Mason Stain Delft Blue

[MindyKay]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has used this stain from Mason Color. Yes, I could just purchase it and do it myself, but I wanted to ask if any one has used it to get it's tone profile. Is it a blue purple as it looks, or is still a red purple?

[Min]

Host glaze and temperature influences how a stain turns out so there isn't going to be a definite answer to this question. I looked up Delft and Mason provided the following:

"Cobalt Tin Alumina Blue Spinel, an inorganic pigment, is the reaction product of high temperature calcination in which Aluminum (III) Oxide, Cobalt (II) Oxide, and Tin (IV) Oxide in varying amounts are homogeneously and ionically interdiffused to form a crystalline matrix of spinel. Its composition may include either one or both of the modifiers SiO2, or ZnO."

Given that it contains alumina, cobalt oxide and tin with silica and zinc I would expect it to be good for brushwork,  if it contained cobalt silicate instead of cobalt oxide brushwork would have a tendency to blur or bleed. If your base glaze contains a high amount of magnesium this stain probably would tend to result in a purple blue. Looking at Mason's reference guide it appears that in the blue section of colours only Willow contains both chrome and tin which could in theory make a blue with a reddish tone in a high calcium base glaze. Also from the reference chart the Delft stain should be fine when fired up to 2300F and is okay with or without zinc in the base glaze.