Glaze Tests
First off, thank you to everyone who left comments and emails after my last post. I really, really appreciate all your kind words. Our house is oddly silent now, and we’re slowly returning to normal and are remembering Helper as he was when he was healthy and happy. Thank God for my dog, Zuzu, who is my constant companion and follows me from room to room as I go about my day.
I thought I would share some recent glaze test tiles I did in the past 2 weeks. I was trying to recreate a glaze that I made in college. It’s a cone 6 oxidation glaze called Chinese Blue Green. Oxidation means that it’s fired in an electric kiln vs. a gas or reduction fire. I’m working with my ceramics mentor from the Art Student’s League of Denver right now on a glaze refresher since I’d like to get my studio up and running. As you can see from my original tiles and my new ones, the recipe is off-it’s almost as if I didn’t add the copper carbonate. So, last Wednesday, I remade a small 100 gram batch of the glaze and adjusted the colbalt carbonate down to .5% because cobalt carb is such a strong colorant.
If you take a look at my recipe below, you can see how closely linked the ceramic arts is to understanding geology. All of the raw materials used in the clay bodies and glaze ingredients come from the earth! I don’t know about you, but when I start to read all this technical stuff, my eyes tend to glaze over. (Pun intended.) I could buy pre-made glazes, but they’re expensive and I really believe that if you’re going into this art form, one should understand the science and technical aspects behind the medium. Making my own glazes will allow infinite color and texture possibilities and I will be able to develop a signature set of glaze colors.
On the recommendation of my mentor, I am reading Robin Hopper’s book, The Ceramic Spectrum…it’s a veritable ceramic glaze bible!
| Custer Feldspar | 41 |
| Whiting | 15 |
| Zinc Oxide | 10 |
| EPK | 5 |
| Flint | 27 |
| Bentonite | 2 |
| 100% | |
| Add Colorants | |
| Copper Carbonate | 5% |
| Cobalt Carbonate | 1% |
Meanwhile, I spent yesterday at the Building Creative Businesses Expo in Denver and ran into fellow Colorado artist, Lisa Call who alerted me to the expo in the first place–thank you. More about the expo later this week.
Lori Witzel
March 4, 2007 at 7:12 pm //
You know, this post put me in mind of a ceramic work I saw years ago in NYC. It was a beautiful, realistic clay (porcelain?) sculptured Glaze Recipe Book. Which of course no one could open, since it was, well, a closed book.
Tried to find it via Google, but not enough info in my memory to turn it up.
I laughed big at that Book, recalling the few (and much-loved) times I worked with clay, and how one instructor told me that glaze recipes were kept rather secret.
(Most sorry to read about you losing Helper; very painful to have to do right by someone you love that way.)
Janvangogh
March 4, 2007 at 8:58 pm //
And I dont suppose you really know how well the mixture turns out until after it is fired. I dont know that I would have the patience to wait! I like B2.
Angela
March 4, 2007 at 9:00 pm //
Wonderful testings on tile! I tooo think that it is best to go through with all of the what you can in art. If you intend to be serious about it. Like making a canvas. It can be hard to put stretchers together, put canvas on them, prime the canvas…etc. When you can just buy them already made in the store. I think that it’s best to make them yourself though. It’s good to know exactly what is used to make canvas’s and the joy you get when you finished a work that you know YOU have made all together is greater than if you just buy it. It is that way with any form of art, I am sure.
Mary Timme
March 4, 2007 at 9:48 pm //
Wow! I haven’t thought about glazes for years. I think it is always tricky though. If I remember rightly, even the wrong glaze on another piece can affect certain colors in the same firing. Wow! What a lot of work. That is patience, girl!
LynClay
March 5, 2007 at 2:43 am //
OOOh lovely shades of blue! I remember how rare and precious the cobalt was when I had ceramics in college. I never even got to use any. I’m looking forward to seeing some photos of your studio when you get it all set up!
Cynthia
March 5, 2007 at 2:10 pm //
Welcome Lori and thanks for coming over to take a visit from Lisa’s site! I had to laugh about your book story, having a closed book would make me want to open it even more! Thanks for your comments about Helper.
Heya Janet, believe it or not, b2 is the same glaze applied to all 3 test tiles. They’re just different clay bodies. You’re right about having patience; the process is certainly what attracted me to ceramics. I’ve learned the hard way not to rush the process. I’ll share more later this week.
Hi Angela. I like making my own canvases too. It’s much more satisfying and they’re always much better quality than store bought ones. In school, a professor had us do it the old fashioned way with Rabbit Glue and everything. That was a bit extreme for me.
Hello Mary, your absolutely right. The book and the glaze primer I’m doing is teaching me that so many things can affect the outcome of a firing from the temperature of the kiln to ingredients to the clay body used. If iron rich glazed pieces are fired next to say a celadon glazed piece, flashes of red can sometimes turn up on the celadon piece.
Thanks Lynette. Your school was most likely using cobalt oxide which is more expensive than cobalt carb.
Lisa
March 5, 2007 at 3:36 pm //
My head hurts.
I think this is why I dye fabric without measuring things. I would fail at glazing!
It was good to see you this weekend. It’s now finally warmed up – we should plan a time to do some dyeing!
The Lone Beader
March 5, 2007 at 9:06 pm //
I’ve never really worked with ceramics, but I love what you can do with them. It must be fun to make the test tiles=:)
Cynthia
March 6, 2007 at 8:17 pm //
test