[Low fire liner glazes in raku]

You can make functional pieces that are raku if you clarify your definition of functional to exclude food/liquid use. 

My teenage son is nerdy as heck, so if I was a thinking about something that he or his friends would like, I’d think about dice rolling towers, or stands/containers for video game controllers or game cartridges or USB sticks. Maybe an analog phone speaker that has room for the charging cord.

If your nephews aren’t into all things video/table top/card games, the phone speaker idea would still probably work, but as long as you find something related to their existing interests, that’s going to increase the odds of them using it. 

[Starting a business, questions and frustrations]

@Stephenthe post you’re referring to is marked as spam now, and has been removed. 

If anyone ever has concerns about spam posts, don’t hesitate to dm a moderator. We have email notifications turned on so we can remove this kind of thing quickly, even if we’re not on the forum when it happens. 

[Does anyone know a glaze recipe like this? pastel satin matte milky buttery opaque]

@Bill Kielb I didn’t get into a lot of extensive testing, only a few test cups worth. So further durability testing is warranted, and it’s worth noting I use a slightly hotter cycle than some. Anyone testing this on my say so should take that into account.

[Does anyone know a glaze recipe like this? pastel satin matte milky buttery opaque]

The examples you showed are almost certainly using a base glaze that have different colourants added, which is one of the best ways to start mixing glazes. I’ve worked with the glaze G2934 linked in the article that Hulk posted, and had good results. I think you can get adequate material equivalents in Amsterdam. 

The Digitalfire article on the glaze recommends making it thixotropic so that it applies better. Usually I wouldn’t dive into how to adjust glaze flow for a beginner, but the difference between how this glaze behaves when flocculated vs without is quite drastic. It makes the difference between a glaze that settles out surprisingly fast and a very user friendly dipping experience. The article recommends adding epsom salt by dry weight, but I don’t like that method. It can lead to problems if you accidentally add too much, and you won’t know you’ve added too much until a few days after you’ve mixed your glaze. Instead, I recommend the method that Sue McLeod describes here in her blog. She explains the whole process really well, and in a very beginner friendly way. 

[Lithium substitute?]

@PeterHPSH is on the other side of the country from the OP. A bit closer would be Plainsman, and they’ve listed 2.5 kg at $619.35. Kinda better?

Plainsman may or may not ship to BC, but I know Ceramics Canada in Calgary will, or they’ll put things aside for you if you’re visiting family in town. They usually sell at about the same price. Lots of folks from BC order from Alberta to avoid the sales tax.

Adding or removing lithium is probably going to mess with glaze fit. Other questions for later rounds of testing might include whether or not the changed LOI will affect an iron red. I don’t know what this particular tenmoku turns out like, but speckling effects might change. 

[Mysterious dark patch on the bottoms of pots after glaze firing]

Hi and welcome!

if it’s only appearing on the bottom of the pots it’s possible  that there’ something on the kiln shelves or kiln furniture that’s fuming. If the shelves are old and have glaze drips that have been kiln washed over, there’s still things that can come through.  If that’s the case, grinding shelves to remove all old bits and pieces, and apply fresh kiln wash ought to fix it. 

[cell phone video stand]

If you already own a regular tripod, the cell phone adaptor is a great option. 

For flexible or gooseneck styles, there’s a whole amazon search page of results here:  https://www.amazon.ca/Flexible-Tripod/s?k=Flexible+Tripod

I have seen a LOT of folks just stick their cellphone (IN A CASE) into a handful of clay as well. Not glamorous, and you need to watch the microphone openings and clean it after, but it’s usually readily available for quick and dirty (heh) pottery videos.

[Which glaze class to take ...]

7 hours ago, Pyewackette said:

But she says I can do the readings and videos at my leisure. 

I believe her courses are lifetime access, and she’s very approachable on social media and via email. 

[Was it a mistake to pass on an old kiln?]

It’s possible to obtain lead as a flux, but you have to go about it on purpose. I don’t know about other brands, but Mason says on their website they don’t use lead in their pigments, so it’s not sneaking in there.

 

[Wet clay, wheel wedging, and other miscellanea]

@Pyewacketteit sounds like you've been going through a lot. Hopefully we can help you find a resting spot with your clay work. 

It’s been a while since I’ve worked with B mix, but I recall it being very thixotropic. Although water is a factor, some of the softness and tendency to flop comes from movement and kinetic energy transfer, such as any form of wedging, including cut/slam. 

I had better luck with b mix when I wedged it up the day before I planned to throw it, If you do your clay prep a day or so ahead it’s got time to settle out a bit, It’ll re-soften quickly as soon as you smack it down on the wheel. Bonus, you can just come in and start working as soon as your water bucket is full. I also found throwing with a metal or wooden rib helpful: it scrapes the water and the slurry off the surface, again buying you more working time.

I’ve found that cut/slam reduces the amount of wedging you have to do by a lot, but you still need to polish it off with a little bit of spiral. As few as 10-20 pushes should do it if all the bubbles are out and everything is the same consistency.

Re coning: most of it is applying pressure in the right place, and it’s about leverage, not strength. Most videos do emphasize anchoring your elbow into your torso/hip, but it’s also important to brace your feet for maximum stability. 

I really, really like the first half of this video from Florian Gadsby for centring and coning. The centering info is handy, but coning specifically begins at 4:25 with relevant bits up until about 7:30. He’s got multiple unimpeded camera angles, and shows how to use less water. He’s also got good descriptions of where he’s applying pressure at what point. 

Pro tip for the “neurospicy” amongst us: the little gear at the bottom of the YouTube screen has a dropdown that allows you to adjust the playback speed. As an ADHD’er, I can’t take in video tutorials unless they’re sped up, but in this case, you could slow the video down to 1/4 speed to really take in details.

 

[Plastic bags]

I’ve used dry cleaner plastic for years and had no problems with it. I don’t like the marks that shopping bags leave. But I think it’s just a matter of personal preference. They’re both plastic. They both work.

[What kind of vehicles?]

You might want to consider cargo space if you know you want to use a vehicle to do a lot of markets. Keep an eye on that number when shopping. Heated seats are nice and all, but if your vehicle is a PIA to pack, it’s just going to cause stress.

You  don’t mention the model of the mom wagon, but the Mercedes model E All Terrain has a listed cargo capacity of between 640 and 1800 L (ish), or about 22-63 cu ft for the Imperial users. My Pacifica has 32.3 cu ft just behind the third seat, and if I fold down both rows of seating, I can get 140 (ish) sq ft. My setup is very lightweight and compact, and because my 4 day sales are all indoor ones, I don’t need to pack a canopy. I have full use of my rear view mirror.

I have some friends who initially bought a crossover, thinking that they didn’t really want a full sized SUV but wanted the packing space for doing markets. They found it to be quite cramped and difficult to pack, especially when you don’t have the patience to Tetris everything perfectly after 4 days of selling. They wished they’d gotten something with more cargo space, and I believe they did go with something larger when it came time to purchase their next vehicle. 

 

[An experiment in Fritware Zero3]

@PeterHfrom that same wiki, 

“A 1.0 M solution (about the concentration of domestic vinegar) …”

So if domestic vinegar is somewhere between 5 (regular white vinegar) and 7% (pickling vinegar) by volume,  then 3 M vinegar would be between 15 and 21%. Very unscientific calculation there, but perhaps close enough for these purposes.

In what I thought was a rather spectacular example of greenwashing, you can get Eco Living Solutions brand 25% industrial grade acetic acid on that South American River website. 45 and 75% also appeared to be available in different brands, I just thought the marketing on that one was hilarious. 

[Glaze Bubbles]

I remember that thread! It was a pretty cool one. 

It’s interesting that Tony Hanson was pursuing a similar series of testing about the same time, seeking a really clear cone 6 fluid melt glaze. He kept going, doing a major update to his findings in 2019, and continues to add notes to the file. He took a slightly different tack than you, in that he was less focused on the silica beyond particle size as it contributed to melt, and wanted to embrace a multi flux approach for durability since his approach is based in making functional pottery. He did achieve a number of good results, and continued with the work to reduce COE values so it would fit a particular nuisance porcelain Plainsman makes. 

This is the link to phase 2 of his testing, which involved really eliminating bubbles and maintaining colour response. The links to phase 1 and 3 are at the top of the page.

I noticed in your original thread there were some mentions of using fining agents to get rid of seed in glass, and that you were using a red clay for some of your Currie blends. Iron is a fining agent in glaze, and if your aim is to create a clear glaze over a red clay, using an amber instead of a clear can be a solution. Reducing the high LOI ingredients and fine tuning your firing seems like the majority of the process, but if there’s remaining bubbles they might need that extra kick to evict them. 

[Texturizer Experience (Amaco)?]

I think success is relative. I’m seeing a lot of good possibilities in those tests, depending on how someone might want the final piece to look. Test tiles are just neutral information. It’s not really useful to see them in terms of right and wrong for all people in circumstances, but more in terms of right or wrong for you in  your current circumstances. And what you like or are trying to achieve is also subject to change. 

Glazing can be really frustrating, because you can’t see the immediate results like you can with paint, and because you really can’t get away from some testing, even with commercial glazes. 

So then the question is, what look are you trying to create? The two samples you mention show a lot of variegation and visual texture. Those things can be affected by different application techniques, and varying the kiln firing. If you’re not firing your own kiln, you’ll have to play around with application first. Changing the order in which the glazes are applied can make a big difference in appearance, as can the thickness of the layers. Some of those flatter samples like Arctic blue over texurizer showed a heavier application of the blue, and the texturizer was partially sponged off. There’s some evidence of variation starting, so that suggests if you want more, start by either reversing the application order, or not wiping down the texture. 

If you like that variegated look, another layering glaze you could look into is one of the ones they call flux

 

[Laguna Frost ^6 users (glaze fit content)]

Crazing has very little to do with your cool down rate. If you slow your cool and it appears to get rid of a crazing problem, you’ve likely only caused a crazing delay. A shock test will still bring it out. Crazing is caused by COE values that differ too greatly between clay and glaze. If this is your first test of using Frost instead of the Standard 365 clay and all your usual glazes have crazed, that just means the 2 clays have different COE’s. That’s not unusual at all. 

If you want to keep using the same glazes, you’ll have to adjust them all to compensate. If the crazing is slow to emerge and the crack pattern is a larger one rather than a covering of fine lines, chances are the glazes won’t need a lot of adjusting. That which bodes well for keeping the character of the glazes intact. It’ll be a little bit of work with a test sieve to hone in 10 glazes, but it’s doable. 

If you’re going to use glaze software to help narrow the project down, some notes about comparing COE values:

1) Using calculated COE values won’t eliminate physical testing, but it’ll cut down the work and materials used. 

2) COE values aren’t absolute numbers. They’re only a snapshot of a measurement taken under a very specific set of circumstances. If you change the circumstances, you get a different value. They’re good if you’re adjusting a glaze without adding or removing any ingredients, only changing quantities. Also worth noting that because of this, different glaze softwares use slightly different COE values in their source tables. If you’re looking at a clay manufacturer’s suggested COE range for glazes, make sure you’re using the same software they are. Many manufacturers have stopped offering these suggestions though, because they tend to cause more confusion than they help with.

3) You don’t want to match coe values of your glazes to your clay. That results in more glaze flaws. Knowing that you need to move your existing glaze COE values higher or lower is the important bit here. 

 

[An experiment in Fritware Zero3]

@High Bridge Pottery, I don’t know about the UK, but HCl is used here to etch concrete for painting. I can get it at Canadian Tire, so maybe check DIY friendly stores?

[Gold glaze]

The sticker shock on a tiny 5 ml bottle of gold lustre is real. But. I was amazed at how far the bottle goes. You do get good value out of it, especially if you’re selling pieces.

I have used a metallic pigment mixed into an acrylic base, similar to the link you posted. I put it on some Christmas ornaments and it wasn’t bad, but it doesn’t read the same as gold lustre. It reads like a gold nail polish.

[Sanding nerikomi]

Since sanding is so time consuming, trimming on the surfaces you can reach will eliminate that portion of it. The fewer times you have to touch a piece, the more efficiently you can work. 

How important to you is it to show off the entire surface of the piece? For things like mugs where you’ve said trimming is impractical, would a slightly tinted or opaque liner glaze that hides an unsanded surface be an acceptable design choice for you? It might not work for everything, but could be another time saving solution.

 

[Potters plaster reclaim boards]

If you’re finding your plaster slabs are saturated and you’re in a humid area (England, ahem), put your slabs next to your kiln when it fires to take advantage of the heat. 

[Wild Clay Cracks When Bisqued]

@oldlady, I will add a few tags to this post so it’ll show up in search.

[Wild Clay Cracks When Bisqued]

Can confirm that is black coring.

A fast glaze cycle isn’t great for bisquing most clay bodies, red ones in particular. I think that this is pretty strong evidence for going too fast through quartz inversion and excess free silica being your cracking source.

If you look through the digitalfire articles, especially the ones on black coring, bloating and clay testing, you’ll find a lot of really helpful info on how to proceed. There’s a really interesting note in the black coring article with some observations about red clays and feldspars making strong high fire stonewares. This could be a really nice clay to add to a clay body to give it some character. It seems to need some feldspar.

[Re-firing under-fired, crazed glaze-ware?]

20 hours ago, Kelly in AK said:

sometimes a cone 6 piece ends up in a low fire glaze load.

Refiring cone 6 items usually gets tricky when the underfired piece got close to the intended temperature range the first round. Accumulated heat work is going to matter less if the pieces only got to bisque temps.

[Can a piece be fired again if a spot of glaze was missed?]

Babs makes a good point. If you haven’t made this piece, I wouldn’t attempt it. You don’t know what temperature the clay or glaze matures at. If you don’t know exactly what glaze was used, the one you apply could create a eutectic with the existing glaze, making both run a lot more than they would by themselves. If the piece was originally fired at cone 6, refiring it to low fire temperatures may partially re-melt the existing glaze, making it do all kinds of ugly things.

 

 

[Looking for a cone 6 transparent/translucent matte glaze.]

Regarding the overall response here: we’ve had a LOT of folks over the past few years ask about how to achieve a similar aesthetic as in the pictures you’ve posted. Most beginners don’t realize the look can either achieved with photography edits by someone who is both a good potter and photographer, or with poorly fired/impractical ware made by someone who is taking accurate pictures. Without holding the pots in question, it can be hard to spot the difference. When someone doesn’t know badly fired ware is a possibility, they have no reason to think to look. 

Glazes that are dry matte can be made through a number of mechanisms, some of which are great for sculptural work, but aren’t durable enough long term to use on kitchen dishes. However some glazes that have a satin finish are extremely durable and ideal for functional use. You can’t tell which is which without looking at the glaze recipe in software or knowing firing temperature though. A glaze that is very dry to the touch is often underfired though, and falls into that first category.

If you don’t have a lot of glaze chemistry knowledge and are making pots for yourself and not for sale, using a commercial product that is designed for the purpose is an ideal solution, and will save you a lot of work. 

If you do want to mix your own glazes, you want to make sure your glaze is fired to maturity and formulated properly and involves a bit more testing. You’ve got some good starting points here, and we always appreciate updates!