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Gazal

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Posts posted by Gazal

  1. 9 hours ago, Marie1234 said:

    Hi,

    I have recently bought Amaco velvet underglazes. I was planning on using them on bisque stoneware plates (bought from a wholesaler). Because I want the plates to be dinnerware safe, I thought of buying Amaco’s Zinc Free glaze (HF9).

    Can I apply the underglazes to the bisque stoneware, let them dry, apply the glaze and then fire? (So only 1 fire overall)

    I emailed Amaco about this but they were not helpful, they only said the approach above would smear the colors. Is this true?

    thanks.

    Hi Marie, based on my experience you'd always get a better result if you fire your piece after applying underglaze. sometimes in the past I have glazed on underglaze without firing it first and the glaze went very rough and not smooth over the under glaze. This is what I've experienced before for some colors more than others.

  2. Hi! I desperately need some help please.

    I have been making some platters (mainly oval shapes) and plates with mid-fire clay. they all looked good after glaze firing. however after I applied decals and fired them (to 735 Celsius) all of the flat pieces ie platters and plates broke in the kiln!! all the bowls and small pieces survived though.

    the pattern for the breakages is kind of similar-I'm attaching some photos that's why I am thinking it would be fixable hopefully in the future?

    Does anybody have any ideas why it's happening? it's very annoying that they survive glaze firing (1220 Celsius) and not decal firing after that.

     

    Your help would be much appreciated.

     

    Thank you 

    Ghazal

     

    photo_2023-08-29_16-00-39.jpg

    photo_2023-08-29_16-00-33.jpg

    photo_2023-08-29_16-00-29.jpg

  3. 16 hours ago, kswan said:

    You can also use your own body as an analogy about feeling the weight of gravity. If you hold heavy weights, you can hold them longer straight up as opposed to straight out. The same happens with clay, it needs support to not sag. An upward curve at an edge instead of horizontal will help. If your edge is thick, it is heavier and will sag down too. As Kelly said, thick in the support area like the base is important, and then thinner edges where possible.

    Thank you! makes sense :) 

  4. 21 hours ago, Kelly in AK said:

    As clay reaches its maturation temperature (becomes vitreous, changes from bisque ware to stoneware/porcelain ) it becomes “pyroplastic.” Soft from the heat, in other words. I feel that has a significant bearing on your problem.

    People solve this in various ways. One is to adjust the form to compensate for the sag, another is to add structure in the design to support wide flat areas. Still another is to calculate thin and thick areas for greater support. One very direct way would be to use a clay that matures a little higher than you’re firing it, or, better still, a clay known to keep its structure at maturity. I suppose even some kind of supports could be fashioned to make it work. 

    Porcelain and highly vitrified clays are notoriously pyroplastic. The weight of a handle will pull a mug into an oval shape. 

    Some peoples favorite ceramic word is eutectic. Mine is pyroplastic. 

    that was great help, thank you Kelly

     

  5. Hi 

    Does anybody know how to avoid kiln debris?

    Also when I fire pieces which are painted in cobalt blue or royal blue under glaze, somehow the bottom of top shelf gets stained (let say if I paint a plate in blue flowers I get the same image on the bottom of top shelf of where the plate was located in the kiln) and then when I fire a white/plain piece that stain from the shelf transfers to my ceramics (not like a perfect image but more like some dots or a big stain), so basically I'd get blue stain every now and then on my ceramics even when there is no royal blue colored pieces are in the kiln. Does anyone know how to avoid it?

    Thank you

  6. On 10/27/2022 at 2:41 PM, Babs said:

    You may have unevenly dried greenware at the point of application and so inadvertently getting thick areas where the clay grabs the moist underglaze..

    I spray the whole pot with a light mist of water before starting to apply underglaze.

    It looks like you are brushing in lots of directions. Perhaps applying a resist to your flowers would enable you to then brush across your plates and get a more even application.

    thank you Babs, do you know a good resist?

  7. On 10/27/2022 at 9:41 AM, Min said:

    If you have a look at the underglaze it says "For best colour response at 1280 we recommend low or no Zinc stoneware glazes." Then have a look at the glaze you are using, it contains zinc. "Midfire to Stoneware Clear Glaze containing approx 5% of Zinc and 5% Calcium" Even though you fired to 1250C and not the full 1280C this combined with what may be a heavy application would be my hunch as to why you got the colour response you did.

    Which porcelain glaze did you use? Have a look at what the writeup for it, see if contained zinc, you can also look at the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for it if it isn't clear.

    For your second question, for functional wares you want to fire the clay to it's maturity to make pots that are as vitrified and strong as possible. I don't know what the maturity for your clay is so I can't answer that one for sure.

    I know it seems very wasteful to fire a kiln with just test tiles but this is what I would do rather than taking a chance on a kiln load of pots. Ask your supplier if they can recommend  a zinc free clear for your clay and underglaze and make some test tiles. Try the underglaze with 1,2 and 3 coats then glaze with a thin, medium and heavy application and see what happens. Sometimes the unexpected happens and we don't care for it because it wasn't what we were going for but I think the purple areas look nice on your pot.

    Thank you Min, it was very helpful! 

    I just bought the underglaze and as I had used it with no problem before, I thought there won't be any issues, but don't know what glaze I had used, plus my clay was different this time! What happened was very disappointing, but I am glad I learnt something so important from it. 

    thank you for your time and Help! 

     

     

  8. On 10/27/2022 at 9:22 AM, Bam2015 said:

    Ain't that the truth Pres? I do the same thing, hurry up and get to the finish line.

    Gazal, I am not inferring that  you were racing to the finish line, that was just a little self-reflection. But, it will be interesting to find out what the problem was. I hope you will keep us posted.

    Betty

    that's true! I didn't know changing the clay may cause this problem so I didn't do any test! lesson learnt! ... 

  9. On 10/27/2022 at 8:59 AM, Pres said:

    Pictures are better. Looks like there is something going on with the touch up areas of your underglaze where it may be thicker. Too bad(I hate to say this) but looks like testing would have been your only way out. I know. . . . lots of us get in a hurry wanting to see the finished pieces, but here with all the pieces done. . ... .?  At any rate try looking up the formula for the glaze. Post it here, maybe someone will have an idea. There are chemical reactions that cause purples, but certain conditions are usually needed for the kind of reactions you are getting. One is thicker underglaze coloring that may shiver or flake, interactions between the glaze and underglaze, and firing temps.

     

    best,

    Pres

    Thanks Press, I didn't have this issue before,  only happened to me last time , when I used different clay (stoneware instead of Porcelain) and I did not know I was gonna get this problem, so painted all other greenwares with the same glaze :(. 

     

  10. 27 minutes ago, Babs said:

    That purpling crystals are somethkng I get with a glaze containing Magnesium Catbonate. The effect of different fluxes I guess. The cobalt may have been thicker there where it is occurring on your dish. Metallic usually comes grom overload of the metallic element in the underglaze

    The bleeding is 

    Bit thicker glaze?

    Glaze and so underglaze moving at that temp?

    Thank you Baba,

    I may have applied thicker layer of underglaze to get a more consistant colour accross the plates, last time I used different clay (porcelain /fired to 1240) and it seems that it worked better, but I am not sure, maybe i did not apply thick layers of underglaze.

    Do you know how could I fix this issue? I have painted heaps of greenware with the same underglaze and don't wanna lose them. 

    Thank you 

    IMG_5647.jpg

    IMG_5648.jpg

  11. 4 hours ago, Pres said:

    Your image shows some pinholing towards the center, and some other anomalies I can't make out. Could you post a picture with less reflections in it?  It may be that something in your transparent glaze interacted with the cobalt underglaze, not certain at this point.

     

    best,

    Pres 

    Hi Pres, thanks for your message. 

    sure , are these better? I slow fired them, but the glaze has got some bubbles in it, it's not pin holes, they are in the glaze.

    Do you know how could I fix the problem for both underglaze and glaze?

    I used the same glaze and underglaze previously on porcelain clay and fired it to 1240C and result was better, nicer blue. 

    what happens if i fire a clay to 10C degree lower than it's glaze tempreture (for example this stoneware should be fired to min 1250C, can I fire it to 1240C or even 1230C to get a nicer blue?)

    IMG_5647.jpg

    IMG_5648.jpg

    68846624621__FA98218A-4529-4034-8EAF-792B13DFE07A.jpg

  12. 5 hours ago, Min said:

    Hi and welcome to the forum!

    Could you give a bit more info about the underglaze you used? Firing range of it? Glaze info?

    Thank you Min,

    sure, I've attached photos.

    previously I used porcelain glaze and fired it to 1240C degrees and colour came out nice. this time I used stoneware clay and maybe thicker underglaze (not sure though) and so had to fire it to 1250C (glaze temp for stoneware clay).

    would it be ok if I fire the same clay to 1230-1240C? and see what happens? 

    I am new to this and have no clue how it can be fixed. have already painted heaps of greenware with the same underglaze and don't wanna go through what I went through last night opening the kiln. 

    Thank you

    IMG_5649.jpg

    IMG_5650.jpg

    IMG_5647.jpg

    IMG_5648.jpg

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