Glaze Tests – Spring 2012

My first attempt at mixing my own glazes!

After reading most of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Ron Roy and John Hessleberth, here are my results. (Finally!) I decided to focus on just one base glaze, the Glossy Clear Liner and then add some colorants to get some idea of what they do. Below are some photos of the finished Warm Brown Stoneware test tiles after being fired to cone 6. Click the images to get to a bigger, more readable version.

For Group 1 (above) I started with the Glossy Clear Liner on the left and then add some Red Iron Oxide and Rutile. The upper left corners of each tile were double dipped. The cups have the first glaze in the lineup poured inside and the last glaze brushed on the outside.

All percentages should be regarded as approximations. I’m pretty sure my measuring was accurate but I was working with small 200g batches.

Group 2 has the Glossy Clear Liner base glaze plus varying amounts of Cobalt Carbonate, Rutile and Copper Carbonate.

Group 3 has varying amounts of Cobalt Carbonate, Rutile and Red Iron Oxide.

After this first glaze mixing adventure I feel like I learned a lot. It was interesting to see the results but I feel like I learned how to make the process a lot more efficient. I recently mixed some more test batches and it seemed to go a little quicker. I also used larger increments when adding colorants. This first batch changed the colorant by 1 or 2% each time which doesn’t produce much difference from glaze to glaze. Now I hope to run some tests on my results and pick out a few to concentrate on. I’ll have to order some more materials to make some bigger batches.

I’ll try to post the results of the glaze fire that I just finished soon.