Strontium ...

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

So, I have a big pail of white powder, marked "Strontium Carb?"  Lovely.

Does anyone know any tests I can run to confirm or refute the lable?

 

TIA!

[liambesaw 1,715]

You can try to burn it and see if it makes a bright red flame.  May have to blow a cloud of it through a torch flame.

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

I'm not sure I want to know how you figured that one out, lol!  But I'll give it a try, thank you!

[liambesaw 1,715]

It's used in fireworks (and road flares)

Edited March 18, 2019 by liambesaw

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

Gotcha - thanks again!

 

[Babs 921]

Well mix a small amoubt of glaze  using the strontium carb above mentioned .

If you gavw anotger sourxe of strontium carb mix up same glaze using that .

Place both on pieces of biscuit xlay.

Fire and see if results the same ..

Strontium usually gives vivid blues with copper I think.

Check glazyorg for recipe containing strontium. Used to replace barium carb sometimes

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

Thanks Babs - that was kind of my last resort as I'm a bit neurotic about wasting anything, but I appreciate the advice!

[njabeid 38]

On 3/18/2019 at 6:38 AM, Babs said:

Strontium usually gives vivid blues with copper I think.

 

I use strontium and get wonderful blues with cobalt, but deep greens with copper.

Then one day I expected both these colours on a pot, and found this :

 

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by njabeid

[Babs 921]

9 hours ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

Thanks Babs - that was kind of my last resort as I'm a bit neurotic about wasting anything, but I appreciate the advice!

Well not wasted can make a small amount and if you like glaze well mix bigger batch of that and pour test into bucket. Only a small batch wasted...or some folk pour all their bits and bobs of glazes into one bucket and see how thst fires...

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

Tried that once... putrid green, never again!

[Rae Reich 423]

13 hours ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

Tried that once... putrid green, never again!

Add iron

[njabeid 38]

14 hours ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

Tried that once... putrid green, never again!

It's useful as a liner inside vases with narrow necks!

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

1 hour ago, Rae Reich said:

Add iron

And then what happens, please?

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

31 minutes ago, njabeid said:

It's useful as a liner inside vases with narrow necks!

See!  Another great idea!

 

BTW, that bottom pot is really lovely.  Did you just make up a strontium/ water solution  and a copper/ water solution?

[njabeid 38]

1 hour ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

BTW, that bottom pot is really lovely.  Did you just make up a strontium/ water solution  and a copper/ water solution?

Thanks! It was the same strontium glaze used on the bowls, that gives a nice stony matt surface, but whatever happened in the kiln instead of green and blue it came out turquoise and purple. Go figure!Here it is again.

 I fire at 1,120°C, my base glaze recipe is : FF 3124 - 30%, Neph. Sy - 30%, Sr CO3 - 15%, LiO3 - 5%, Wollastonite - 5%, Kaolin - 10%, silica - 5%

 added 1% cobalt carbonate to some I sprayed on the top and bottom (I suppose, since it turned purple!) and 2% copper carbonate on another batch sprayed on the middle.

[Sheryl Leigh 24]

Arrggh - we fire to  about 1270C to 1336C, depending on the kiln.  Wonder what it would do at those temps?

[Rae Reich 423]

4 hours ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

And then what happens, please?

Sorry, a joke from the days when no scrap of glaze went unused. All went into one bucket, a test fired, and if/when disappointing, enough red iron oxide was added to make an iron saturate liner glaze.  

[Mark C. 3,831]

Strontium glaze is like Baruim glaze in as much as the results vary a lot fire to fire.

[liambesaw 1,715]

10 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

Strontium glaze is like Baruim glaze in as much as the results vary a lot fire to fire.

Thats for sure!  I have one that does such crazy unpredictable things every time, it's getting old!  It's supposed to be a turquoise matte, which it is sometimes...  Sometimes it's glossy, sometimes it's a crater glaze, sometimes it's blue.  You can see in this picture that covering it with a rutile saturated glaze results in a dry matte!  Usually that rutile glaze causes running on other matte glazes!  Craziness I tell you!

 

[Mark C. 3,831]

If you want troule use these type of glazes-the eception is they can look fantastic-just not dependable ,repeatable every time.

I cut my front teeth on and use every week rutile glazes in my high fire kiln.

I like the results and can take the woes-some cannot.

[Babs 921]

7 hours ago, liambesaw said:

Thats for sure!  I have one that does such crazy unpredictable things every time, it's getting old!  It's supposed to be a turquoise matte, which it is sometimes...  Sometimes it's glossy, sometimes it's a crater glaze, sometimes it's blue.  You can see in this picture that covering it with a rutile saturated glaze results in a dry matte!  Usually that rutile glaze causes running on other matte glazes!  Craziness I tell you!

 

Well it. Will depend on the two recipes but you have to fettle any bubbles formed at glazing time or they just stau there.

Min advised spraying top of glaze in bucket with hairspray to disperse any bubbles there between stirring and dipping pots.

Mine is very sensitive to glaze thickness. 

In gas it would vary from a satin turquoise to a black matte xepending k. Position i. Kiln and atmosphere.

One glaze a link and blue used to spit off the pot onto shelf. It was banned . Cant remember recipe but beautiful when it did what was expected.

C'est la vie!.. not boring

[njabeid 38]

14 hours ago, liambesaw said:

I have one that does such crazy unpredictable things every time, it's getting old!

Maybe that's why the other day I used a leftover from last year, clearly labelled "Sr base + blue" and got a glossy clear result!!

[Rae Reich 423]

18 hours ago, liambesaw said:

Thats for sure!  I have one that does such crazy unpredictable things every time, it's getting old!  It's supposed to be a turquoise matte, which it is sometimes...  Sometimes it's glossy, sometimes it's a crater glaze, sometimes it's blue.  You can see in this picture that covering it with a rutile saturated glaze results in a dry matte!  Usually that rutile glaze causes running on other matte glazes!  Craziness I tell you!

 

Try the rutile under, maybe it'll run first. 

[liambesaw 1,715]

I'll have to try that!  But I mean, I have another mug with the same combo where the rutile caused the strontium glaze to go glossy too, it's just so dang weird.

Edited March 20, 2019 by liambesaw

[njabeid 38]

22 hours ago, Sheryl Leigh said:

Wonder what it would do at those temps?

My recipe would run straight off your pots, but there are lots of recipes out there for your firing temperatures with strontium in them. Strontium is used to replace barium, which is toxic. It doesn't give colours as brilliant as barium, but can be pretty good! You really need to make some test tiles and try out all sorts of blends and tweaks until you get the surface texture and colour response you like.