June 7th, 2006
In my days of preparing for making my own glazes I ran across many chemicals, various frits, fluxes, opacifiers and colorants. One chemical which stood out as being unique is Bentonite, because the only purpose I could find for it was to keep glazes from seperating.
Out of 5 test glazes, I used Bentonite on 3 of them, those three were very easy to apply and had a much more even covering of the glaze test container than the two glazes without Bentonite. For anyone making their own glazes, even if they are from a recipie, then I would reccomend dropping about 2% of the final weight into the glaze, it will make your life much simpler.
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June 7th, 2006
On Tuesday evening my new electronic balance (Ohaus CS2000) arrived, the final piece of the puzzle for making glazes. I began with 5 simple recipies, of which I used 4 and then made my own 6th.
Test Glaze #1 (not used) – converted from a lead-based recipe, but not attempted in this batch.
Test Glaze #2 (blue/creamy purple) – made from a modified “programable earthenware glaze recipie”, using base glaze #2 and a few other components I decided to use on my own.
Test Glaze #3 (red?) – made as a direct interpretation of a “programable earthenware glaze recipie”, using base glaze #2, with no modifications
Test Glaze #4 (icky) – same as #3, but with added bone ash.
Test Glaze #5 (kinda dark green) – Base Glaze #2 with some copper and chrome thrown in.
Test Glaze #6 (Dark Blueish Grey) – Base Glaze #2 with cobalt, iron oxide, whiting and Zircopax.
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June 1st, 2006
After much thought and pouring over tons of pro-lead and anti-lead documentation I have made the decision to not use lead-based glazes in my ceramic work. When I began moving forward with my decision to make my own glazes, I was presented with hundreds of glaze recipes that all used very few ingredients, but all requiring lead bisilicate. I initially discovered that lead bisilicate is not that easy to get, it requires special ordering from all suppliers and most don’t even list it in their catalogs. I initially assumed that lead bisilicate was safe because many commercial glazes contained lead, and stated that they were “safe” when fired to 1400 degrees F.
Most of the documentation I found relating to why lead is bad in ceramics realted to why it was bad for the potter. I was prepared for the risk to myself because I have been through many lab course in which I was trained how to handle things that could harm me. The deciding factor for me was reading an article about lead leaching. I was by no means prepared to deal with the concept of there being lead released from my works while they are being used.
I am now down to about 5 recipes that are known to be good, so I will be starting off slow as far as things I am certain of. I never have known what color to glaze most of my works, so I will be starting this as a guessing game with myself. I will be making my own glazes, documenting how much of each ingredient I have used and recording the results of each.
Lead has been used in ceramics for far too long, I intend to use other frits and begin my own publicly-accessible catalog of glaze recipies.
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June 1st, 2006
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
- Aristotle
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In my general blog I occasionally post things that are “random thoughts”, that category may eventually exist here, but for now “quotes” is more appropriate, as I do not yet have many random thoughts when it comes to ceramics. This entry serves as the first in this category. As I find other inspirations or interesting thoughts/quotes I will post them.
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