Can you use low fire glazes with mid-range clay?

[francescap]

Hi everyone, 

I am new to pottery and I'm just about to buy some glazes. I am wondering - can you use low fire glazes with mid-range clay? 

What type glazes should you use with mid-range clay?

Thank you!

[oldlady]

welcome to the forums!   this is a good place to learn a lot.

it may be too early to buy glazes.   where are you working, your own studio or a public location?   if not in your own studio, the person in charge will probably want you to use their recommended glazes if you are using their kiln.   the short answer is, it depends.   there are long discussions about this here on the forum.   some work but the usual answer is that low fire glazes are made for low fire clay.  mid range glazes, usually marked cone 6   NOT CONE 06 will work on cone 6 clay.  read every label!

if you are on your own, and have a kiln, you would be wise to learn as much as you can before firing anything you glaze.   there are wonderful books covering basic pottery at the library.  look for the big ones that look like textbooks.  some have been around since the 1970s and the info still applies.  basic handling of clay on the wheel or hand building are covered.

there are videos, of course, some of which show the disasters that happen to people who fire the wrong thing at the wrong temperature.   melted clay and glaze ruin a lot of kilns.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

It depends on what you’re making. The answer to most things in ceramics is “it depends,” which can be really maddening, but it’s because there’s a lot of moving parts. 

For a beginner, no, it’s not a good idea to mix cone 06 glazes with cone 6 clay. While there is a way to do it, it’s non-standard practice, and this is one of those times where it’s necessary to learn the rules before you try breaking them. Unless you have someone who can walk you through it properly, and it’ll add to the likelihood something will go catastrophically wrong with your piece and/or you can wreck $$$  kiln furniture. It’s not a comment on you or anyone else as a learner, it’s that there’s soo many points where stuff that can go wrong. Have mercy on yourself, because learning to work with clay is all about finding every possible way to eff it up. 

For more intermediate or advanced folks, you can do things like downfire  which is when you fire at the maturation of the clay body (with or without a cone 6 glaze), and then do subsequently cooler refirings, layering on lowfire glazes, decals, lustre, china paint, etc.  You have to figure out a LOT of other parts of your process first. This is getting kinda fancy. Artists who do this include Mariko Paterson and Katy Drijber. (@foragestudios and @kdrijber on instagram for images) 

The advanced class: There are some folks who push the firing limits of earthenware glazes hotter than standard, but still cooler than mid fire. These folks have a strong understanding of their materials, and are seeing how far they can go. But usually they’re doing it to make  earthenware clays less porous, or they’re trying to get some specific runny glaze effects. You need to do a LOT of testing to figure out exactly how your chosen materials work together, and make a lot of cookies to catch glaze drips. 

[Chilly]

As the answers above, you can try, but be prepared for failure, and protect your kiln.

It's a bit like asking can I put petrol in a diesel engined car?  Why would you?  People before you have spent 1,000 years working out what works with what, you don't need to spend a lifetime re-trying it.  

Have faith in ceramic history, unless you have absolutely nothing bette to do.

[Magnolia Mud Research]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:32 PM, francescap said:

I am wondering - can you use low fire glazes with mid-range clay? 

A former colleague and I used cone 04 commercial glazes on cone 10 reduction fired ware.  we mostly used a commercial cone 04 clear glaze to which we added various oxides to produce color, etc. NO problem! application was not thick, nor was it thin.  We started this after about several semesters of using studio cone 10 glazes and had gained an understanding of glaze application and how glazes can become a mess instead of a success.  

My recommendation is to follow the syllabus of you teacher.  
Glazing is 99% application, and the 1% is all the rest.  Once you become comfortable with glaze application and understand how application effects outcome, then begin you own research of breaking the standard formats.  

LT