Reglazing Fired Stoneware

[clayshapes]

I often re glaze a piece of stoneware when I'm not happy with the original glaze results. But every once in a while I re glaze using low fire glazes on my already glazed stoneware pieces, and only re fire to cone 04. Sometimes I like the results - sometimes not. I'm thinking of re glazing a stoneware piece that has already been re glazed once with a low fire glaze. Just curious about what will happen to the low fire glaze when I re fire the stoneware piece, with cone 6 glazes, to cone six. Aside from just burning off, will this cause any weird damage?

I know you will say "test and find out". Which I will do -- but just curious if anyone has done this, and what the results were.

Thanks!

[Denice]

I often re glaze a piece of stoneware when I'm not happy with the original glaze results. But every once in a while I re glaze using low fire glazes on my already glazed stoneware pieces, and only re fire to cone 04. Sometimes I like the results - sometimes not. I'm thinking of re glazing a stoneware piece that has already been re glazed once with a low fire glaze. Just curious about what will happen to the low fire glaze when I re fire the stoneware piece, with cone 6 glazes, to cone six. Aside from just burning off, will this cause any weird damage?

I know you will say "test and find out". Which I will do -- but just curious if anyone has done this, and what the results were.

Thanks!

 

 

I have never tried this but the only thing I can think of is that your glaze may run and possibly spatter, so you might won,t to put the piece on a tile or platter to catch any run off and maybe use a shelf that is not so perfect. I would probably put it in the center of the shelf to keep and spatter off your elements. For a while there refiring Cone 6 glazes to Cone 04 was the thing to do, there are some recipes out there that work good but it was fun just refiring a piece at a lower temperature just to see what happens. Denice (Wichita, KS)

[Idaho Potter]

I think it would be disastrous to refire to cone 6 after applying a low-fire glaze and firing to cone 04. Even if the 04 glaze burns out, it seems an unstable base for a cone 6 glaze to rest on. I frequently refire--but always to a lower cone. Using a step-down method (cone 6 to cone 1, to cone 04, to cone 06, and so on) means the prior firings will--probably--remain stable. Please do test firings so you don't ruin your kiln.

[Guest HerbNorris]

Here is a feature on Fong Choo, who often layers ^6 and ^04 glazes, and fires to ^6:

 

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-supplies/ceramic-glaze/tiny-teapots-big-impact-fong-choo-combines-wheel-throwing-handbuilding-and-layering-commercial-glazes-to-make-compact-teapots-that-pack-a-punch/?floater=99

[clayshapes]

Interesting link re Fong Choo - and gorgeous results! Not exactly what I'm trying, but it looks gorgeous.

I'm going to go ahead and try reglazing with cone 6 glazes after warming my pots in the oven for a half hour or so, so that the glaze has something to stick to. I realize it may run or splatter -- I'll take precautions. I'm just interested to see what will happen. I thought I might come across someone here who had done this already -- so far we're all just speculating!

Thanks for your comments.

[bciskepottery]

One of the students at our studio inadvertantly glazed a couple items with a low fire glaze and put them on the shelf for cone 6 firing. The low fire glaze ran (streamed) down the items and onto the shelf. I ended up grinding the shelf; still there are deep grooves on the shelf where the items were -- the runs pulled up the kiln wash and fused to the shelf. No speculation; just grinding.

[clayshapes]

One of the students at our studio inadvertantly glazed a couple items with a low fire glaze and put them on the shelf for cone 6 firing. The low fire glaze ran (streamed) down the items and onto the shelf. I ended up grinding the shelf; still there are deep grooves on the shelf where the items were -- the runs pulled up the kiln wash and fused to the shelf. No speculation; just grinding.

 

 

Yikes - and I suppose that is predictable! But this is quite different from what I am proposing. I have cone 6 pieces, already fired once to cone 6 with cone 6 glazes, then fired again with a low fire glaze, to cone 04. This is the inside of a bowl, so running is not an issue for the shelves. I want to refire now, putting cone 6 glaze OVER top of the cone 04 glaze (whch is already over top of the original cone 6 glaze!) that has already been fired once. I'm assuming that the cone 6 glaze will burn out the cone 04 glaze underneath, and that I may get something interesting - and something not at all like the glaze I am coating it with. If it runs, it's not a problem, as I say, because it is inside the bowl. It will probably ruin it (actually, it's already ugly!) and it may even crack the pot...but we'll see. This is not a heirloom pot == really something experimental, that I can live with wrecking.

 

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

[GEP]

One of my students was recently in your same situation. She had a pot fired to cone 6. Then she painted a pattern in low-fire glaze, and refired to cone 06. She didn't like the results, and wondered if she could glaze it again with cone 6 glaze and fire it again to cone 6. It turned out fine. The low-fire glaze smudged and shifted a little, but didn't run off the pot. The cone 6 overglaze looked sound. It's not necessarily going to be a problem. But keep your expectations wide open, i.e. you might make the pot far worse. Even though this example is similar to yours, we're probably still talking about different clay, different glazes, different application techniques. "Test and find out." Sorry, I know you didn't want to hear that :-) . After you find out what happens, can you let us know?

 

Mea

[clayshapes]

Thanks Mea - interesting. My piece is in the kiln now -- I took the precaution of placing a old broken piece of shelf beneath the pot, just in case! Will let you know what happens.

[clayshapes]

Thanks Mea - interesting. My piece is in the kiln now -- I took the precaution of placing a old broken piece of shelf beneath the pot, just in case! Will let you know what happens.

 

 

For anyone still interested in this -- I did as described in my above posts -- and can report no disasters. The cone 04 glaze burned right off, as did some of the original cone 6 glaze! (that surprised me). I still don't like the results because I'm not happy with the new glaze (! as usual!) -- but it was a somewhat useful lesson. I remembered as I turned the kiln on that there had been a thin layer of cone 04 glaze on the exterior - so wondered what would happen in terms of streaming glaze done the sides. But there was none with this particular application. I'd put the piece on an old piece of broken kiln shelf (with lots of kiln wash) just in case -- but no running at all. Naturally this would be different, depending on the glaze and clay body. But I had no trouble. Just FYI - I was using commercial glazes -- Laguna cone 6 originally, spectrum cone 04 in the second firing, and then more Laguna cone 6 in the third firing.

 

Thanks for all your earlier comments.

 

Leslie