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Accidental Clear Spearmint


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DO NOT MAKE GLAZE WHEN SLEEP DEPRIVED

So... I've made this one glaze a few times, a spearmint, and I love it. It has rutile and copper carbonite as colorants. Well, I made a few more litres the other day and glazed and fired and it was clear. Totally clear. I went through my notes and noticed that I did not check off the rutile, so I think I failed to add it. I thought I added the copper carbonite but I really question that since there's not a hint of green. Also, according to my inventory worksheet, I should be out of copper, but I still have some left it the bag. I did add it to the other glaze I was making, but wonder if I missed it on this one too...

So 2 questions

1/ Is it possible for a spearment to go clear after forgetting Rutile (6%) or must I have forgotten copper as well?

2/ If I did add copper, and I chuck in some more, is this a risk? It's 4%.

Thank you brilliant potter friends!

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If you had skipped the rutile but not the copper, you would have gotten a transparent green. I think you skipped them both.

If you have only glazed a few pots with the new batch, you can still add the rutile and copper. Then re-sieve the whole batch.

I love listening to audiobooks or baseball games in the studio, but I will turn everything off when measuring glaze materials, so that my brain is not distracted at all. Don't do it when sleepy!

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juliagoolia, you have learned an important thing.   many recipes that have names that represent colors can be made to have other colors.   the recipe is for a BASE glaze, one that comes out clear.  the additions after all the basic ingredients have been combined produce the color.   '

while you still have some of the base glaze, why not try adding a bit of a different color to test it?   try a bit of cobalt carbonate, some mason stain you might have, maybe iron oxide.  testing colors in base glazes can be very rewarding.   if the base glaze works on your clay without any problems, maybe the colored glaze will work also.

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@Juliagoolia  Just curious, was it the spearmint out of Mastering Cone 6 glaze book?  If so, I agree, it is a great recipe.  Seems to perform well on all the clays I use.  It's a lovely olive green on dark clay.    You will have to develop a system when mixing glaze.  I have many of my glazes on a spreadsheet in a plastic sleeve, so I check them off with a dry erase marker after each one is added to the bucket.  If I do not have it on a spreadsheet, I take the time to handwrite it out, then check each one off after adding to the bucket.  And yes, no phones no visitors no nothing. (maybe some tunes!)   And I try not to mix glaze when I am dead tired.  I have made a couple of big ol mistakes.  And like you, I was not quite sure what I did.  

Roberta

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Thank you for all the advice. I actually feel like I've got a system (printed out on a sheet, each item is checked as I add it), but as it turns out, I was anemic (!) hence the exhaustion and sleepiness. I've gone through and checked my quantities and I definitely have more copper in stock than I should, and the new bag of rutile isn't opened. I have a master tracking sheet with quantities for ordering and this has come in handy. So it appears that I failed to add both rutile and copper! I like the ideas of playing with the clear and adding some different colours. I might do that since I now have about 6 litres of it...

The spearmint is John Hesselberth and Ron Roy's as listed in Gabriel Kline's Amazing Glaze. I love it - especially with Alabama Rain. I'll add 2 pics - 1 with Alabama Rain on top, one just as. This is of course, from a batch when I added the colourants...

2.jpg

1.jpg

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I can see now that second mug is unglazed at bottom third...thought it was undercooked Alabama....looks like wise move to leave a run space. Nice!.

Spearmint green with envy at your meticulous logging of materials usedd!

Next life.

Dangling clipboard with" to order"list added to when bag getting down.

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On 6/19/2020 at 8:02 AM, Roberta12 said:

@Juliagoolia  Both mugs are lovely!!!  In the 2nd picture the Alabama Rain is on top of the Spearmint??  Yes, top pic is good ol' Spearmint!  Love your work.  And your inventory system!! Wow!

 

Thanks @Roberta12 Yes - Alabama rain w/10% rutile on spearmint is so fun! And the inventory system is necessary. I live 400km from the supply shop and I don't want to pay for shipping. So I do a lot of work to predict!

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On 6/20/2020 at 4:28 PM, Babs said:

I can see now that second mug is unglazed at bottom third...thought it was undercooked Alabama....looks like wise move to leave a run space. Nice!.

Spearmint green with envy at your meticulous logging of materials usedd!

Next life.

Dangling clipboard with" to order"list added to when bag getting down.

Yes, the Alabama Rain runs on top of the other glazes. It's actually more restrained on the spearmint. On top of chun celadon I actually get drips all the way down handles and to the shelf (from like, the top 3rd of the mug). 

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Yup - light pink. I don't let it get thick because it will pinhole. It seems very very happy on Plainsman 370 which is what I've got above.  I like mixing it with Alberta Yellow as well. I've gotten some pretty lovely swirling goodness from it as a 2nd layer. So far chun celadon is the only one I get drips on, spearmint I get a long consistent pull down, but it's fairly stable on Alberta Yellow and on it's own. (when I chuck Alberta Yellow on top I just get this overall fun swirly pink).

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On 6/22/2020 at 5:06 PM, Juliagoolia said:

Thanks @Roberta12 Yes - Alabama rain w/10% rutile on spearmint is so fun! And the inventory system is necessary. I live 400km from the supply shop and I don't want to pay for shipping. So I do a lot of work to predict!

@JuliagooliaThat is the distance for me as well.  All my friends and family know where the supply house is.....shipping for clay and big chemicals is very expensive.  I pay them in pots!! :D

I mix a Soft Dove Grey, that I thought was aka as Alabama Rain.  It doesn't seem to be pinkish at all.  Maybe it's the 10% rutile you add....I am going to check my recipe.  

 

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49 minutes ago, Min said:

I tinkered with the original Alabama Rain recipe to bring the expansion down. I tested in with 5 and 8 rutile, much pinker with the higher amount. Recipe in this thread if anyone wants it. 

 

Awesome thread. It's fitting well with 370 for me. I ended up going with the 10 after seeing John Britt's experiments with it. Thanks!

 

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I started weighing all my jars and writing the weight on the bottom. +Lid.

This way when I forget if I added something, I can just weigh the whole thing to maybe figure it out.

But this thread has me thinking., Especially if I'm gonna mix larger quantities.....

It would be nice to have a section of gutter or similar, with the chemical names jotted down on it. You can place the chemical in the gutter by the name, so you know what's there. Then dump them all into the bucket in the end.

One gutter section per glaze. No mistakes!

Cheers! Thanks for the brainstorm!

 

Sorce

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