Morgan

Super hard for me to see the pics are small to my eyes but looks like it could just me as simple as brushing on a white matte glaze unevenly/thin/thick and maybe a brushed cobalt wash? Could be underglaze but seems more like a wash from afar.

Ya it all dried just the same. I am used to color being a bit off but frost is so freaking white it’s just much more obvious. I did throw some test tiles with my first reclaim and it seemed just as slippy as fresh so we shall see. That said I don’t see myself making many large serving plates with it :)

I’m more worried about the price of lithium (and anything with li in it, spod petalite etc). Custer is easily changed. Yes, lithium is too but it’s just not the same imo. I luckily bought 50lbs of it and looking at what I paid makes me laugh…which should last awhile but curious to those out there what they plan on doing regarding it. I think it’s safe to say the price is never coming down…so just not use it anymore?

Ok thanks all for that info that is invaluable. Right now my plan and process has been saving every drop of throwing slurry I can and mix that with dry scraps and water as needed. In the past few days I made my first batch and it did not seem to be short at all wedging it, the only difference I could see was visually maybe not as white. I did use it for a ton of handles and, so far at least, seems ok. To be honest, if I could get away with just using it for attachments and random things that would be a win in my book. Regardless, I will test throwing it at some point just to see if it does need anything added as you suggested Min.

So just to make sure I read you, translucency aside, reclaiming it is normal/fine? Just curious would reclaim be even more prone to cracking than it already is? I am guessing "BentoneMA" is water soluble and that is how you lose it in the process...?

SUCH a timely post so thank you! This may sound naive and I hope I am (not) wrong but I am finally getting around to recycling a ton of laguna frost. frost has its own issues as we all know so I am pretty worried about reclaim. I do it the old fashion way just buckets, plaster etc. I save ALL slurry and it is super duper slippy. After say, a half day of throwing my water bucket is already full and needs to be emptied into the slop bucket, usually dump it twice if its a true cranking it out throwing day. I throw semi dry and have never been used to this much slip but alas here we are. Anyway, my point/question is...am I wrong to simply assume that if you truly keep ALL the fine particles from the throwing slurry and mix that in some proper ratio with scraps/trimmings you could technically get it proper? Seems like nothing is really lost...how else could you be losing all the goodies? I am testing a small batch now, was not aged at all, for just handles (literally drying now) and crossing my fingers. I don't even wanna think about frost cracking issues with reclaim but I am sure it will be a nightmare. Given where I live and cost of materials being what they are reclaim is that much more important financially. To put it in perspective I got 50lbs of reclaim from around 400 lbs of used Frost. I have no idea if that is a lot or a little but sure as heck seems like quite a lot (I also am a minimalist when it comes to trimming/feet etc) compared to my other reclaiming clay bodies. Thanks! EDIT: I take that back I have been slowly pouring out clear water into a new throwing container so maybe that contains some of the original magic?

Great articles ^^ cheers!

Interesting for sure. I am also curious how heat affected suspension/sodium etc. After mulling it over I am convinced the bucket sitting in the hot sun for an hour was in fact the variable that somehow changed the solution super quick and thus this happened. Anyway, epsom added and resolved but still curious to what really happened from a scientific point.

It gets stirred every pot haha with a rush to dip, tongs in one hand and mixer in the other Thanks for the rework min. This is not meant to be a durable glaze it only goes on exteriors and for me, up until this fun little adventure/lesson, has been a pretty decent micro crystalline glaze that doesn't run and works well within my normal firing with natural cool. That said, I will certainly give that a test, thanks!

Awesome Dick and everyone else, that was what I suspected, so much appreciate the detailed response. I added an extra percent of Bent to 3% and my other variants of this same base glaze have not had this happen and they are much much older (some a year old no issues just 3% bent), this is a newer addition with simply a touch of copper carb to it. Anywho, I will add epsom salts as needed. Babs, it had been at least 2-3 weeks since I mixed the batch and the initial mix after sitting was totally fine. Glazed quite a few things, came back an hour later, and boom this happened.

Yes, I realize this is a prone glaze given the ingredients, which is why there is agents added to account for that. I think this is a bit more specific of a question of what would cause, an already well suspended glaze, out of nowhere to start to exhibit this behavior in such a short time frame after no issues for some time. Besides simply adding more bent/epsom etc I am trying to understand what could have changed that is causing this to avoid it down the line.

Apologies, I should have included that but was on my phone. I do know that huge amounts of Neph Sy can change over time solubility, so maybe that is why, but still seems strange it has yet to happen to any other variants much "older" than the one that showed this behavior (and again, happened within an hour). This was a 4k batch all have 3% bentonite to prevent whats happening. I will probably add some epsom salt today (or more bent?) to try and fix it, but I am curious as to the why and why now more than anything. As for the Hard Panning there was some water on top and the bottom had hardened to the point where a mixer would not budge in it, I had to loosen it up by hand and I finally got it back to normal. Update: Checked it this morning and it was already starting to happen again but not nearly the rate at which I saw yesterday. The strangest part of this to me is how it was 100% fine out of storage a few weeks and not until I starting using it did this kick off the issue almost immediatly. This is the popular micro crystal recipe base "Frosty". Nepheline syenite 40.00 silica 29.00 zinc oxide 17.00 whiting 9.50 EPK 5.00 total base recipe 100.50 bentonite 3.00 rutile 2.00

I am using a glaze I’ve used for months now, have many variations of it that I have been using for well over a year and never had any suspension issues…until today the strangest thing happened. i glaze about every two weeks so that’s about how long these sit if not longer. Anyway I pull out the glaze in question, mix totally fine do my glazing go eat lunch and come back and go back to same glaze and it’s hard as a rock all the span of maybe an hour. The glaze has very little clay and I add 3% bentonite to these but I’ve never ever had issues with it, even after sitting for much longer time. The quickness that it happened is what threw me. the only thing I can possible think of was that it got warm as the sun may have hit the bucket? The glaze in question does have soluble ingredients so maybe heat interacted with it?

Ya as min mentions the key is to pull the thicker clay after every collar which will prevent issues and maintain the integrity of the form.

This has been a fantastic clear for me on a few craze prone clay bodies. https://glazy.org/recipes/55849

I have a few glazes with soda ash in it and never used hot water just sieved like normal mixed in room temp water. Thread has me thinking my glazes are missing out haha…then again if it didn’t dissolve it probably wouldn’t have gone through 120 mesh?

Ok, cheers, thanks as always Neil! And I shouldn’t worry about the flaking/dust so early (under 5 firings). Still seems odd they would show corrosion that quick but maybe it’s always been that way I just wasn’t paying attention.

I’d say they are fairly close to the end of the tube but certainly not even with it…when you put a finger on it you can feel the tip of the TC if you pressed it if that makes sense. These were replacements direct from l&l sales rep (who I also contacted and he verified the parts ). I also vacuum the kiln and tubes every firing or so.

Sorry should have clarified...The tubes are the open ended ones, maybe they are not considered "protection tubes"? Somehow they are getting into the air of the kiln and landing on the pots. I know it is from that, as the ones closer to the thermocouples have more flakes that end up showing up in the final glaze.

Sorry, but yet another update that I hope helps anyone else that goes through the headaches I have gone through with this clay body. So, all of the suggestions in this thread did help, the wedging, the compression direction (slow drying vs not) etc but I still found I was getting a 5-10% crack rate. Very minor, never through, but nonetheless present. That said I have gotten this to 100% success rate adding a few more steps into my routine so I hope this helps. First off, as many have mentioned, lets assume you have consistent thickness in your bottoms and forms, wedged well. From there two things seem to be the game changers for me. Instead of just compressing out > in, it seems the clay really loves to be forcefully spread in > out, then forcefully out > in. Take your time with this, I start my forms with a rather thick bottom and by the time I am done really compressing in both directions it is the right thickness. The last thing I do is when the pots are leather hard, if not a bit before, is use a tool of some sort, a spoon will work, a sponge stick, your finger, whatever....and compress manually outward in with said tool. With these two additions I have fired over 200 mugs with zero cracks. When I say forcefully above I mean really forcefully. The way I came across this was by making some plates, which I laughed at while making, thinking of coarse a plate would crack. When I make plates I use a ton of force with my fist getting it wide, then compress in to even the surface…wouldn’t you know it, no cracks. Hope this helps to those dealing with this in the future!

I know this issue has been discussed a lot/before, and am totally used to this happening on older thermocouples but I am not sure I have ever seen so much flaking on brand new TCs on its first few firings. I did run these with empty kiln as suggested but I cannot believe how much of the flakes are getting into my glazes with so few firings under their belts. FWIW these are the cheapo type k and I do have the open type protection tubes.

I do need it but not anytime soon, this was more of a question if there are any updates on it. Most of my glazes actually prefer grolleg but it is a tad pricier usually, but if it comes to it later tile 6 is fine for sure. Talking to Laguna they were fairly tight lipped on any updates or timeframes. Anyway, just curious. Thanks! Thanks Mark ^^ thats seems like a likely explanation, cheers

Laguna has been out and has no ETA at all when they will be getting stock. Anyone have an more info on what is going on? Mining issue I am assuming...

I am not sure if it has changed but I placed a large dry material order not too long ago and Laguna was 100% out of EPK.

Just an update and I do not wanna jinx anything but I did about 50 more mugs wedging each ball individually per @Min’s suggestion and another chunk wedging larger amounts but then doing my normal elongating wedged clay to wire off smaller balls. I then truly spent an insane amount of time compressing bottoms. No visible cracks on any of the individual wedged ones and a handful on the ones using my normal method but with intense amounts of compressing. Looks like this is just going to be part of the process with frost. Thanks for all the suggestions and hope that is the end of that. I do want to add some compliments to frost as well. It is hands down the best looking glazed porcelain I have ever seen. I also love how even when fairly wet it holds it shape very well for handling. This is especially important for me as I do all attachments much sooner than leather hard so I never have to really worry about joint cracks. So I may have to spend more time on the wheel but handles etc are much more efficient for me now. off to do some glaze fit adjustments now…