge variety of options available.

 

It's more expensive, but gives you a big choice. Plus - if you use the commercial glazes as they tell you to use them - they work beautifully.

 

I use them mostly on cone 6 porcelain.

 

If you see any colours you like on any of my stuff in my Etsy shop and want to know any specifics about what glazes were used, let me know and I'll pass on the source info.

(https://www.etsy.com/shop/Clayshapes)

 

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Same as others, I buy small quantities, find what I like, then buy larger quantity of those. Aamaco has some sample boxes where you get a smaller amount of say. 6 colors to try and it's cheaper. It pays to shop around, sometimes various companies run specials. Sometimes if you buy a certain amount you get percentage off and free shipping. In that case I put the word out and some of us do a combined order.

My absolute favorite glazes are the coyote. They are highly variable depending on the clay, firing, etc., and some run a lot. But with some trial..and error..I have come up with some beautiful pieces.

 

Have fun!

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Is it too late to respond?

I've been playing with the ceramics for less than 4 months mostly by experimenting and reading,

and I found a good supply of glazes at Mayco. It is called "Stroke and Coat". It comes in a very small sizes (2 oz) and is very inexpensive.

The nicest thing is you can fire it at both low and high temperature! I tried ^06 and ^5 and the colors were the same almost on all of them.

The directions on the bottle will tell you what gonna happen with the color of you fire it at the high cone. Very user friendly!

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Is it too late to respond?

I've been playing with the ceramics for less than 4 months mostly by experimenting and reading,

and I found a good supply of glazes at Mayco. It is called "Stroke and Coat". It comes in a very small sizes (2 oz) and is very inexpensive.

The nicest thing is you can fire it at both low and high temperature! I tried ^06 and ^5 and the colors were the same almost on all of them.

The directions on the bottle will tell you what gonna happen with the color of you fire it at the high cone. Very user friendly!

 

 

Interesting. I wonder how they do that. Must have two fluxes, one that fluxes for low temp and the one for high. At 06 the high does nothing. At 5 the low burns out.

 

Jim

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Is it too late to respond?

I've been playing with the ceramics for less than 4 months mostly by experimenting and reading,

and I found a good supply of glazes at Mayco. It is called "Stroke and Coat". It comes in a very small sizes (2 oz) and is very inexpensive.

The nicest thing is you can fire it at both low and high temperature! I tried ^06 and ^5 and the colors were the same almost on all of them.

The directions on the bottle will tell you what gonna happen with the color of you fire it at the high cone. Very user friendly!

 

 

Interesting. I wonder how they do that. Must have two fluxes, one that fluxes for low temp and the one for high. At 06 the high does nothing. At 5 the low burns out.

 

Jim

 

 

 

Not only that. Read this:

 

 

  • Can be applied to greenware of bisque
  • Intermixable ! - can be blended to create new colors
  • Light over Dark - light colors will remain opaque when layered on top of darker colors (3 coat coverage recommended).
  • Liquid-to-Fired Color Consistency - the colors in their liquid state accurately represent the fired color

How do they do it?!

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