Gift and Amaco underglaze info at cone 6
Tile by Mary Cay
My good friend and former ceramics instructor, Mary Cay, popped over for a visit last Monday evening. It was so good to see her again and she came bearing a gift for me. She gave me the tile above that I had long coveted and was originally part of an exchange we arranged when I helped her set up her website last year.
It was so good to catch up and I was very excited to hear that she has found space to set up a ceramic studio again in the Denver area after a period of abstinence from clay due to a bit of a life change. I’m looking forward to visiting her studio once she has it set up. Maybe she’ll let me share a few photographs of her studio at a later date….
Bottom of mug attached to kiln shelf
I learned something valuable the other day. I did a couple of glaze tests in my test kiln on a couple of mugs I will be swapping with other EMT members as a part of our annual EMT Secret Mug Swap this month. Unfortunately, this one experienced a bit of a problem and one for which I’m grateful. Why am I grateful, you ask? Because I discovered something about using Amaco LUG Decorating Colors that will save me from making a similar mistake again.
At cone 6, the Amaco LUGs melt like a glaze - they must have some fluxing agents included in the recipe, whereas at cone 05 (the recommended firing temperature), they are a flat matte texture. I figured that if Duncan Cover Coats can fire to up to cone 10 and maintain their color, then the Amaco products should too in theory.
The problem is that the Amaco underglaze acted like a glaze and fused to the kiln shelf - the good news is that it only affected 1 mug and not 40 (the number I have waiting to be glazed this week). Lesson learned. Why does pottery have such a learning curve?
Another good discovery, the raspberry color on the exterior is left over from my cone 6 pink and violet glaze tests and is very stable - it stays put and doesn’t run AND I can brush it on which means that I could conceivably make smaller batches of the glaze so that I don’t have to make big dipping batches.
Meanwhile, I mixing glazes today since I have about 3 bisque loads to glaze in the next week and will visit the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver later on this afternoon with my family. Stay tuned for more on solar energy in the coming weeks.
Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
