Dipping Vs Brushing Glaze

[dooarts]

Is dipping glaze thinner that brushing glaze? If so, why? Thanks.

[Kohaku]

Dooarts... the thickness of glaze application through dipping depends on a number of factors... including the specific gravity of the glaze, the dryness (or lack of) of your bisqueware or greenware, etc. etc.

 

As a generality, you'll have to work harder with brushing to achieve the same thickness... and equivalent evenness is even harder to achieve...

[neilestrick]

The thickness of the applied glaze on the pot will be the same, but in the bucket dipping glazes are generally thinner.

[Kohaku]

My bad- sorry if I misunderstood your question!

[TJR]

Dipping is more even and faster to do, but you need a bucket of glaze rather than a jar.

TJR.

[bciskepottery]

Glazes intended for brushing usually have addititives (e.g., veegum, cmc, gum Arabic) to make them more easy for brushing; glazes intended for dipping do not include those additives. The additives may make a glaze seem thicker than a glaze for dipping.

[Mark C.]

This is not an easy answer unless you are talking about commercial brushing glazes.

IF you are then brushing is what the glaze is made to do that and thats what you should do.

 

If on the other hand you are thinking homemade glazes then usually dipping is thicker. When I want this I brush my homemade glaze on an area or spray it as all my buckets are adjusted for a quick dip for the right thickness.

Mark

[Pugaboo]

Okay I have a question then concerning commercial glazes. On the jar they say may be brushed OR dipped. Dip once or brush 2-3 coats. If they have special stuff in them to make them more brushable but those things make the glaze seem thicker than a normal dipping glaze how do you know how much to thin a glaze to get the right consistency from a commercial jar? Some of these glazes fresh out of the jar are thick as peanut butter and I don't think that's right so have been thinning them down to get the right consistency. The test for this consistency is sticking my finger in it and doing the knuckle test.

 

T

[bciskepottery]

Not sure about commercial glazes . . . I'm having difficulty figuring out how to dip a mug or plate in a 2 oz. or 1 pint container of glaze.  And, I agree the glaze in those containers is usually too thick for dipping without thinning.  Sometimes even too thick for brushing without thinning.  I'm afraid this is headed to one of those discussions of flocculating and deflocculating glazes . . . where you add an ingredient that makes a glaze thicker or thinner without adding water . . . just making it more or less viscous.  For the two commercial glazes I use, I buy in dry form (15 to 25 lbs. at  time) and mix for dipping like my other glazes. 

[Pugaboo]

Bcisk - for the small 4oz testers you kind of have to brush them on. For the pint sizes I place the cup in a gallon bucket and pour it over the cup then pour it back into the pint jar. For plates I use an old photographers developing tray it's shallow yet wide and has a pour spout in one corner. If its a small plate I pour the glaze into the tray then dip the plate if its larger I pour the glaze over it like I do for cups.

 

I just add enough water to get it thin enough to pour or brush since I haven't a clue about deflocculating and such. I figure with water if I get it too thin I can always let it settle then decant off the excess adding chemicals well I'm not sure you can come back from that.

 

T

[Pres]

I used to use amaco glazes in the pint jars at the HS. In the beginning we did mostly brushing, but then as I started transitioning into dry glazes because of price and shipping costs we started dipping. so here I had a mix of two types of glazes of the same glaze often. We watered down the bottled glaze to the same consistency as the dipping glazes and never looked back.

[Pugaboo]

Pres - thanks good to know its okay to do and as I pick the few glazes I want to add to my stable I will know I can mix the pints with the powder and not ruin the lot.

 

T

[BetsyLu]

Lots of good information in this thread!

 

If you make a homemade glaze, what can you add to it to make it better for brushing? 

[Babs]

What Bciskepottery says above.

[Pres]

For those of you asking the original question, I used to tell the kids 3 brush coats equal to one dipped coat. It seems that you always leave streaks with brushing, and 3 coats evens everything out. Remember also that you flow the glaze on when brushing, don't try and stretch it as far as you can.

[ayjay]

Remember also that you flow the glaze on when brushing, don't try and stretch it as far as you can.

I like to think of it as applying the glaze by brush  -  or,  "not painting,"  it's all too easy if you have ever done any any painting (house, not art) to brush out the glaze as you would paint.

 

The brush is important too, if you're using a dipping glaze to touch something up or add an accent a glaze mop which holds plenty of glaze is the tool I use, for glazes formulated for brushing I use a soft fan brush.

 

Work methodically, often, even on a small piece like a mug, the glaze is dry where you started before you get all the way back to the start again, this is fine for the first coat but you start to lose yourself with subsequent coats, put a pencil mark on the bottom  or anything else that will provide a reference point - you don't have to start here for subsequent coats, you could start the next coat opposite the reference point to even things out.

 

Dipping is so much easier - but I do quite a lot of brushing because I can't justify having gallons of many different glazes for the amount of pots I make, storage space comes into the equation too.

 

Brushing can produce perfectly acceptable results when done with some thought and care.