Glazing Laguna's Brown B3 (cone 5)

[Ben xyz]

Laguna's "Brown B3" (cone 5) fires almost black in oxidation from its manganese and iron, making glazing all the more problematic. Only a couple of the studio's glazes seem hold up to it, more or less; this includes an orange one they call Clockwork. Was told the studio's white slip will work as well, even when applied to bisque ware. Don't have access to materials to make my own glazes right now, but perhaps I can mix a stain into the white slip (trying to accent a stamped/textured surface, by applying and wiping away). Success with any commercial glazes on this clay?

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Most slip that I can think of that you’d apply to bisque is going to fire dry, not glossy. Which is just something to keep in mind, I don’t know if that’s what you’re after or not. But yes, you can absolutely add mason stains to slip if you want colour. Check the spec sheets online before you go shopping in person for the exact stain: some of them don’t do so well in clay bodies. Ones that get killed by magnesium or need a certain amount of calcium to develop properly might not be your best choices. Lighter colours will need a lot of stain to show, but some greens and blues will only need a percent or two.

[Ben xyz]

Thanks Callie. Am working mostly with matte surfaces recently, so that shouldn't be a problem. Will do some tests beforehand to see what holds up with the stains, starting w/ green and blue stains as suggested to colorize the slip. May also reach out to Amaco to see which, if any, of their glazes are resilient to this clay's body.

 

[neilestrick]

In my experience, these black bodies do well with glazes that are opaque and relatively fluid. Amaco potter's choice series, layered, tend to work pretty well.

For the apply-and-wipe method you want to do it on bisque ware, otherwise you'll mess up the texture when you wipe. Since you need to apply slips at the wet or leather hard stage, it's not a good choice. Commercial underglazes are a good way to accent texture with the apply-and-wipe method, and generally easier to use than making your own colored slips.

[Pres]

I have been using a Hazelnut Brown from SC, it fires a darker red brown, and most of my glazes were to dark for it. However, I have found that a liner glaze that I use works well over the dark clay, and then I apply my other glazes with an airbrush or dipped over it. It also works very well to finger swipe  areas of the white liner before applying the other glazes.

 

best,

Pres

[Ben xyz]

18 hours ago, Pres said:

I have been using a Hazelnut Brown from SC, it fires a darker red brown, and most of my glazes were to dark for it. However, I have found that a liner glaze that I use works well over the dark clay, and then I apply my other glazes with an airbrush or dipped over it. It also works very well to finger swipe  areas of the white liner before applying the other glazes.

 

best,

Pres

Thanks Pres. Needed to look up the term "liner glaze". Seems to work basically as primer. A white slip before bisque would also likely also do the trick. Our studio manager came up with a slip formula that also works well on bisque.

[Pres]

I guess the difference for me is that the liner glaze is very durable and requires no glaze overtop, at the same time spraying on decoration with 3 other glazes 2 opaque breaking textured glazes and one transparent glaze gives me a lot of room for variation and lots of fun.

 

best,

Pres