Pres Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 Years ago, when I was working with glazes, I usually used tin oxide as an opacifier for white. Then as tin oxide became more expensive I started looking for different opacifiers for my white glazes going through the different -paxes and finding them not quite to my liking so I started using combinations of opacifiers for the whites that I liked as liner glazes. Then I played with adding rutile for a creamy looking liner glaze and a low percentage of cobalt for a icy glaze. HOwever, I have been wondering with the raise in price on glaze materials if others have found better solutions for opacifiers in their glazes? Have glaze chemical prices forced you to make changes in your White glazes? best, Pres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta12 Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 I have found myself leaning towards recipes with Zircopax. I am calling right this moment to see what the price for Tin ox is at the supply house. I think it is $100/pound. I went through my recipes the other day. Most of my new test glazes for white have zircopax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Min Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 14 minutes ago, Roberta12 said: I think it is $100/pound. Ouch! I've found that most of the time prices for raw materials are less expensive in the US but my local place has tin listed at $59.10 (Canadian dollars) for 500 grams which puts it at $43 US dollars for just over a pound. Roberta12 and Pres 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta12 Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 10 minutes ago, Min said: Ouch! I've found that most of the time prices for raw materials are less expensive in the US but my local place has tin listed at $59.10 (Canadian dollars) for 500 grams which puts it at $43 US dollars for just over a pound. I just talked to Stoneleaf. Tin ox is $108/pound. Guess I will stick with Zircopax. They do have Gerstley. $224/50# I think I will get that. It will last me a long time. Pres 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Bridge Pottery Posted May 7 Report Share Posted May 7 Even at $100/pound, say you put 30 grams of glaze on a mug and 3 grams of that is tin it's only 66 cent a mug in tin. I don't let it put me off using it, I like tin Pres and Roberta12 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted May 8 Report Share Posted May 8 6 hours ago, High Bridge Pottery said: Even at $100/pound, say you put 30 grams of glaze on a mug and 3 grams of that is tin it's only 66 cent a mug in tin. I don't let it put me off using it, I like tin The problem for me is when mixing chrome-tin pinks for my students. I have 7 and 10 gallon buckets in my studio, which means anywhere from 1.3-2 pounds per bucket and that gets expensive pretty fast even with just two colors. If it was just for me I wouldn't care at all. It would take a lot for me to consider a glaze to be too expensive for my own work. Pres 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High Bridge Pottery Posted May 8 Report Share Posted May 8 Yea I wouldn't want to give a big bucket to a student, maybe brushing glazes are the way to go for them. I have been trying that recently with 100g of glaze and 2-5% gum/binder which covers 3 mugs. Trying to escape having to have all glazes in buckets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted May 10 Report Share Posted May 10 (edited) I was a horder of materials in my mid career so I have all the tin I need back when I used a lot and it was cheap and buying 1 ton of Gerstley was dumb luck long ago and thats what is in my white liner which we use a lot of these days . Now days I never worry about price of materials if I need it I order it. Edited 15 hours ago by Mark C. Pres 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted yesterday at 05:55 PM Report Share Posted yesterday at 05:55 PM I’ve always been a fan of using more than one opacifier in a recipe for aesthetic reasons, but the cost offset is nice too. Zircopax and tin lowers the amount of tin you need, and titanium and tin have the potential for a lot of visual depth. Zircopax and titanium give a lovely blue undertone variegation, and some nice visual depth. The former tech at the studio I work at chose one of Joe at Old Forge Creations’s chrome tin pink recipes for some shop glazes. The recipe cuts the tin 50/50 with titanium, and works a treat. I don’t super recommend it as a studio glaze if you’ve got mostly beginners, or inadequate glaze room supervision. You have to add epsom and darvan to keep everything dispersed enough for poor mixing to not mess up your bucket chemistry, and that’s a nuisance. But if I liked a lot of opaque bubble gum pink, I’d use it in my own practice without the additives. It’s been pretty well behaved. Hulk and Pres 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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