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Travertine Tile


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I have a bunch of left over travertine tile from out house renos and I'm wondering if They can be fired in the kiln with underglaze or glaze.

I'm fairly new to pottery and haven't started using my own kiln yet so I'm kinda clued out!

Just would like out some designs on them and use them for decorating if possible.

TIA

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NOTE ADDED ... I think Marcia's reply below is correct and these likely cannot be fired since they are stone not ceramic. My answer is only good for fired ceramic tiles. My bad! Sorry.

 

Yes, speaking very generally, you can fire commercial ceramic tiles at low temps ... Cone 06 and below.

You can decorate them with under glazes, fire once to set the design then if needed put a clear glaze over and fire again. Even if the tile already has a glaze on it you can paint on top of the glaze and fire to see what happens. Glazed tiles take very well to sgraffito which is a technique of carving through a solid color to leave the design.

Just don't try to fire them to higher temps as this can lead to problems.

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I am not so sure. Travertine is limestone I believe. Depending on how hot you fire , they could break down. 

 

 

  1. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot spring or in a limestone cave.

 

 

Calcium carbonate is what we use in glazes as Whiting.

 

Marcia

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Hmmm ok. Well what's the worst that could happen? If I fire to cone 4, will it damage my kiln if it breaks? If just the tile breaks in the process I don't mind trying. I think if I could just get the color baked on I would be happy and hang it on a wall somewhere

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Hmmm ok. Well what's the worst that could happen? If I fire to cone 4, will it damage my kiln if it breaks? If just the tile breaks in the process I don't mind trying. I think if I could just get the color baked on I would be happy and hang it on a wall somewhere

How much damage is likely tied to how much limestone is in the tiles. From one source: LIMESTONE has generally low chemical reactivity and is non-combustible. It decomposes at high temperature (825°C/1517°F) to give gaseous carbon dioxide and calcium oxide (quicklime).

 

Cone 4 is definitely too hot to survive intact. They could crack and any glaze would run onto your kiln shelves. You could damage the shelves when grinding off the glaze drips.

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Save some for when your break and need replacing-use the rest for another stone tile job. One will cone up.

 

My guess and its only a guess on what I have seen and experimented with is your stone will not be happy with cone 4.

You can test a chunk to be sure in your next fire.

Mark

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Thank you all. It was a great idea but I think now I'll just leave it and as Mark said save it for another job.

I had no idea that you could use commercial ceramic tile though so I may just experiment with that sometime.

Appreciate the help

Sara

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