Ben xyz Posted October 17, 2022 Report Share Posted October 17, 2022 Anyone tried this one? Rudy Stoffel’s Opalescent: https://glazy.org/recipes/17931 If so, what color is it? Curious about opalescent glazes in general (was thinking it was only a low fire glazing process). Had studied ceramics with a Rudi Staffel who passed away in 2002. Wondering now if it’s a typo (it was pronounced “Stoffel”). A wonderful person and important ceramic artist. http://www.rudolfstaffel.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly in AK Posted October 18, 2022 Report Share Posted October 18, 2022 I can’t tell you anything about the glaze, except I’ve seen rutile produce pearlescent effects at both cone 6 and cone 10. I just have to agree with you about Rudi Staffel. I went to Tyler for graduate school about ten years after he retired. The ripples he made in that pond were still being felt. A lot of good. I was most surprised with how photos of his work simply do not do it justice. The photographs are beautiful, detailed, sumptuous, they’re not misrepresenting the pots at all. There is something about the scale and intimacy, the way he manipulated porcelain so delicately and humanly, I couldn’t really appreciate until I saw the actual pieces. Roberta12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben xyz Posted October 18, 2022 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2022 (edited) Had gotten my BFA from Tyler. Nice to hear the waters were still rippling after Rudi left. I agree that the photography on the website, though good technically, is not like seeing the work in person. Glad his ceramic achievements and vision resonated with you as well, Kelly. Btw, I think I was confusing the term opalescent w/ pearlescent (which would be an effect done on low fire, as I understand it, like lusters). Haven’t done much in the way of ceramics since college, so still a newbie, of sorts. Edited October 18, 2022 by Ben xyz Added comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted October 18, 2022 Report Share Posted October 18, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, Ben xyz said: Btw, I think I was confusing the term opalescent w/ pearlescent (which would be an effect done on low fire, as I understand it, lik This may help, spent one summer working with Bristol glazes at cone 6. Fairly similar recipe as posted with the simple concept of taking a titanium matte and making it a bit of a runny matte to capture the refraction of the crystals as they accumulated. End result blues and violets and a touch more towards red / yellow with a tiny bit of iron. Variations around the zinc base and melting point more so around the amount of boron. Some samples below, if this is the look you are interested in I will attempt to locate the trials I have and post. Edited October 18, 2022 by Bill Kielb Roberta12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted October 18, 2022 Report Share Posted October 18, 2022 Just because I’m going over this a bit with someone else, here’s some thoughts on this glaze. It’s got a lot of hallmarks of glazes that exhibit boron clouding. There’s an explainer here, from digitalfire. The numbers on the Staffel glazes see a bit high in the alumna department which usually will kill it, but the zinc may be extending the melt time, giving the calcium/boron crystals a chance to grow. Roberta12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben xyz Posted October 20, 2022 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2022 Thanks Bill and Callie. There is a glaze at the studio that has a similar nature which I’ll be exploring. Pretty amazing looking bowl, Bill - sort of “Outer Limits”. Time for me to do more testing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted October 21, 2022 Report Share Posted October 21, 2022 (edited) On 10/20/2022 at 4:21 PM, Ben xyz said: that has a similar nature which I’ll be exploring. Pretty amazing looking bowl, Bill - sort of “Outer Limits”. Time for me to do more testing! Thanks the bowl is only a test bowl to get an idea of performance as it pools. This one crawled. Just an FYI if it helps……... This glaze started out without boron as a Bristol glaze (typically zinc, 0.2-0.4 in a 0.7 RO base) and actually used rutile which added more random coloring. The desired result was tinting or subtle refraction of blue / violet and it did this fairly well without boron. It was designed as a true matte and boron was used to make it a bit runny ( much less tan 0.15 boron at cone 6), so runny matte crystals produced the subtle refractive color or hue. we spent most of our time removing zinc and experimenting with titanium rather than rutile to get more repeatability. It was fairly consistent and controllable in small ranges but was very sensitive to temperature in the end. 1 full cone over fired would make it go very matte and very golden. Post what you discover if possible, it was a fun glaze to experiment with for a summer and played well with many other glazes. Edited October 22, 2022 by Bill Kielb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina Hayes Pottery Posted January 15, 2023 Report Share Posted January 15, 2023 On 10/17/2022 at 5:57 PM, Ben xyz said: Anyone tried this one? Rudy Stoffel’s Opalescent: https://glazy.org/recipes/17931 If so, what color is it? Curious about opalescent glazes in general (was thinking it was only a low fire glazing process). Had studied ceramics with a Rudi Staffel who passed away in 2002. Wondering now if it’s a typo (it was pronounced “Stoffel”). A wonderful person and important ceramic artist. http://www.rudolfstaffel.com/ I'm the one who entered this formula on glazy. I obtained it from a Wallingford Art Center Potter spelled the way I entered it in glazy. I have to agree that that maybe it could be attributed to Rudi Staffel, especially given Wallingford's proximity to Philadelphia. It's a reliable glaze on cone 6 stoneware, Iron containing bodies do yield a milky opalescent effect. It's more of a milky clear on porcelain. This glaze is similar to the whitish glaze you see on Suzanne Kent's earlier work featuring her classic oxide strokes. I have a few of her pieces and to me this glaze seems similar to the glaze on her older work. I don't know for certain if this is the glaze she was using, just a guess. If you goggle her pottery you can find pics of her work. Hope this helps! Tina Hayes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben xyz Posted January 16, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2023 9 hours ago, Tina Hayes Pottery said: I'm the one who entered this formula on glazy. I obtained it from a Wallingford Art Center Potter spelled the way I entered it in glazy. I have to agree that that maybe it could be attributed to Rudi Staffel, especially given Wallingford's proximity to Philadelphia. It's a reliable glaze on cone 6 stoneware, Iron containing bodies do yield a milky opalescent effect. It's more of a milky clear on porcelain. This glaze is similar to the whitish glaze you see on Suzanne Kent's earlier work featuring her classic oxide strokes. I have a few of her pieces and to me this glaze seems similar to the glaze on her older work. I don't know for certain if this is the glaze she was using, just a guess. If you goggle her pottery you can find pics of her work. Hope this helps! Tina Hayes Thanks Tina! Nice work to have in your collection. Had not been familiar with Kent's work before. This does help and look forward to trying the recipe out. Appreciate you posting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.