Hulk

Holy wow! On your way, looks like.
I found out about anhydrous borax by accident. I had a bag labeled “borax” among a bunch of stuff I bought from a retired potter. I went to put some in solution and the dang stuff didn’t dissolve! 

The raised clay bins are really smart, and the light is really nice in there!
As a fellow small space user, any time you can build wall shelves, do it. 
If you ever decide to go for making up some larger buckets of glaze, I keep mine in 5 gallon buckets and stack them on each other behind my studio door. I also made a conscious decision to keep the number of “big bucket” glazes to five or less. 

@Kelly in AK I do feel very lucky, and not just with clay! Almost all of my equipment was free or cheap! Free kick wheel, free clay mixer, free wareshelving, an old skutt KM1227 for $1000 with furniture, free space in our shared garage, etc etc. Most of it needed a lot of love but ultimately it was much cheaper than buying new/used. I've made a few trips now to IMCO to talk clays and ingredients and they've been very generous with their time and information about material sources and compositions (even compositions of their "proprietary" clay mixes).

@PeterH I did read about anhydrous borax and ended up on several welding and knife making forums! Turns out borax can be used for surface prep in those fields. There was questionable information about cooking borax decahydrate into your own anhydrous borax but that would be a last resort for me. I'm not yet interested in making my own frits :D. That said, there is a little hope on the Borax Decahydrate page on digitalfire. It seems that the granular borax (which is what my source is) might not be very soluble. Either way, I've got 50lbs of it and I intend to find out what's what.

@Callie Beller Diesel Interestingly, I've share a few emails with John Britt  with questions on information (or, as you say, concise information) from his midfire book. He's been quite patient with me but I don't really want to push it. Besides, I think I'm a little bit outside the standard glaze path and that necessitates testing on my end anyway. That said, good to know table sugar will probably work. I was headed in that direction already :). I'm glad I decided to sign up here, you've all been incredibly welcoming and helpful!

@akilpots You're spot on. Originally, I had pulled the 4% zinc oxide in the recipe you likely read from Val Cushing's Transparent 3. I read all about Zinc and it's interesting effects on color changes when used with coloring oxides and didn't really want to use it. I've since been on a Borax kick, which is in the direction of the advice you've given if not exactly the standard choice. Thanks for your reply!
@Kelly in AK and @Callie Beller Diesel I've attached a photo of my space in it's almost finished state. Callie, the rolling stand for my mixer brings it to where I barely have to bend over to reach the bottom of the mixing bar, and my clay bins with the red stripes on the left are even with the top of the mixer so I'm not breaking my back scooping out clay. Also, you can see that aside from a little space to the left of the window there isn't much room for buckets of glaze to hang out without perpetually being in the way.. I've been thinking on building another rollie cart for buckets but I'm going to wait until I experience that problem before I put together a solution. Kelly, aside from the bench on the left everything else was pretty much donated by friends and strangers alike. I am extremely lucky and it's helped me want to keep working hard. I'll be waiting a week after I hydrate those clay tests before I roll them into shab bars and test cups so I expect to have an update for you all in 1.5 to 2 weeks. Thanks again for all the awesome feedback.

A tiny amount of chrome plus cobalt can make a really nice teal colour in washes, slips and glazes. 
@rabbethouse, have a look at June Perry's Wash Recipes, lots of good wash recipes. They are written for cone 10 but if you swap out the feldspar in a recipe for gerstley borate or Ferro frit 3134 or 3124 they should work at cone 6. For lowfire you would need to increase the amount of g.b. or frit.
 http://johnbrittpottery.blogspot.com/2013/03/june-perry-oxide-wash-list.html

https://lindabloomfield.co.uk/  ?

Joe at Old Forge Creations is also a UK potter who’s been doing a lot of work in the glaze community, and he does make himself available for some questions. He’s on Glazy and Instagram.  I spoke with him, and he said he uses North American materials, which he says should be available, and he found the cost savings in converting recipes to UK materials to be negligible. He also recommended Linda Bloomfield as a resource if you wants to start with more locally based recipes.
Joe has a big presence on Glazy (search Old Forge Creations), but his blog post on his First Five Ingredients glaze is here: https://www.oldforgecreations.co.uk/blog/first-five-ingredients-where-to-start-with-glaze-making. There are links to purchase materials for both UK and US sources.
At a quick google search, I can’t find a website for Linda, but she has a significant profile on Glazy, and many published books and a youtube channel. 

Hi and welcome!
Gerstley borate is a great standalone brushing medium and would be added to iron to help make it more workable, and to dilute the amount of oxide you’re using. (Some oxide is good, too much can cause glazes to crawl over it.) I find iron mostly doesn’t need help fluxing, but other oxides may.
if you want a green wash, don’t use the nickel. It tends to go brown.  Copper carbonate benefits from some kind of flux with sodium in it to help turn it green. GB does have some sodium, but if you try it and find it isn’t enough, try mixing equal parts epk, copper carb and any Ferro frit you have to hand. 3110 would be ideal, but 3195, 3134 and 3124 would also work. The epk will help make this mix brushable and dilute it, and the frit will do the flux/colour change part. 
 

Hi Kennedy,
Welcome to the Forum!
Are you glazing the insides (liner glaze)?
A good liner glaze should melt well; not craze (crack); come out be smooth and shiny (easy to clean); not cutlery mark (again, smooth and shiny); stand up to wear, tear, acids and alkalis; and not leach colorants.
Typically, advice for functional ware includes choosing a clay that has very low absorption when fired to its target cone, around one percent absorption or less.
Still, a sound liner glaze, no cracks, no pits or holes, should hold water!
Hope that helps.
If you are glazing the outside only, then expect water to soak into the clay, saturating the entire piece!
The exceptions would include clays that are fully "vitrified" - that do not absorb any water.
Can you post images of the liner glaze and the recipe/formula as well?
 
liner glaze
Liner glazes (digitalfire.com)
Functional glaze
Functional (digitalfire.com)
See the links to vitrification and maturity at the bottom of the article.

My local supplier had limited supplies during  Covid, the one employee almost died from it.   She was in the hospital for a month,  they sent her home to  put together estate plans.  They said they could no longer help  her.   She laid in bed for 3 days and decided to get up and clean her house,  she is back at work lifting those heavy boxes of clay.    The store seems  to be well stocked now I think it is because Virginia is back.  Denice

With all of the consideration about supplies and material costs along with the past of Covid effects on business. . . I have wondered how your go to supplier is surviving. I was at SC in Pittsburgh last year and noticed how much they seemed at the time to be down on stock. I also have noticed that a supplier I had seen out east of me has not seemed to be open when I have been by.
QotW: Have you found a tightening of suppliers in your area or a shortage of supplies at your GO-TO Ceramic supplier?
I have been interested in making a trip to Bailey up in NY, but don't look forward to the drive. Used to swing by there on the way back from a vacation years ago. The new kiln came with 6 half shelves, but I would like at least another pair for firing patens, even two more pair would give me a decent glaze load pack. However, with NCECA coming to Richmond next year, I can take a hold til then.
 
best,
Pres

I'm using Weebly/Square, where I'm posting some "about" my work, images of current and historical work, blog entries, contact info...
It's not perfect, but it is fairly easy to use and maintain.

Penetrating oil, liquids that dissolve corrosion/rust (e.g. LiquidWrench) can be helpful, again, depending.
Judiciously applied heat can be helpful, again, it depends!

Thanks for the great ideas….. hopefully at least one will work, for me.
Cheers
Mike

Testing/proofing on test tiles, small slabs, et cetera, time permitting ...afore committing a large piece.
How many words are you looking to depict? A phrase, a stanza, the entire lyric?

I think we are overcomplicating this.
If glaze is fine then don't mess with the TC offset. If bisque is under-firing then either fire to one cone hotter if using the preprogrammed schedule or increase the final temp like Neil said. Given that ^07 is barely bending and you are aiming for ^06 then try firing to preprogrammed ^05. Approx 30C between 07 and 06 and 06 and 05.

I thought they had stopped making it but potclays seem to have it in stock. https://www.potclays.co.uk/calcium-borate-frit I feel like it has doubled in price but I haven't bought any for a long time. 
If you want to look into making glazes start with limit formula https://digitalfire.com/article/limit+formulas+and+target+formulas
 

That should have gotten you to cone 06, maybe even cone 05. It's really more important that it's firing accurately at glaze temps, which it is, so I wouldn't make any changes to the thermocouple offsets. I would just adjust the final temp up 30-40 degrees.

https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramics-monthly-submissions/ceramics-monthly-submission-guidelines#article-3
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/pottery-making-illustrated/pottery-making-illustrated-submissions/pottery-making-illustrated-submission-guidelines

Here are the documents that came with the wheel. I don't remember how or where i bought this wheel but I'm sure it was in 1973.

Testing/proofing on test tiles, small slabs, et cetera, time permitting ...afore committing a large piece.
How many words are you looking to depict? A phrase, a stanza, the entire lyric?

Testing/proofing on test tiles, small slabs, et cetera, time permitting ...afore committing a large piece.
How many words are you looking to depict? A phrase, a stanza, the entire lyric?

You didn't mention how much time you have to pull this off. You will need several tests and trials, from start to finish, before you are likely get a result that is what you intended and (or) that you really like.  So, I'd want to be sure I had enough time to deal with the inevitable process of getting from point A to point B, including set-backs. Time is especially important if it should turn out that  there is a need to switch gears and design something else. Just something to think about--how much time is available to explore & produce to your satisfaction. Just FYI, Sanbau Studio offers underglaze transfer papers (lettering sets) for ^04 to 10...maybe someone else here has some experience with a transfer method...tho it would probably not be something to use for a lot of text.

If you use a claybody made for tiles it will be far less plastic than your typical claybody, less plasticity in a claybody helps tiles stay flat. (along with the practices you are already doing and @akilpots suggestions) Also, if you lay a piece of very thin plastic sheeting/film over the clay before pressing the cookie cutter down it will round over the edges so you don't need to smooth the topside eges of the coasters. 

i dont make coasters but i do make tiles sometimes so these tips should apply...
make slabs of stiff leather hard clay.
you can dust the inside of the cookie cutter with cornstarch to help each piece release.
make sure you are drying them out somewhere with no drafts. you want each one to dry evenly so like not having the left side dry faster than the right side.
the less drying they need to do when cut from the slab the better chance you'll have at them staying flat.

Maybe pictures are here