Send me to the store

[yappystudent]

My sponges are falling apart so it's time for the next trek to Georgie's, and assembling a shopping list.  I'm going to try mixing some simple (-?) first glazes and as yet know nothing about it. I've had a look at digitalfire and glazy and couldn't figure out wtf they are talking about, same with my ancient Bernard Leach books. (White lead?......) Yes I could use a few new books, maybe I'll buy one at the store when I get there. So far the only glaze I've made was red iron oxide and water, which my kiln won't mature adequately or I didn't do it right. 

Question: I'd like some simple recommendations with the thought in mind,  if you were recommending mixing first glazes to a 12 year old and wanted them to pick up say, 4-5 commercial dry ingredients for this purpose, what would you get? No uranium or plutonium pls. I have some small packets of mason stain, red and black iron oxides, all colors of clay, a little ash, that's about it. 

[Babs]

What cone are you firing to?

Gloss, satin matte matter finish?

Glaze with only red iron and water....Don't think that would make a glaze Yappy student!!

Great you're starting out making glazes. Exciting stuff!

If you let's know what the cone is I am sure you'll get what you're after

[GEP]

If you are firing to cone 6, here’s a reliable base recipe for making glossy glazes.

Glossy Base

23 EPK

29 Silica

46 Gerstley Borate

2 Soda Ash

 

Only four ingredients, all of which will come in handy for other recipes. Melts reliably from cone 5 to 7, and has a very durable finish. Slightly runny which I like, but don’t apply too thick. You can add colorants or opacifiers as you wish. Copper carb for green, cobalt carb for blue, mason stains, tin oxide for opacity, etc. 

[dhPotter]

EPK, Silica, and to some extent Gerstley Borate will be in just about every cone 6 glaze you will make. I wouldn't buy too much soda ash. 

If I were to buy 1 glaze book it would be John Britt's Mid-Range Glazes . Excellent for beginners thru experienced potters. John Britt's DVD, Understanding Glazes is good also. However, the book teaches the same material as the DVD. Being old school, I like looking it up in a book instead floundering around with a DVD. And the book has glazes recipes with pics of most glazes on different clay types.

Must have a very accurate method of weighing ingredients.

[oldlady]

yappy, go to a big box home improvement store  for the sponges.  get a big tile grouting sponge like the one in Pres' latest suggestion.  use a serrated knife to divide it into several useful sizes, about  in half for cleaning up countertops and stuff and some thinner ones for throwing and detail work.  you can get about 4 plus the bigger one from a $2 sponge and they will last for years.  the silly round ones that clay suppliers sell are too small for almost anything and cost too much.  if you really like the small round ones, farm supply stores sell a  bag of a dozen for about $7 for cleaning  tack.

      just remember that if i can mix glazes, so can you.

this subject has been covered several times, try search , well, that hardly ever works for anything even if you know the title of the post you want.

[oldlady]

new computer and i cannot figure out why it removes a word if i want to insert one.   

look online for an old book, Getting into pots by Wettlaufer.  it is about $3 or $4 in paperback.  yes, it is old but recipes in it were written by a ceramic engineer and are still good today.  laugh at the cost of setting up a studio in the early 1970s but read the chapter on making glazes.  the recipes on page 127 make sense.    i use the white XS for bowl interiors and really like # 18 for a matte glaze.   these glazes do not run.   that is super important if you want to keep your kiln in good shape.

you will learn that clear or transparent glazes allow texture to be seen and matte glazes flatten them out.

once you have a good base glaze, you can try colors to produce what you want.  

[Min]

Yappy, I have found that just about anything you can buy at either a big box, dollar store, thrift shop or online is going to be cheaper than buying from a ceramics supply store. For sponges, upholstery foam works, I picked up a lifetime supply of scraps from a foam shop for a few dollars. Don't know if you already have a sieve, an accurate set of scales and a respirator (P100 rated) but you will need those. Start scrounging buckets, bakeries and grocery stores that have bulk departments are somewhere to start.

How helpful have the staff been at Georgies? Could you email them and ask for a couple recipes that fit the claybodies you use from them? 

[lgusten]

Hi Gabby,  

This is so timely,  I am making my shopping list for my raw materials part of the studio.  Monday is the day I am planning a day trip to Highwater Clay in Asheville, NC to  make my purchase.  They have a technician there who should be able to talk to me more in depth about the materials.  

Just ordered John Britt's Complete Guide to mid range Glazes.  I will go through those recipes and narrow down my list of materials.  I will share it when I am done. Looked at the Cone 5-6 Glazes book of the Ceramic Arts Handbook series...it is just OK.... 

Like Min says, apart from the materials and a couple of other things....other stores have them at cheaper prices.  Don't underestimate what you may find at thrift stores like Goodwill and Habitat Restore.  Found lots of items for molding, impressions, foam  for not a lot of money.  Our Habitat also has a senior discount day for all those over 60.  I have found the most stuff at Habitat.

I use different oxides and water to add color to my work...it is not a glaze but I have used it instead as a final finish to get a desired look  or  under a glaze to tweak the color in the glaze.   I have added some pics.  The one with iron oxide was fired at cone 6 with just the iron oxide rubbed on  then finished with a wax to get that sheen.  

[preeta]

yappy i dont know about you but with me if i am not really connected/interested i dont want to proceed. so instead of just choosing something spend some time looking at cone 6 ware and see what characteristics call out to you. 

so what i'd do is first look at what kind of surfaces you like and then choose 5.

think of characteristics - contrast - light dark, shiny matte, translucent/opaque 

the easiest is to use same base and add colorants to them.

john britts book was overwhelming for me. a lot of pictures of glazes used would not happen with a beginning student. you'd have to do more. however i did read the book when i was trying to learn my materials. 

btw - do another check in. are you really invested in learning about glazes. i mean in depth or would you rather put more attention to form. 

if you find glazing wonderful while one base glaze with colourants is a great start - that's what it is.  to know more you should  try out others. 

or you can just choose one glaze and spend your life focused on nuances of that - that john britt is now doing with shino - at ^10 though. 

or you could be like sunshine cobb. know what you want. dont want to mix your glazes and so you buy premade glazes but dont follow the rules.  sunshine overfires her glazes to get her look over stamping.  she did have to test a lot initially. 

for myself while i love the headiness of glaze testing, where i find i spend most of my time is at the wheel drawing in air. however since i am at school and already have the glazes, i'd choose the ugly one, the ones made in small buckets that dont get remade the rest of the semester. 

[yappystudent]

On 8/2/2018 at 5:57 AM, GEP said:

If you are firing to cone 6, here’s a reliable base recipe for making glossy glazes.

Glossy Base

23 EPK

29 Silica

46 Gerstley Borate

2 Soda Ash

 

I will try this. -TY. 

 

On 8/2/2018 at 8:27 AM, oldlady said:

cannot figure out why it removes a word if i want to insert one. 

Try tapping the Insert key it usually stops/starts inserting that way. 

On 8/2/2018 at 7:26 AM, dhPotter said:

Must have a very accurate method of weighing ingredients.

I have a digital postal scale from USPS that cost around $50, used it when I sold on ebay a few years back. 

On 8/2/2018 at 8:17 AM, oldlady said:

this subject has been covered several times, try search , well, that hardly ever works for anything even if you know the title of the post you want.

agreed, it has. The problem for me, and somehow I suspect not just me, is being blinded by science and not knowing where to start. 

On 8/2/2018 at 10:35 AM, Min said:

How helpful have the staff been at Georgies?

Very helpful, except that telling them "I've never made a glaze before and don't know where to start" is probably pretty withering for them and makes them lose their will to live, judging from the look in their eyes. I have no complaints with Georgie's they are great: well-stocked, helpful and affordable (unlike another shop I had to deal with, namely the only one in the state of Idaho...pretty sure they gave being unhelpful their best effort just for fun.)

On 8/2/2018 at 11:15 AM, lgusten said:

This is so timely,  I am making my shopping list for my raw materials part of the studio.  Monday is the day I am planning a day trip to Highwater Clay in Asheville, NC to  make my purchase.  They have a technician there who should be able to talk to me more in depth about the materials.  

Just ordered John Britt's Complete Guide to mid range Glazes.  I will go through those recipes and narrow down my list of materials.  I will share it when I am done. Looked at the Cone 5-6 Glazes book of the Ceramic Arts Handbook series...it is just OK.... 

Like Min says, apart from the materials and a couple of other things....other stores have them at cheaper prices.  Don't underestimate what you may find at thrift stores like Goodwill and Habitat Restore.  Found lots of items for molding, impressions, foam  for not a lot of money.  Our Habitat also has a senior discount day for all those over 60.  I have found the most stuff at Habitat.

I use different oxides and water to add color to my work...it is not a glaze but I have used it instead as a final finish to get a desired look  or  under a glaze to tweak the color in the glaze.   I have added some pics.  The one with iron oxide was fired at cone 6 with just the iron oxide rubbed on  then finished with a wax to get that sheen.  

Yes we are in the same boat. Please do share those recipes, along with the ones others have shared it's much appreciated. Interesting pics, I'm actually wanting to produce a green like the one shown, a basic 'sea green/sea mist' etc. What did you do to get that if you don't mind sharing?.

Whenever buying stuff I hit the thrift stores first, Restore (what they call the Habitat stores here) and dollar stores first. Nearly all my impression-making stuff comes from those, and quite a few odd tools. I have also shelled out for the occasional high end tool (my brand new glaze screen, aforementioned scale, etc. I spent some time last night making my own impression-making rollers, and I use the back of flooring tiles for industrial impressions. Fun stuff there. 

On 8/2/2018 at 4:36 AM, Babs said:

What cone are you firing to?

Gloss, satin matte matter finish?

Glaze with only red iron and water....Don't think that would make a glaze Yappy student!!

Cone 5-6

Mainly going for a satin-semi-satin/matte ideally. 

Ha! pls see the picture below, this is only red iron oxide and water, fired once at .06? and again at around ^7,  oxidation. It's over a red clay body. 

 

[yappystudent]

Update: 

I went to Georgie's and picked up a several bags of dry ingredients based on member's advice and georgie's, and my desire to start with some kind of green-greeny-blue 'sea mist' type satin glazes. I bought the smallest bag of w/e they had that was required by two recipes I found online as well. It was a bit of an outlay of cash needless to say but I'm looking forward to putting them to use. 

[Babs]

Wow yappy that red iron and water is a stunner:/))

Looks Good on that bonsai  pot, still not sure re. Glaze.....

So what is your list of purchases??

[yappystudent]

List of bought items. Since I had nothing...anything I missed?

kaolin EPK
silica
gerstley borate
magnesium borate
copper oxide
copper carbonate
dolomite
cornwall stone
zircopax
frit -ferro 3124
wollastonite w30
minspar
bentonite
calcium carbonate
zinc oxide
epsom salt/magnesium sulfate

[lgusten]

I got the John Britt book and selected glazes similar to ones I have used before:   1 clear (Easy E Clear), 1 Manganese Bronze,  1 blue green (Arrowmont Blue Green) and 1 more matte green (Pinell Strontium Matte 1).   I have made glaze before...but this is my first "glaze kitchen".   Went through the list of materials on the High Water Clay site..selected them according to the recipes then after perusing a few more recipes chose some other materials to have on hand to test other glazes.  The Britt book can be overwhelming....but I took a deep breath, went back to it Then to the store I went this morning....Jennifer is the technical person at Highwater Clay who helped me go through my list and come up with some realistic amounts to get started.  I will have a small kiln and I like to brush on glazes, so I won't need to be making big 5 gallon buckets of glaze.  She was so helpful on selecting some of the materials given the recipes have a generic name and there are a ew to choose from.  So there are a few that I got 10 lbs of but mostly 1 got 1 and 5lbs.  The cobalt stuff, luckily was sold at 1/2 lb.  When I settle on a couple of glazes, I'll go back and stock up.  This batch should help me get started.   

Here's what I got:

Nepheline Syenite        Bentonite                                  Cobalt Carbonate                 Strontium Carbonate                      Dolomite

Silica 325                            OM4 (Ball Clay)                     Copper Carbonate               Grolleg Kaolin                                     Black Copper Oxide

EPK (Kaolin)                     Red Art                                        Whiting                                       Spanish Red Iron Oxide

Wollastonite                    Gerstley Borate                       Lithium Carbonate              Cobalt Oxide

Frit 3124                            Manganese Dioxide              Titanium Dioxide                  Custer Feldspar

Now I have to organize and get these in place.  Getting very excited about this.  

Yappy, I do not know what the glaze was that I used for the blue test tile.  It was a green one that was very unappealing to me....so I rubbed some cobalt oxide on my bisque piece then added the green glaze and this was the outcome.  Thinking I may test this with the Pinell Strontium Matte 1.   Like you, I like the satin glazes, so that is what I will be working on.  I hope one of these glazes will work...but I will enjoy the process.