Low-fire , matt or satin, transparent glaze recipe

[Momo]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to make a low-fire matt or satin transparent glaze. Have any of you got a simple recipe? Thank you in advance. 

 

[enbarro]

Not an easy task and most probably not very durable. :( at low firing temperature even many glossy glazes are not durable...  Also,  at low temperature my experiments over the years have yield whitish/milky transparent rather than clear.

You could search for a recipe containing barium (either carbonate or frits like the P-626) or maybe lithium, but I wouldn't use it for functional work. You could try locating this book in a nearby library which has tons of recipes: The Potter's Complete Book of Clay and Glazes: A Comprehensive Guide to Formulating, Mixing, Applying, and Firing Clay Bodies and Glazes Hardcover – May 1, 1991 by James Chappell

You'll probably be better off getting a Duncan or similar pre-made glaze if it's going to be used in functional ware...

You could try using a watered down shinny clear  thin coat and it might give sating enough result specially if there’s an engobe or slip with enough flux underneath it.

This standard clear recipe is semi-glossy but almost sating when fired lower than cone 04, but like most glazes with high percentages of boron it can produced a lot of tiny bubbles, not exactly clear.

Ron Meyers/Daniel Rhodes cone 04 clear

80% frit f3124

10% Silica

10% Kaolin (EPK)

2% Bentonite

 

Here's one I just found doing a google search... but not clear/clear and it needs a special firing program. I might try it, too...

As noted in the comment section: My satin clear glaze uses some weak forms of iron to give it a tone that mutes the colors a little. It softens them a bit. And the glaze isn’t truly ‘clear’. It’s translucent actually. The thing that makes it satin is the crystaline growth. Crystals are opaque. So it’s quite an interesting balance of things that allows the color to come through without making the glaze shiny. A friend who is a ceramic engineer helped me to formulate it. And I fire to cone 1, not 04.' http://www.lisanaples.com/ceramics/recipes/naples-wagner-satin-clear-cone-04/

Naples-Wagner Satin Clear (cone 04)

The Wollastonite is your matting agent here so adjust accordingly

Frit 3134:  40

Lithium Carb:  7

Wollastonite:  25

OM4:  25

Yellow Ochre:  .5

Black Iron Ox: .5

Notes:

1. The Naples-Wagner Satin Clear Glaze should be used at a density of 1.44. Email me if you’d like to purchase a density cup. As a service to the ceramics community, I import the same kind that I use through my ceramic engineer friend, Karla Wagner from an Italian engineering firm. Price bound to change over time (but to give you a ballpark, they were $200 ea. in 2013). For a quote, contact me.
2. In order to get as much satin as possible out of this glaze, it’s best to fire your kiln DOWN. Crystals grow on the cooling cycle between 1900-1400 degrees. I use a final ramp in my firing program that allows for 100 degrees/hour from 1900-1400.

 

[Min]

5 hours ago, Momo said:

low-fire matt or satin transparent glaze

What makes a mature glaze matt is a microcrystalline structure to the glaze. Many matt and satin glazes are just gloss glazes that are underfired and therefore not durable for functional work.  Mature satin glazes are more of a translucent than a transparent as the microcrystalline structure refracts light. Glazy has quite a few recipes. I don't know if you are looking for a glaze for functional or not but either way the Glazy recipes come with the glaze plotted on an UMF chart to give a prediction of it's behaviour. I plunked in lowfire and clear for the search parameters for these ones.

[Babs]

Can' think re. Transparent and matte and satin in same sentence....ref. to glazes.

Bit like having cataracts if the idea is to be able to see through glaze

....

[Rae Reich]

I found this ^06 Clear, Semi-matte (E.G.-81 in James Chappell). I use it on cast white earthenware carved eggs to simulate eggshell. Spraying for the most even application avoids milky looking runs/overlaps.

42.2  Ferro frit 3134

23.3  Wollastonite  

  7.4  Lithium Carb

20.5  EPK

  6.6  Silica

_______

  2.0  Bentonite

I mix my stains into a small amount of this base to paint designs over or under sprayed or dipped glaze

[Momo]

Thanks,  guys!