Switching Gears to Mixed Media Marionettes
My daughter’s marionette that I’m using as reference
Teaching schedule
On Monday, July 14, I begin teaching 3 consecutive, back to back, week long kid’s summer art camps. The first 2 camps will be at the Art Student’s League of Denver and the last one at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO (It ought to be really beautiful this time of the year in the mountains). I’ll have a little break and then teach one more camp the week before school starts the latter half of August at the ASLD. What this means, is that I have had to switch gears just a tad from making work and testing glazes to getting some of my projects together and making lesson plans for the classes. The first class I’m teaching is “Mixed Media Marionettes”, the second class is titled “Beyond Silly Putty” and is basically different printmaking techniques on clay, and finally I’ll be teaching “Movable Clay Sculpture” at Anderson Ranch the last week in July.
Larry is my model for the marionette and clay sculpture class and the whole reason I have these opportunities to teach at both the ASLD and Anderson Ranch. I should probably thank the ever talented and sassy Jafabrit, who put out a doll challenge last summer and Sarabeth Berk, the children’s education coordinator from Anderson Ranch who found Larry through my blog and asked whether I’d be interested in teaching a similar project at Anderson Ranch this summer. Thank you to both of you, it’s started me on a very satisfying and creatively challenging teaching trajectory which complements my ceramic and art endeavors.
Mixed Media Marionettes
I’ve never actually made a marionette before, so I’ve had to do some research the past week before I could write my lesson plan and make the prototype – not to mention getting all supplies and tools together. How do you know what you need if you’ve never done it before? This did make sending in my supply lists challenging, since both schools wanted them well in advance (6+ months). Luckily, I have some leeway and will be able to purchase a couple of extra items for reimbursement from both places. The bonus is that if I teach anything similar next year, I’ll have the lesson plans and supply lists down pat.
I used my daughter’s marionette (see above) which we purchased at the Denver Puppet Theater a few years ago as my own teaching tool and I’ve nearly dissected her to see how she works. I’m such a visual learner and seeing her innards has helped tremendously. I also picked up a couple of books from the library for reference and to use during class. Both The most excellent book of how to be a puppeteer by Roger Lade and The Hand-Carved Marionettes of Gustave Baumann by Ellen Zieselman have great images, give a little history and show how marionettes work.
Marionette Info: In addition to the books mentioned above, there are also several websites with good information such as:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionette (a good brief history of marionettes)
- A marionette is a puppet controlled by strings, which are controlled by a puppeteer called a manipulator
- It is believed that puppetry is the earliest form of theater and pre-dates human actors
- Wire controlled puppets have been found in Egyptian, Greek and Roman tombs and are referenced in writing by Greek historian Xenephon, philosophers Aristotle and Plato, and Archimedes who is known to have worked with marionettes
- The Greek word for puppet is neurospasta, which translates to “string pulling”. The Indian word sutradhar literally translates to “string puller” or “string holder”
- The term “marionette” emerged around 1600 in Italy while used by the Christian Church for morality plays and is connected with the Virgin Mary – however, when comedy started sneaking into plays, the church banned puppetry in churches and puppeteers started doing street theater.
- Bunraku emerged out of traditional Japanese puppetry in the 1600′s and is similar to marionettes
- In the 18th C operas were specifically composed for marionettes – Mozart, Gluck, Haydn, deFalla and Respighi all composed operas for marionettes
- Puppetry goes modern – children’s TV shows & movies use marionettes (think Howdy Doody, Mr. Rogers, Jim Henson, Sound of Music).
- Puppetry goes high tech – Supermarionation a combination of marionettes + animation + mechanics
http://puppetbuilding.com/marionettes/ and a link to other sites http://puppetbuilding.com/puppet-builder-directory/marionettes links, videos and examples of puppets and marionettes
http://myiradofmarionettes.bravehost.com/Making.html example of easy marionette to make at home with common items
Here’s a page out of Popular Science Monthly, Feb. ’36 showing marionette parts
All of the info gathering was necessary for me before I could even begin crafting my first marionette. I knew that my heads, hands and feet would be sculpted using clay – it was the rest of the body that had me stumped.
Low fire earthenware clay a little larger than a golf ball
After procrastinating just a bit, I realized I needed to make the prototype for the first class pronto. I also wanted to simulate working in a 5 day time frame since this is our schedule next week for 3 hours a day. Firing clay in a short time frame can be fatally dangerous – not to us, but to the clay pieces. I normally dry my clay work anywhere from 1 – 3 weeks before bisque firing them to minimize any kiln blowups and other ware type accidents such as cracking and warping.
To minimize any kiln catastrophes, I used a small amount of clay for the head (a little larger than a golf ball – maybe 1/4 lb.), and lesser amounts for the feet and hands. I made the clay bits on Thursday evening, then left them uncovered until Saturday. On Friday, they were still cool to the touch, meaning that the pieces were still too wet to fire. On Saturday morning the pieces had changed color to a lighter gray color and felt dry. The reason explosions happen in the kiln is because the clay hasn’t dried out enough and when the water in the clay reaches boiling point in the kiln (which is less than when you boil water on the stove since it’s under pressure), the vapor from the steam escaping the clay has no where to go, so the piece explodes to relieve the pressure.
The initial clay head, feet and hands
I decided to make an additional/backup head just in case the first one blows up. In fact, I’m going to have the kids in my class make additional parts as back up. If all survive, they’ll have the pieces to make another marionette at home. One note when I made these – I was thinking of specific personalities when I sculpted the heads. I think that will also be a fun exercise for the kids whether the make human or animal forms.
I attached little loops of nichrome wire to the feet and top & bottom of the head
When making these, I knew I needed some way to attach the string that attaches to the control bars and the body of the marionette to create movement. I punched holes in the hands and then added high temperature nichrome wire (has a melting temperature of 1400° C and I’m firing these to cone 05 around 560° C) to the heads and feet.
Painted using Duncan CC underglazes and Amaco LUG underglazes
I like my back up head better and am going to use her to make the marionette for my prototype. I fashioned the first one to be a sort of self portrait 
she’ll have blond hair and I even added a little nose piercing and appropriate mole placement just like my own – now she I just need some feet and hands.
I really want a pair of shoes and stockings to match in real life!
I originally thought I would glaze these with clear over the underglaze, but realize that it’s just not possible unless we once fire these. I’ve come up with an alternate solution: we’re going to add a gel medium to the clay parts which will add a nice little sheen and also protect the surface. We could also add a wax for a soft feel – but this is something I’ll have to experiment with later.
Miter saw – use appropriate safety precautions
I even got to use power tools – which makes me feel so macho! Since the age range for my class is 3rd – 5th grade, I had to do the cutting. It just wouldn’t do to have a parent pick up their child from camp missing a finger or 2. So, I pulled out the old miter saw after measuring the dowels for the hand controls and the 5″ x 2″ x 2″ wood blocks for the torso. I have 18 kids enrolled in class (no worries – I have an assistant to help), so I need 18 torsos and 36 5″ dowel pieces for the controls.
Power hand sander
I also sanded the ends of the dowels and wood blocks so that no one gets a splinter. My whole right hand and arm was vibrating after sanding all those pieces even after turning off the sander. The feeling lasted for quite some time, much like it feels after you take off your skates or ski boots after having them on awhile.
I removed the clay parts from the kiln this morning after bisque firing them last night and I’m happy to tell you that all the pieces survived! I did a really long kiln pre-heat on low with the kiln vented for about 6 hours before starting my firing program in an attempt to prevent the pieces from exploding.
Today, I’m sealing the clay parts with medium, gluing on hair and beads for the eyes, and will add a fabric body over the wood block torso, will add some stuffing to flesh out the body, sew some clothing and finally add the string and attach to the control bars.
So far, I’ve really enjoyed the process and feel like making more. But, first, I must adapt the project for the class at Anderson Ranch titled “Movable Clay Sculpture” – never mind that I’ve never really made one before, unless you count Larry and now this marionette. After making the marionette and Larry, however, I have a lot of good information and ideas to get started.
Update on cone 6 glaze testing:
Meanwhile, I have revised the Tony Hanson Pink Base Glaze #4 cone 6 recipe that I successfully tested last week with pink and violet Mason Stains and will fire these test tiles with some chrome and tin for a pinkish glaze (fingers crossed) – I might even do that today while I’m assembling my marionette since I won’t be in the studio inhaling glaze fumes. I was also going to test some manganese and cobalt for a purple, but realized that I need a glaze high in MgO. So first, I need to make up another test batch of the High Calcium Semi Matte from MC6G, since it is high in MgO – and the base glaze #4 has a negligible trace which is why the pinks form.
I normally maintain safe studio practices (especially with glaze mixing), but after reading more and more realize that I really should be hyper vigilant. Manganese is a very dangerous oxide in its raw state – but it seems that several other ones that I use are up there too along with cobalt and copper. What’s odd is that manganese is an essential trace nutrient for all life forms and our body stores 10mg of the element. Anyway – way off topic….
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Stay tuned for part 2
Duncan Cover Coat Results Fired Between Cone 7 and 10 in Oxidation
Warning – yawner of a post unless you’re interesting in ^6 glaze testing!
Recap: looking for candy colored transparent cone 6 glazes
As promised in my last post, here are the results of over firing Duncan Cover Coat Opaque Underglazes for use on greenware, soft fire bisque or bisque in an electric kiln between cone 7 (2264°F or 1240°C) and 10 (2381°F or 1305°C). The reason I can’t tell you exactly how hot the kiln was fired is because I made a couple of careless mistakes; a shelf was touching the kiln sitter and I was not present when the kiln shut off – basically the kiln shut itself off after the pyrometric cone in the sitter melted down, reached cone 10 or when the timer went off. I now keep a good kiln log and know that it takes my test kiln approximately 9 hours to reach ^6 on a slow fire with 2 hours on low to start. I now set the timer for about 9:30 minutes to prevent the kiln from overfiring and I double check the pyrometric kilns for the sitter to make sure I’m using a ^6 vs. a ^06 or ^04 one.
Duncan recommends painting of 3 coats of underglaze for full coverage and if using for food, to brush on a clear glaze and to fire to shelf cone 06. For you non-clay people cone 06 (1830° F or 999° C) is low fired ware usually earthenware. I normally fire to cone 6 in an electric kiln or to 2232°F (1222° C).
I didn’t keep good records when I made these tests. I was merely trying to fire some color test tiles for my kid’s clay class to use as reference when decorating their work. I also broke a rule, I used my ^6 porcelain clay body since I had the test tiles already made up, instead of the low fire white earthenware clay that they used. But, I figured that they’d get a good idea of what the color would look like when they saw the tiles. So, I’m not sure if I was going to fire these to cone 06 or cone 6. Good records would help me interpret these tests now! Live and learn.
So, here’s what I do remember doing, I painted 2 coats of the underglaze on the tiles, then I only glazed the right half of the tiles with a clear glaze. It was either a commercial low fire clear or a very basic good ^6 clear glaze comprised of 50% gerstley borate, 20% kaolin and 30% silica. I see this recipe all over the place. It turns milky where thick (on account of the GB), so brushing is best.
So, I just input the 3part clear glaze recipe into Insight, the glaze calculation program I’m testing, and found out something interesting. The clear glaze contains .17 MgO which tells me that it is not compatible with chrome/tin colors so I most likely used the cone 06 commercial glaze for these tests since the violet didn’t burn out. I’m still guessing though. It does explain why the pink on my cherry blossom porcelain box burned out the last month.
The formulas are, however, proprietary and a trade secret, so I’m making some assumptions about Duncan’s product. I can only make general guesstimates as to the coloring oxides that they use – I would think that they’re similar to Mason Stains.
I can tell you that with CC#103 Lotus Yellow, the color burned out between ^7 – ^10. CC# 105, Sungold Yellow looks like a tan yellow or straw color. CC# 142, canary yellow is bright lemon yellow and CC#185, Apricot is a bright orange. What’s interesting is that the first 3 test tiles are glossy on the left hand side where I didn’t apply the clear glaze which means that the additional frits or whatever else was used makes these self glazing at higher temps. The Apricot is matte where unglazed.
CC #186 Tomato Red is a bright red and has a nice sheen on the unglazed portion of the tile. CC#189 Violet is a light lavender color – the unglazed portion is matte. CC#134 Stardust Blue is a pale baby blue color – matte where unglazed. CC # 159 Bright Blue is a royal blue and matte where unglazed.
Velvet U/G #343 Chartreuse (and my only exception to the Duncan test) is a light chartreuse color, matte where unglazed. CC #158 Bright Green is a dark olive green at higher temps and is self glazing. CC#154 Cobalt Blue is a matte metallic black where unglazed and a midnight blue/black where glazed. CC#165 Black Brown is black on both tiles, however on the unglazed portion it bubbled and has pinholes. On the glazed side, it’s glossy black.
I search for a lot of ceramic information on the web and find it incredibly helpful when photographs are included. For example, I would love to see photos with these tests done with Ducan Cover Coats to cone 10 in oxidation and reduction. The clear glaze used on top of these tests is:
whiting 23.5 silica 34.0 EPK 18.0 Custer Feldspar 24.5
What’s interesting is that this clear also contains no MgO – so it will also work with chrome/tin combos as well.
So, now what? After figuring out the cost of the pink and violet glazes using Mason Stains, I’m going to see if I can come close using oxides as colorants to reduce the cost.
For a 10,000 gr batch of the Pink Base Glaze #4 used in my last post, provided that I purchase my ingredients in bulk would be $20.52. If I use the pink mason stain as a colorant it is $16.85/pound right now at Mile Hi Ceramics. At 8% for a nice pink color that would mean I would need 800 grams of stain in a 10,000 gr batch which would mean that I would need 1.76 pounds of stain at a cost of $29.69/ 10,000 gram batch. Ouch.
If I can recreate something similar using chrome and tin at around 1/2% chrome oxide and 7% tin oxide, I would need 50 grams of chrome and 700 grams of tin for a 10,000 gram batch at a cost of .90 ¢ and $26.36 respectively for a total of $27.26.
Okay, so there went that theory! It’s the tin that’s the expensive ingredient. So, I guess if I want a pink or a violet, I should just use the stains for convenience since they cost the same. Or, I might decide to use an underglaze to paint on the color and cover with a clear since that worked equally as well based on the test tiles above.
Colorants I plan on testing:
- Pink
- chrome 1/2% + 7% tin oxide
- Pink stain – test successful
- Purple
- 1/2% cobalt + 1-2% manganese
- 3% manganese in high alkaline glazes
- Yellow Green
- Stain – chartreuse successful, but not quite what I’m looking for
- 5% yellow ochre + 1.1% rutile
- .25% – .5% chrome oxide in high alkaline glaze
I know I can get a great light blue, turquoise, green, black and white. But, for some of the other harder to achieve colors, It might end up being more economical to use the stains or underglazes.
And, here I thought these recently rediscovered test tiles were failed tests!
Must start making some more test tiles…
~Cynthia
Success! Pink and Violet ^6 Glaze Test Recipes Part 2
This is a continuation of my last post.
Mason Stains in ^6 Glazes
In my second round of testing, I was optimistic that I’d found the holy grail of base glaze recipes to achieve a pink ^6 glaze – but I was mentally prepared to open the kiln this morning and find nada. Imagine my surprise and delight, when I opened my kiln and found these gorgeous tiles! After loads of research and internet sleuthing, I happened upon this article by Tony Hanson that included a recipe for a base glaze good for chrome/tin colorants on the ceramic-materials.com on Sunday morning. I quickly made up 3 test batches of the base glaze and fired up my little test kiln yesteray with anticipation.
To be expected, color developed much better after using a higher percentage of colorant. I decided to try up to 12% stain this time just to compare with my tests a couple of days ago where I used up to 10% stain. Truth be told, 10% is plenty – but I wanted to see if it made any difference. It looks like color doesn’t start to really develop until tile 3 which would be 25% of the total amount of stain used (in this case, 25% of 12 = 3% of the total 100 gram recipe which results in a very pastel color). I’m guessing that when I test some blues & greens, I will need even less colorant since cobalt and copper are much stronger colorants. Also, I’m going to try redoing the pink glaze using chrome oxide and tin with the new base glaze. Yesterday, Annie generously forwarded another chrome/tin compatible recipe to try and my friend Mary Cay emailed me this morning reminding me about a recipe that she included in the materials from a glaze workshop I took with her last year. Thank you to both of you!
I also retested the chartreuse stain using the pink base glaze #4 (used with the pink and violet stains sucessfully) from Tony Hanson. I’m interested in have 1 or 2 base glazes so that I only have to buy minimal ingredients in bulk for future use. And, I had a thought… I plan on using a combination of 2 different glazes for my work. For example, glaze the exterior of a cup violet and the interior chartreuse. My thinking is that if violet is a chrome/tin glaze that can have no zinc, magnesium and needs calcium – then some funky stuff might happen where the violet and chartreuse glazes meet. But, not if they’re the same parent base glaze (or so goes my rational). I may be wrong and I plan on calling Mason Color later today to ask some questions.
There is a slight color difference between the 2 glazes. The one tested in the last post is more green, whereas the one with the pink base glaze #4 truly is more mustard yellow. If that’s what I’m going for, I could simply use rutile as the colorant at a lower cost than the mason stains. I suppose this is the whole point of testing; to see what can be learned and how to apply the knowledge effectively.
Thermal Expansion and Clay/Glaze Fit
I still need to find out a little bit more information too, before I mix up big batches of glaze. Kris left a comment on my last post about the thermal expansion of the clay body I use. If the clay body and the glaze’s thermal expansion don’t jive, crazing and a host of other issues could crop up down the road. Funny, thing is that I was just reading up on this last night in Mastering Cone 6 Glazes, Chapter 5 “Fitting Glazes to Your Clay Body”. I need to call Mile Hi Ceramics this morning when they open and find out what the thermal expansion is for the 2 clay bodies I generally use – Ash (^6 white stoneware) and Aspen (^6 porcelain). If the glaze is too big for the clay body, shivering results. If the clay is too big for the glaze, crazing results. Shivering is not cool – chunks of glassy glaze falling off the ware. Crazing (fine crackling) is sometimes desirable for some potters, but isn’t really a good attribute for functional ware that comes into contact with food.
Update: Neither of the people I spoke with at Mile Hi Ceramics know the thermal expansion of their clay bodies – I was told to call back when the owner is in. Boohoo. Am I over thinking this?
Using Underglazes to ^6
I did come upon some other interesting test tiles in my studio a few weeks ago while cleaning. These were tests that I had mis-fired last year involving Duncan Cover Coat Underglazes. I was doing these tests to provide my kid’s clay classes reference color chips. The kids always wanted to know what the various colors were going to look like when fired. My mishap was due to my Aim cone 10 test kiln over firing due to a couple of very careless mistakes. I put a small pyrometric cone 6 in the kiln sitter, loaded the kiln, turned it on, ramped up the heat on my predetermined schedule. My mistakes: I wasn’t around when it was supposed to turn off and when I opened the kiln in the morning I realized that the kiln had totally over fired because one of the shelves was touching the kiln sitter. I’m not quite sure what temperature the kiln reached – the pyrometric cone was totally melted and black (normally white after a succesful ^6 firing) and the kiln fires to cone 10. It’s a good possibility that these tests were fired to cone 8-10, depending on how long it took the pyrometric cone to melt allowing the sitter to turn the kiln off.
I used cone 6 porcelain test tiles and though they didn’t melt or even bloat, they all have a sheen to them like glaze in all the unglazed places. So, why am I telling you this? Because I found out that Duncan Cover Coats can be fired quite high and retain their colors. When I get around to photographing them, I’ll post those results. Underglazes would certainly be an option for me to use as a colorant under a clear glaze. I should redo these tests firing them to cone 6 and compare the results. I have everything from yellow, organge, red, violet, light and dark blues, green and black in my “failed” tests.
I originally wanted to toss these test tiles since I was angry at myself for my mistakes, but held onto them for some reason. There’s something to learn in both our successes and more often in our mistakes. Zen master is teaching me again
So – I’ll post those tests later this week for you.
Meanwhile, I’ll be teaching a kid’s class at the Art Student’s League of Denver starting next Monday called, “Mixed Media Marionettes”. The class is now full and is for grades 3-5 but, lucky for me I will have an assistant to help. I will be spending part of my time this week making the proto-type and lesson plans for the class so I’m well prepared. I pulled my daughter’s wood marionette down from her bedroom ceiling ceiling the other day and am studying its construction so I can successfully recreate a working one next week with the kids. I’m also deliberately working fast since we only have 5 days to work on these. 3 with wet clay and the other 2 decorating, assembling and hopefully playing with them on the last day.
Whew… have a good day,
~Cynthia
Dismal Cone 6 Glaze Test Results
Returning to my regularly scheduled clay blog after going off topic the other day…
I really want to expand my glaze palette and am searching for some fun translucent candy colored bright eye popping color to highlight the texture on a lot of my new hand built pieces. I’m testing glazes in oxidation (electric kiln for you non-clay people) at cone 6 (temp 2232 degrees F) on a white stoneware clay body called Ash (available from Mile Hi Ceramics).
The glaze properties I’m looking for include:
- a tight fit (no running off my ware)
- translucency
- vibrant color
- stable – no crazing, pitting, crawling or pinholing
- food safe
- cost effective and reasonably safe raw materials
Colors I’m working on:
- Chartreuse
- Pink
- Orange
- Violet
- Robin’s Egg Blue
I already have a celadon, clear and white glazes in my repertoire. If you’re a clay person, you probably already know that the colors I’m striving for are hard to get in the properties I’m looking for at higher temperatures outside of maybe commercial glazes (I could very well be off the mark though since I consider myself a novice glaze chemist) . These colors are widely available in low fired earthenware pottery. But, once you move into mid-range and high fire, many of these colors burn out mainly the pinks, reds, yellows and oranges. Or they require a reducing (gas kiln) atmosphere in the case of reds and oranges.
To achieve color in glazes one can use oxides or manufactured stains. There’s a few stain companies out there such as Mason, Cerdec-Degussa inclusion pigments, and Blue Heron (can’t find company website) – and maybe more that cater to commercial manufacturers of ceramics & pottery. Oxides include copper carbonate, cobalt carbonate, iron oxides, chromium, manganese to name a few.
So, for this glaze testing cycle, I chose to test pink and chartreuse colored glazes.
Glaze Test Recipes
Note: Stain is good up to 2300°F No Zinc in Glaze Needs a high calcium glaze (provided by the wollastonite) |
Note: Based on my research, tin is a necessary ingredient for chrome to develop pink |
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Note: Stain is good up to 2300°F Can be used as a body stain Can be used with or w/o zinc in glaze Results – turned chartreuse at max 10% colorant added Matte at 10% |
Note: High alkaline glaze with no tin |
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What you see isn’t always what you get when it comes to glazing!
I did a 6 part color progression test for each of the test glazes (one of the recipes isn’t listed as I added it at the last minute) using Ceramic Spectrum by Robin Hopper, pg. 187 as my guide.
Only 1 of my glaze tests turned out the way I expected!
The others are all duds unless you consider drab olive green pleasing… so back to the drawing board me. I actually anticipated that 2 of them would fail after further research & AFTER I had already mixed up the test batches, but fully expected Glaze #1, 2 and 3 to turn out. I also realized last night that I misread the glaze I really wanted to try for glazes #1 and #5 and used a different one than intended – doh. #2 is pretty – but it’s an ineffective way to get blue when I could simply use cobalt carb. The chartreuse stain was tested on a semi matte base glaze, which I’m not sure I like. It’s looks more mustardy yellow than acid yellow-green. A gloss may be better – so I’m going to keep on testing before trying a new stain.
I thought I had fully accounted for how all the different chemicals & minerals were going to react in the kiln, but I was wrong. I became painfully aware of the fact after I downloaded 2 different trial glaze calculation programs. I’m testing Insight (free trial for 2 months) and Glaze Master (also available as a free trial for 2 months). I really like Insight since it felt pretty intuitive to use – but I really need to read the instruction manuals to really use both of the programs to their full advantage before making a purchasing decision. There is also a free glaze calculation program called, appropriately, The Glaze Calculator, that I should probably investigate. Here’s a bigger database with different glaze calculator programs that are available.
Since I’m really looking for stable glazes to use on surfaces that come into contact with food, certain chemicals are off limits and I really need to read up on glaze expansion, alumina/silica ratios and while I’m familiar with limit formulas, it’s only starting to make sense me. I really wish I had paid more attention in chemistry class.
On one hand, I feel like I’ve got just enough information to be dangerous or simply very frustrated – and liken myself to throwing darts in the dark hoping to open the kiln and find success with any luck. On the other hand I’ve been doing so much reading regarding glaze chemistry that I realize how much I have to learn.
Meanwhile, a fellow clay person and Etsy Mud Team Member, Eleanor pointed me in another new direction – that of lanthanides or rare earth minerals as colorants for glazes. She pointed out these 2 articles Rare Earth Colorants by Max Campbell and Chris Keane and Exciting New Transparent Glaze Colors Using Lanthanide Colorants by David Pier. Although, after a little bit of research, Laguna clay has stopped distributing Praseodymium which creates the greens and yellows due to steep increase in price (so this may be a dead end)- but there’s always Praseodymium yellow Mason Stain #6408 to use as a substitute.
Update: I just found this article by Tony Hanson that includes a recipe as a starting point for making a pink ^6 glaze. My problem? In addition to not having zinc in a chrome/tin glaze, there can be no magnesium. If I had seen this little tid bit before (and it clearly states that in the Mason Color Chart which I neglected to see even though I’ve read the damn thing 100 times) I would have realized that my test recipes above contain Magnesium! Doh
Back to chemistry class for me!
~Cynthia
