NancyE Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Hello, I am new to the forum and I already see answers to many questions I have been pondering. I have been an amateur potter for many years, and now as I am reaching retirement I want to work more seriously on my skills. I also like to experiment. I have access to boxes of out of date medications, and currently have thousands of iron tablets, and potassium tablets I thought might be fun to play with in glazing. Has anyone else ever done this or knows of anyone who has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 I suppose the short answer is test it and see. I do wonder how much iron is actually in the tablets though. If it’s measured in milligrams it might not be in a large enough quantity to be practical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyK Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Welcome to the forum Nancy...I would guess that, like Callie says, the amount of iron or potassium in the pills would be inconsequential when it came to the glazes. The problem that I would see is the amount and composition of the fillers that are used to make the pills... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Go for it! Nothing hurt by testing them. I'ld weigh out X grams of them and slake them down in water then add that to your glaze water. (keep track of weights so you can replicate something if it turns out) I could see the iron being more useful in a glaze than the potassium pills. The iron might be so fine a grade that it might not speckle in a glaze, the potassium will be adding a flux so depending on how much you add it will increase the chance of both crazing and running. Organic fillers will burn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Iron pills are ferrous sulfate, you can see the wiki here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II)_sulfate They decompose into sulfur and iron at 572f, but at 65-300mg per pill you're going to end up with a very small amount of iron. The cool thing is that ferrous sulfate is green, and so are glazes low in iron, so maybe you'll end up with a glaze with a slightly green tinge! The bad part is that since they are a sulfate they'll release some pesky gas in firing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted February 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Thanks to everyone for your quick response. I appreciate the friendly and knowledgeable advice. I forgot to tell you that I use an electric kiln and usually glaze fire to cone 6. Since I recently had to replace all my elements after a kiln mishap while firing local fossils (I made lava), I'm concerned about any off gassing that would coat the new elements. After looking at the post about the pennies fired in clear glaze, I might start by dropping a whole tablet in the bottom of a cup. I recently bought an old kiln for a hundred dollars that I might dedicate to experiments when I get it going. Some interesting things are happening when I fire local clay and stone. I will gladly post photos if anyone is interested in them. Again thanks, Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 as odd an experiment as you can think of, it has already been done. never worry that you will be considered strange here, we all are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeU Posted February 25, 2020 Report Share Posted February 25, 2020 On 2/23/2020 at 5:13 PM, NancyE said: I will gladly post photos if anyone is interested in them. Well, yeah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Lake Posted February 26, 2020 Report Share Posted February 26, 2020 I'd also be interested in your findings. I've been wanting to experiment a bit with some local clays, the forums have been very helpful on that topic but new research is always appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted February 26, 2020 Report Share Posted February 26, 2020 Having recently read 'bout all I could find on lithium, petalite, spodumene, etc., I'm curious if lithium prescriptions have been used in glazes. Could be loaded question; I'm just curious 'bout usage in glazes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 26, 2020 Report Share Posted February 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, Hulk said: Having recently read 'bout all I could find on lithium, petalite, spodumene, etc., I'm curious if lithium prescriptions have been used in glazes. Could be loaded question; I'm just curious 'bout usage in glazes. Well lithium medicine is lithium carbonate with binders, so you COULD, but hopefully if you have a lithium prescription you are taking it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted February 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 Hmmm, the well water in our area has lithium in it. I assumed all the minerals in our well would probably be a problem for my glazes, definitely hard to control. Maybe it would be interesting to do some testing. The calcium carbonate is probably in sufficient levels to affect the glazes, although they seem to work well when I'm careful. also 23 hours ago, Marian Lake said: I'd also be interested in your findings. I've been wanting to experiment a bit with some local clays, the forums have been very helpful on that topic but new research is always appreciated! The local clays in my area are purple, gray, red and off white. Unfortunately, I haven't found any substantial deposits of any individual color to make mining them easy. Also, they are dirty with vegetation, rock, dirt and gypsum crystals so I need to set up a system for cleaning it. In the meantime I am playing with grinding some of the rocks to make red, orange and ochre slips for burnishing on my commercial clay. If they seem to fit it well, I then get to play with firing them in my electric kiln (oxidation) vs different approaches to pit firing (reduction). When I had the kiln accident and made lava from some rocks I fired, some really interesting things happened that I would like to explore in a much safer and more controlled approach.:) I'll start taking pictures to post. Also, does anyone know how to straighten warped kiln shelves? Thanks to everyone, Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted February 27, 2020 Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 warped kiln shelves are not even good as stepping stones. but you can break them into pieces for your experiments. they will protect the real shelves while you fire experiments on them. one shelf can make many smaller ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hulk Posted February 27, 2020 Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 Have read about cleaning all the wash off, then using shelves warp side up. However, should the previously used side drop bits onto the work below, suitable only for bottom shelf, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Lake Posted February 27, 2020 Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 18 hours ago, NancyE said: The local clays in my area are purple, gray, red and off white. Unfortunately, I haven't found any substantial deposits of any individual color to make mining them easy. Also, they are dirty with vegetation, rock, dirt and gypsum crystals so I need to set up a system for cleaning it. In the meantime I am playing with grinding some of the rocks to make red, orange and ochre slips for burnishing on my commercial clay. If they seem to fit it well, I then get to play with firing them in my electric kiln (oxidation) vs different approaches to pit firing (reduction). When I had the kiln accident and made lava from some rocks I fired, some really interesting things happened that I would like to explore in a much safer and more controlled approach.:) I'll start taking pictures to post. Also, does anyone know how to straighten warped kiln shelves? Thanks to everyone, Nancy Thanks that’s interesting, is the purple clay that color straight from the ground, or after a reduction firing? I think Lizella clay turns purple in reduction but is orange-ish before firing? I’m looking to use a clay nearby that is similar to Alberta slip, with some frit added to make a cone 6 glaze. It’s a low cost material but it’s fun to experiment with ‘wild’ clays (even if I don't know what I'm doing or where to look most of the time :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 27, 2020 Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 11 minutes ago, Marian Lake said: Thanks that’s interesting, is the purple clay that color straight from the ground, or after a reduction firing? I think Lizella clay turns purple in reduction but is orange-ish before firing? I’m looking to use a clay nearby that is similar to Alberta slip, with some frit added to make a cone 6 glaze. It’s a low cost material but it’s fun to experiment with ‘wild’ clays (even if I don't know what I'm doing or where to look most of the time Lizella is bright yellow, it's a beautiful clay, but very dirty when firing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted February 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2020 Hmmm, the well water in our area has lithium in it. I assumed all the minerals in our well would probably be a problem for my glazes, definitely hard to control. Maybe it would be interesting to do some testing. The calcium carbonate is probably in sufficient levels to affect the glazes, although they seem to work well when I'm careful. also On 2/25/2020 at 9:21 PM, Marian Lake said: I'd also be interested in your findings. I've been wanting to experiment a bit with some local clays, the forums have been very helpful on that topic but new research is always appreciated! I am going to start taking before and after photos. The clay comes out of the ground purple, It turns red with oxidation, I have not done reduction yet. After seeing the Lizella clay, I will never loosely use the word "yellow" around clay again. I made a red slip that bisque fired to a nice red, turned almost black when fired to cone 6. Lots of iron around here. I predict the slips will work better with reduction and lower temps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted March 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2020 Hmmm, the well water in our area has lithium in it. I assumed all the minerals in our well would probably be a problem for my glazes, definitely hard to control. Maybe it would be interesting to do some testing. The calcium carbonate is probably in sufficient levels to affect the glazes, although they seem to work well when I'm careful. also On 2/25/2020 at 9:21 PM, Marian Lake said: I'd also be interested in your findings. I've been wanting to experiment a bit with some local clays, the forums have been very helpful on that topic but new research is always appreciated! I took some photos of raw clay/dirt/rocks, bisque fired to cone 06, fired to cone 6, with and without clear glaze and my lava. I hope this is interesting. I have not refined out any usable clay yet, and I am working on making some slips now. Thanks, Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted March 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2020 Bisque at cone 06 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted March 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2020 cone 06 clear glaze Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted March 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2020 my lava accident Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted March 1, 2020 Report Share Posted March 1, 2020 Looks like a couple fossils in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyE Posted March 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2020 Yes, a lot of fern leaves and other woody plants. Some are in hard rock, but most are soft and would wash out if exposed to water, so I fire them. I think they are turning out really nice. They are in a road cut that is about to be demolished, so I am compulsively trying to dig out what I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted March 2, 2020 Report Share Posted March 2, 2020 7 minutes ago, NancyE said: Yes, a lot of fern leaves and other woody plants. Some are in hard rock, but most are soft and would wash out if exposed to water, so I fire them. I think they are turning out really nice. They are in a road cut that is about to be demolished, so I am compulsively trying to dig out what I can. Well they look very intriguing, nice work there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Lake Posted March 2, 2020 Report Share Posted March 2, 2020 Neat stuff, I wouldn't have expected rocks to fire like that. Especially like the fossil ones with the glaze on it, the yellow ones with the ferns are beautiful. Would love a glaze with that color and depth. Thanks for posting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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