Rutile Blue Glazes

[Cedar Tree Pottery]

For every glaze that I make with rutile (usually blue glazes) the surface turns matte and pinholes. I absolutely adore the variation in color that rutile gives but I hate the surface texture. Is there any way I can make a rutile blue glaze that is smooth and glossy?

I fire at cone 6 electric in a small manual kiln. I use standard clays 112, 266, and WC401 Cone 5 B Mix.

Thanks,

-Claire

[Mark C.]

Rutile glazes are very hard to master.Lots of experimenting will be needed.

[oldlady]

claire, welcome (what now, italics???)   i did not intend italics, ignore it.

do you have a copy of bill van gilder's book that followed his tv show? WHEEL THROWN POTTERY.  anyhow, he has a rutile green recipe that i have tested with many, many colors.  i also fire an electric kiln to cone 6.  i dislike the glaze as given in the book, the green is yellowish and not attractive at all when used alone on my white clay.  bill intended it to be used over other colors that are shown in the book but i wanted a stand alone color that was sellable.  it is a nice base glaze that works nicely.   i have it at home in wv but not down here.   try a search for it and i bet you find it.

[Min]

Rutile can be really variable, it might be worth trying a different grade or supplier, look for ceramic grade rutile. If you get too much tan colouration from the rutile you can remove some of the it and replace with titanium dioxide, use .8 grams titanium dioxide for every 1 gram of rutile you replace. Base glaze needs to have low surface tension for the gasses from the rutile to escape through, cooling rate makes a difference too. Can you post the recipe and a picture of your problem glaze(s) and how you fire your kiln?

[Mark C.]

I use a lot of Rutile glaze but I fire to cone 10 in Reduction. That makes thinks way different. The clay body will matter a lot as well. I sue porcelain-more issues on stoneware for sure.

[Cedar Tree Pottery]

 

On 4/5/2018 at 10:23 PM, oldlady said:

claire, welcome (what now, italics???)   i did not intend italics, ignore it.

do you have a copy of bill van gilder's book that followed his tv show? WHEEL THROWN POTTERY.  anyhow, he has a rutile green recipe that i have tested with many, many colors.  i also fire an electric kiln to cone 6.  i dislike the glaze as given in the book, the green is yellowish and not attractive at all when used alone on my white clay.  bill intended it to be used over other colors that are shown in the book but i wanted a stand alone color that was sellable.  it is a nice base glaze that works nicely.   i have it at home in wv but not down here.   try a search for it and i bet you find it.

I do not have that book. I will  search for the glaze though.

[Polydeuces]

One of my favorite glazes is a simple blueish rutile using Alberta Slip. I think you can find it here: https://digitalfire.com/4sight/recipes/alberta_slip_rutile_blue_cone_6_31.html

I've gotten some really nice blends of ambers, blues & purples on Little Loafers clay from Highwater—this might be pretty similar to your B Mix. Calcining the Alberta Slip is an extra step, but the glaze goes on really smooth & is relatively simple otherwise.

I had some issues with pinholing for awhile. What helped me was 1) Wipe down the pots with a barely wet sponge before glazing, and  2) Once it reaches cone 6 I, hold it for awhile. I normally fire to somewhere between cone 6-7, and they usually come out really well. I think that this helps any pinholing that may have emerged to smooth itself back out.

Otherwise, good advice. I haven't gone through enough rutile to really know the difference between lots, or experienced much of any difference worthy of note, but it seems to get common mention on this topic.

[Pres]

On 4/5/2018 at 10:23 PM, oldlady said:

claire, welcome (what now, italics???)   i did not intend italics, ignore it.

do you have a copy of bill van gilder's book that followed his tv show? WHEEL THROWN POTTERY.  anyhow, he has a rutile green recipe that i have tested with many, many colors.  i also fire an electric kiln to cone 6.  i dislike the glaze as given in the book, the green is yellowish and not attractive at all when used alone on my white clay.  bill intended it to be used over other colors that are shown in the book but i wanted a stand alone color that was sellable.  it is a nice base glaze that works nicely.   i have it at home in wv but not down here.   try a search for it and i bet you find it.

Van Gilder's rutile green is a transparent that is used over a raft of other base glazes that he uses. I moved a glaze into the mix from MC^6 glazes, variegated blue. The two of these together create a rich green that has blue green and spring green with dark green when I use spraying the rutile green over the variegated blue. I also use Cream Rust and a base glaze of white that uses rutile. These on SC Hazelnut. Without the base white the hazelnut is just too dark for these glazes. I am going to be using this combination with SC 630 white stoneware I will be working with this week. Preliminary glaze tests show some interesting color shifts for the cream rust, brighter green reactions with the variegated blue/rutile green, and a more matt appearance to the variegated blue alone. It also looks like the liner will be great on the inside of pieces, not quite the butter yellow I have now.

 

best,

Pres

[oldlady]

claire, just realized i did not put the amount of color in above post.  i use 3% cobalt carbonate and get a really nice color, not too dark in the van gilder recipe.