QotW: Do you rework all of your glazes or do you use a liner glaze or some other fix after changing clay bodies?

[Pres]

Hi folks, no new questions in the pool for the QotW, sooo. . . .once again- I have been thinking about my use of a liner glaze, and how things change with the amount of opacifier, and the quality of the opacifier in the liner glaze. Presently I am using a liner glaze from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes that I have added Zircopax, tin oxide and rutile to. This gives me a nice light buttery glaze that works well with my clays and other glazes. It is very resilient and moves very little. I started using it when I left SC 112 and started working with SC 630 and the SC Hazelnut. The main reason for it was the Hazelnut as my other glazes came out very poorly on the darker body. I decided the easiest correction was a base liner glaze. That also opened up other possibilities as wet wiping to expose some of the hazelnut and even sgraffito through the base glaze gave me more decorating options.

So just wondering, , QotW: Do you rework all of your glazes or do you use a liner glaze or some other fix after changing clay bodies?

best,

Pres

[Callie Beller Diesel]

The last time I changed clays, I had to change all of my glazes at the same time because I went from cone 10 to cone 6, in addition to going from a white clay to a much darker one.

I found working on darker clays in general was a shift in thinking about decoration. The darker clay is a much more active player, as opposed to a passive canvas I find. You really have no choice but to work with it, rather than trying to overcome it. Even in decoration styles where you’re covering the red clay with a white slip in order to add brighter colours, there’s still evidence of it.  For me, it was a whole mindset shift when it came to decorating. 

[GEP]

When I switched clay bodies about 9 years ago, the new clay was slightly overfired at the same firing schedule, so I had to tweak the firing schedule and one of my glazes. I am now switching clay again right now, and all of my tests so far show that I don’t need to tweak anything this time. 

Edited January 10, 2022 by GEP