Harold Roberts

It is the titanium with the boron in the gerstley borate. There are some high gestley borate glazes that go pink on their own.

What is the color of your clay? If you have a red clay and you want a warmer tone you might need to scap the recipe altogether. I would experiment with some titainium oxide. It can sometimes matt your glaze som as well as opacify.

I did a type of majolica which is applied to wet or leather hard clay. Typically I would brush it on my pots an hour after they were thrown. Sometimes using a slip trailer to apply the glazes and finger paint with it. I could never bring myself to do those overglaze colors on top of that dry white surface.

I worked a long time in eathenware and have developed many different kinds of glazes for low temp. I got a couple of pots with matt glazes into a NCECA show. There are an abundant surfaces to use in that range and I think they are as beautiful as any. It sounds like your a painter as well so if you like to decorate with a brush there are a lot of options open to you, underglaze & slips, majolica, terra sigillata to name a few. It sounds as if you don't want to invest much in glaze materials but I could send out some of my glaze recipes.

I have used micaceous clay that I got from Santa Fe Clay. I think that it worked out very well. I cook with it to this day. I made some terra sigillata with it to decorate. Check out my new gallery. Fire it very low.

Thats a great method Marcia. I used to use goldart instead of ball clay. It was a warm white and a beautiful suface.

Out of the Earth Into the Fire by Mimi Obstler. She gets deep into understanding the materials and what they do in the fire.

I don't think you have to make a "slip glaze". Most glazes will work when applied to greenware and many will work when applied to leather hard pieces when some clay is in the formula. You might want to try some Amaco underglazes as some of them can withstand higher temperatures and get semi vitrified to the point of developing a slight sheen.

I raw glaze at cone 6 and I think that the clay body is most important to its success. Some can't take the glazing, some bloat in the firing. It takes a while to get a handle on it and you are well on your way. I raw glaze greenware bone dry and most of my glazes do not have a lot of clay in them. I glaze the insides one day and glaze the outsides the next. My pots can be seen at www.coryellclayworks.com

To truly understand clay & glazes & their materials I would suggest reading, Out of the Earth Into the Fire by Mimi Obstler.

Soy wax sounds good. If you see to burn candles in the home than I see no problem in the studio. I don't like the wax resist stuff and I believe the fumes may be worse than candle wax in the firing. Temperature is key to good adherence. Hot, but don't let it burn. It works best on bisque ware. I mostly use a large rectangle of one inch foam that I soak in water first than squeeze out a bit and lie down on a table. Then, after I dip each pot, I slide it across the foam and that usually takes care of it. I mainly glaze green ware.

You do not mention what is your firing range is, so for a general answer I would use any matte glaze or vitrfied slip in your firing range. Make sure the recipe you use has a lot of clay in it if it is to be applied to a damp pot or a lot less if it is to be applied to a dry or bisqued pot.