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QotW:What glaze expectations/conceptions did you bring with you when setting up your studio and how have these evolved.?


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I have seen a lot of reference of late on the forum talking about commercial glazes, or homemade, and the reasoning behind using each. As there has not been a new question of late in the question pool, I will pose one based on that observation, and an assumption about the choices.

My question for all of you out there is What glaze expectations/conceptions did you bring with you when setting up your studio and how have these evolved.?

My very first introduction to ceramics as something someone would make in the family came from my parents when we were in Hawaii, stationed at Hickam AFB. The community center on base must have had some sort of ceramics class, that my mother would go to. She would bring the bisqueware home and carefully glaze them with little bottles of glaze, and eventually my father would be helping hre out or making some of his own. Those little bottle would be cleaned out completely and horded for the next project. They would constantly be discussing how one or the other would work and how it was supposed to look when finished. It kind of reminded me of the paint by number sets we would have around the house on occasion. Flash forward to My first college class where glaze were in 5 gallon buckets, and brushing onto a pot in many cases was almost. . taboo. These glazes were not premade, but made by the professor and his few preferred students. We would dip and slosh, pour and splatter, put banana peels on top of pieces, sprinkle in nuts or bits of glass, all sorts of things. It was freedom of a new sort, and full of magic and mystery. Then I started teaching at a HS where the glazes came in bottles, larger by far than what my parents had, but still premade from Amaco. We had maybe 20 different ones, and they were precious to our budget, as for the size of our classes every penny counted. I eventually moved the program into house made glazes, a series of recipes that required a limited number of materials but with enough flexibility to have much more than ever before in the way of glaze variety. I did overcome some of my prejudices for premixed materials when I started buying engobes or underglazes for greater color and brushing decoration on some of the student pieces.

So once again QotW:What glaze expectations/conceptions did you bring with you when setting up your studio and how have these evolved.?

 

best,

Pres

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Going through K-12 schooling, we did essentially no clay work.   We had a single project, my Junior year, and those projects weren't fired, because our high school did not have a kiln. 

My Dad was originally an Art teacher as well, with an emphasis in Ceramics.  He learned from a guy, who was a former student of Hamada.  They were all about altering their thrown forms, and splattering on glazes and oxides in large motions with large brushes or nasal aspirators.  So I grew up seeing those glazed wares around the house (Some of which did not survive my siblings and myself).

When I finally took Ceramics in college, we had the studio glazes in the large Rubbermaid garbage cans.  Not a *huge* selection, but I liked most of them, and since they were fired in reduction, nothing too "bright", more aged looking, which I liked.

When I started teaching, we had mostly bottled glazes, and quite a few of them.  It was a good variety and catered to pretty much any student's taste.  We also had underglazes, which I was previously unfamiliar with.  We talked about engobes and colored slips, in college, but not underglazes. 

I did quite a bit of experimenting with those glazes, and encouraged students to do the same, to figure out some interesting combinations.  We also had some bucket glazes, that my predecessor really liked.  Turns out, I like them as well, because I still use them fifteen years later, and at a completely different School District.

My Dad gave me a couple nasal aspirators my first year teaching, to use in my classroom (He is still a big fan of them).

At my second District, all the glazes were in five gallon buckets, and there was a way smaller selection.  I liked the colors personally, but the students opted for underglaze, which gave them more color selection.

My current classroom is more like my first.  We have a good selection of bottled glazes and underglazes to choose from.  I do have those couple of glazes I mentioned, in buckets, though I probably use them more than the students do.  Despite my insistence on the ease of dipping and pouring, the students are more comfortable with applying a color, using a brush like they have been doing since Pre-K, and I don't fault them for that. 

Currently, I personally lean towards dipping and pouring glazes, because it just works so well!  If I'm doing an intricate design with underglaze, then I'll bust out a palette and some fine watercolor brushes.  But if I'm glazing, point me to the large vat of earth-toned liquid!

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I bought my house in 1973 and converted the old one car wooden (no floor or windows or power) to my studio. It needed lots of work. after it was up and running after a summer of work I built a catanary gas kiln and started making my own stineware glazes. I was having fun at that point. Nothing commercial in mind then. Just making pots. Kiln bricks where free salvage.

In time I need to pay the gas bill. Glaze materials where a 12 hour drive over the golden gate into San Francisco .Getting there was long -they where cheap.I loved stoneware and matt glazes then (still do).Went thru the huge learning curve of glaze fits and body coring. All along I was in college expanding my knowledge-My only expectaition was paying the mortgage of $154 a month-I rented out a bedroom for $75. The rest fell into place.Still on same acre property -studio has an addition and the cat kiln is long gone.

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When I set up my studio, I had not yet discovered surface design.  All I knew was that I liked bright colors.  The community studio had commercial glazes, but a friend taught me to mix my own.  I went through years and years of mixing up all sorts of samples trying to find the perfect glazes.  I am now in the process of using up some of those older glazes and getting things narrowed down more.  I use lots of clear.  I have bugged @Min and @Callie Beller Diesel about that very glaze.  I love underglaze and the potential it has!!!  However, nothing can replace a lovely temmoku or licorice.  So, yes, I have really shifted as far as what glazes I mix, and what I am using.  

Roberta

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Back in the 80s I was in love with making clay bodies and glazes (large gas kiln, mostly). BFA ceramics program-made all of the studio clay and all of the studio glazes-a nice variety, great recipes, & was taught the history and chemistry & attributes along with each one. Also did about a year of formulating personal mixtures. I was older than everyone else-in my late 30's.-a single mom on welfare & at the mercy of  voc rehab, since the state was willing to pay part of my education if I was willing to work in graphic art (I had experience). That job necessitated a major detour from ceramics -I needed those hardship deferments! So clay got shelved while I worked on box die designs/print media. A second detour came in the form of a "call" to get trained in and provide addiction treatment (I'll spare you the backstory). After my M.S. I had a long & satisfying career in public addiction & mental health services. I kept painting & taking photos-strong interests-but no ceramics. When I retired (NH) my intention was to return to clay and my landlord let me set up a full small studio & on-site kiln. Between financial, space, spinal/other body issues, brain issues (minor TBI) and a few other things one deals with in one's 70's, my glaze-making dreams are not on the menu. I am content, and very well pleased, actually, with commercial materials, which I had never used. I've lost so much due to the TBI that I am extremely grateful to be able to do anything at all!! At first I was feeling sorry for myself, being "reduced" to making those fool herb markers & glazing w/Stroke & Coat, but I am getting over it and rising to the occasion. (Guess I'm not going to be giving Peter Voulkos a run for his money after all.) I have gotten to use some local ceramists' high fire  glazes, via John Baymore's anagama firings. I can coast on those awesome experiences (the shino's & celedons are lovely) for a long time. If TMI, sorry 'bout that. Mood I'm in.

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Glaze expectations... hmmmm....

Well, from the very beginning I was mixing my own glazes, simply because of the cost of commercial glazes.   I knew it was going to be more difficult, but I didn't expect that 4 years later I'd still be looking for a clear glaze that fits my clay body.  I don't do a ton of things that require a clear glaze, but have been moving in that direction the past year, so every few months I try a new clear glaze to see if it's the magic one.  Of course, since I'm looking for a clear that:

1) plays well on red body (clears bubbles well, zinc works here)

2) does not bleach out underglazes (zinc does not work here)

3) and fits on my clay body (low expansion)

I unfortunately have not found the magical combination of oxides that fills all three, but have found several that fulfill two of the three.

So I guess my expectations were that it would be difficult, but at the same time I figured I'd have a suitable clear by now.  Go figure!

My next project is to modify a MC6G base recipe to be lower expansion by substituting spodumene (expensive) for some feldspar. I think this will work.

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Even in high school, we didn't do commercial glazes because the minerals to mix were so much less expensive, and my art teacher made a point of getting to know every working artist she could in the region so that she could bring her students knowledgeable resources. Artist As Full Time Job was not an alien concept to me, because she made a point of bringing artists in for demos and other opportunities if she could talk them into it.  I remember job shadowing a potter for a day, and he wasn't totally sure what to do with me, so he got me to sieve his tests he'd weighed out the day before, and dip the tiles. I'm not totally sure where Mrs. Watrin got her glaze recipes from, but I assume it was from some of the local potters and books. She didn't have a lot of ceramic knowledge herself, but she made a point of learning from those who did. In those high school classes we did a lot of raku, so I learned to fire and understand glaze melt and heat work by watching raku glazes mature in a barrel kiln fired with a tiger torch. It was an actual real world application of the redox reactions I was learning about in chemistry!

That then inspired me to go to art school, where there were only glazes mixed in house. As part of our second year (first year of full time major), we had to learn to mix and maintain one of the shop glazes (50 kg batches) for the year, under the supervision of the department tech. We had a glaze technology class, which wasn't as thorough as I liked. The instructor felt he had to balance the needs of the technically minded with the artists who were afraid of all the math, but it was all based on the assumption we'd be mixing our own. He had been taught with the idea that "real" potters mixed their glazes themselves, so commercial products of any kind were treated as completely inferior. Even Mason stains were kinda shady! The chemistry part of glaze mixing has been useful all my life, the ridiculous biases about what "real" potters do and don't do.... not so much. I was assigned to learn line blends on a cone 04 glaze that I have never used before or since. The rest of my college work was all with high fire reduction, soda and some wood. There was no consideration given to what facilities we'd have access to after we graduated, so I was used to blungers and Soldner mixers and hand cranked sieves, none of which were available very abruptly at the end of 4 years.

When I graduated, access to working spaces were limited, so I spent a lot of years in dodgy unheated garage studios. In Calgary, that means you don't work for a lot of months of the year because a space heater isn't enough to keep everything from freezing. Every fall I'd loose a board or two of mugs because I didn't check the frost warnings, and every spring I had to dig out and reconstitute glazes after they'd thawed.  Because we moved very couple of years as renters, I tried to keep my equipment minimal and my glaze repertoire under 5 glazes, with as many overlapping ingredients as I could. This is pretty cheap and easy to do at cone ten, fortunately. I also found it helpful to limit my palette to keep from being overwhelmed with choices come glaze day. I have mostly been obliged to work with low technology means because I've never had a lot of space or much of a budget to work with. 

 Moving into a converted basement bedroom meant I could work full time, but I had (and still have) limited space, so I still have to keep the gadgets and the buckets under control.  I do now own a good corded drill that helps with mixing and reclaim,  but I haven't added much to the sieves, scale and various whisks, spoons and scoops I started with. The banding wheel was a surprisingly nice addition though. When I switched to cone 6,I thought it was only going to be for the summer as an experiment. I picked up a commercially mixed clear base glaze with an open source recipe so that I could adjust it if necessary, and played around with some underglazes for the first time! It was fun, but I didn't stick with the graphic look of them. It turns out the base glaze was a lousy clear on red clay, but it's got some beautiful colour response as a translucent! I still buy the base because it saves a heck of a lot of time, and just add colourants, including mason stains. I currently have 3 main glazes in large buckets, and 6 ice cream pails of accent glazes, which is probably the most I've ever worked with on a regular basis. I've been poking around a little with some tests of coloured slips, but I have to see if the people want to buy a lot if it before I commit to bigger batches of those.

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