About a week ago I mixed up some glaze from a pre-mixed powder. The powder was Pam’s Blue by Coyote and it was my first attempt at mixing any kind of glaze outside of the Huntington Clay House. I got to purchase some new tools and I did some research and even talked to a few people on Clayart. In the end it wasn’t too hard.
nice respirator
I talked my wife into helping and she had a lot of fun…. She took a couple pictures so I could share my experience. The first thing you want to remember is: Safety First! I got to wear a new respirator so I didn’t breathe too much of the dust when I was dumping the powder into the water. It’s a good look!
mixing glaze
My wife mixed the water while I slowly dumped the powder . It got pretty thick, even when I used all the water that the directions called for. I was supposed to use 1 gallon and 1 pint but added a lot more by the end of the process. I used my cordless drill and a 1 gallon paint mixer to mix the powder into the water. Even after mixing it with the drill mixer for a while it was still pretty lumpy.
glaze sieve
I put it through an 80 mesh sieve three times. After letting it sit overnight I mixed it up again with the drill mixer and it was ready to be applied to some bisque ware. I even checked the specific gravity or “density” with a hydrometer.
I’ll have a full post on the items that I pulled out of the kiln. The Pam’s Blue that I mixed from powder actually looks different than the pre-mixed pints I’ve used. Check later to see how!