Stephen Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 I would like to know if many professional shops that mix a house line-up of glazes also purchase commercial glazes as well. Is this a common thing or do most shops go one way or the other? If you do augment your glazes with commercial ones, are you happy with that decision or do you feel trapped by it now? Any explanations of why and how you approach this would be really appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 I'm a production potter and never have used commercial glazes(except in collage)-I have always mixed my own-my temp range is cone 10-11. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 I mix 15 glazes for myself and my students to use. I also buy a couple of commercial glazes in small containers (pints or smaller) for accent colors that I don't mix, like bright red and orange, as do several of my students. It is much too expensive and time consuming to use commercial glazes for the volume of work that is made in my studio. Most all of my glazes can be mixed for less than $30 per 5 gallon bucket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyndham Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Part of the adventure for me is mixing and testing new glaze recipes. As others have noted, the cost of buying commercial glazes can be very high. There are some great books on glazes and after awhile you begin to notice that most glazes only have about 6 ingredients or less. No need to invest in bag lots to get started, just a few pounds of several major ingredients will get you started. Wyndham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 The decision is really about cost effectiveness for a production enviropnment, and about a combination of that and desired teaching outcomes in an educational setting. Some things are easy to make yourself at a relaiability factor that meets the produiction needs. Other things you can "outsource" to someone else. Not much different than in the running of ANY type of business. Personally in my own studio I mix my highfire glazes from bulk raw materials. I purchase pre-made over glaze enamels. I purchase pre-made gold luster. At the college where I teach we mix most lowfire, mid-range, and high fire glazes. We mix slips for all ranges. We purchase some lowfire glazes. We purchase some underglazes, overglaze enamels, and lusters. best, .......................john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted November 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 You guys are the best, thanks for all the input. I'm up to ten glazes that have made the finals over the past few years and getting ready to make a push for another half dozen or so. Just changed clays from a white stoneware I made in-house to a commercial porcelain and may lose a couple of our line-up unless I can fix them. The first firing with the new porcelain was not great with a couple of them and had some issues with the fit and look of a couple of the others. Trying a new firing schedule this weekend and will start to access the damage and start working on some adjustments. We love the new porcelain and it was very time consuming and not really cost effective to make the white stoneware, but now I need to get the glazes to play nice with it :-) Would definitely appreciate any suggested recipes for a good gloss and matt/satin base for porcelain, cone 6 oxidation. I've identified one I am going to try and my current two bases may end up being fine as well. I was considering a the same local supplier of the porcelain for 6-7 of his house glazes (about $15 a gallon in 5 gallon increments-buying dry and mixing) that already work well with this clay to augment what I have while I build out a more extensive color palette but I must admit I may just be a little overwhelmed with the work ahead and need to just buck up and appreciate the challenge. My approach to date has been two-fold. I have the two bases and oxide colorant additives to those for about half and the other half has been gleaned from the recipe hunt. I chose to take both approaches because it seemed like just using the base approach is kind of boring as the glazes tend to have the same characteristics. On the other hand trying a lot of recipes adds a lot of materials to my stock and makes the testing tedious. Anyway thanks for all the input, will also keep in mind the various suggestions of knowing when to outsource as mentioned by several of you. We do currently buy underglazes because of the sheer number of colors we use. I did do a dozen or so a long time ago and decided it was better to just buy them and concentrate on our dipping/spraying glazes. I am having trouble getting a good red without stain and maybe that would be a good one to consider outsourcing. I'm retrying one we dismissed before (readers digest red) this weekend with the new clay and firing schedule however so I still have one in play. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugaboo Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 Personally in my own studio I mix my highfire glazes from bulk raw materials. I purchase pre-made over glaze enamels. I purchase pre-made gold luster. At the college where I teach we mix most lowfire, mid-range, and high fire glazes. We mix slips for all ranges. We purchase some lowfire glazes. We purchase some underglazes, overglaze enamels, and lusters. best, .......................john John, Which overglaze enamels do you prefer? I am looking to add a few to my palette but am not quite sure on the details of which are best. Thanks T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 One last item is having your own glaze made for you-about 20+ years back while mixing about 2-6 glazes per week on glaze day I thought-hey have at least one made for me. I had Laguna Clay make my most popular glaze by the ton-back then it was only special orders by the ton-now they can do whatever you want-since then I have ordered at least 4 tons of this glaze-they only messed up two of those batches but did rectify that over time. By sending me on next order the necessary materials to add to each bag.Now I'm on top of Juan (Lagunas Glaze guy) when I order it. Its a pain to add stuff to each 50 # bag when you only need 1/2 a bag to mix.These tons of glaze last me about 4-6 years . Now all I have to mix is the other 15 buckets of glazes. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 I have always mixed my own glazes including college. And when I taught university level ceramics for 26+ years.. It is just the way it was. I think once you have the investment in the chemicals, might as well use them. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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