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Moon pebbles?
Just realized I hadn’t finished editing tests from a couple years ago. Here’s a line blend of gloop: Left side has +5% Mason 6097 stain, while the right has +5% 1000 mesh silicon carbide (SiC). At around 4% it becomes a dimpled, smooth, stone-like surface that’s great to the touch.
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US Pigment Stains in Porcelain Clay Body
US Pigment Stains in Porcelain Clay Body https://glazy.org/posts/163796 Each of these tests was mixed with 100g porcelain clay body in amounts of +2%, +4%, +8%. The +8% was also mixed with black stain (Mason 6600, mixed about 25% black and 75% color).
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Visualizing Blend Types
Tests using traditional line, triaxial, and biaxial blends can teach us a lot about ceramic chemistry. But sometimes they feel limiting. What other possibilities are there? Arranging a series of line blends into a “complete graph” might be illuminating. And instead of a flat biaxial, what about a three-dimensional pyramid/tetrahedron? What if blends went 3d? I’d love to hear the #glazenerd army’s […]
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SiC Additions to Clay Bodies
A simple blend test adding Silicon Carbide (SiC) to a clay body. Wanted to see if I could induce reduction effects in an oxidized electric kiln environment.
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Lipstick Purple Biaxial
“Painted” Biaxial based on Tom Coleman’s beautiful Lipstick Purple. Part of my “Painted” series of tests prepared for @northernclaycenter’s “Six McKnight Artists” exhibition. Each row has a set Alumina level, while each column represents a specific Silica:Alumina ratio. Coleman’s original recipe lies on the bottom row (Al2O3 0.4) between the second & third columns (Si:Al […]
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Qing Porcelain Stone Tests
These are melt tests of different types of porcelain stone from sometime at or before the Qing dynasty. Iron or blue qinghua underglaze was used to write place names and other notes on each test. Porcelain stone is an amazing material that primarily comes from a number of mines near Jingdezhen. Combining porcelain stone with […]
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Iron Saturate Glazes
During the next few days I’ll be releasing a series showing how to create a glaze using Glazy and volumetric blending.
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Cone 6 Oxidation Blue Triaxial Blend
In Chinese Glazes, we learn from Nigel Woods that the cobalt used for underglaze blue & white underglazes and blue glazes came in a range of chemical compositions and grades of purity. Thus, there are many shades of blue due to the quality of cobalt-containing stone as well the overlying glaze. In the same book, Nigel presents […]
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Orton Cone 6 Clear Glazes
Having not fired cone 6 since college, I started by first testing a number of clear cone 6 glazes on https://glazy.org I also studied up on cone 6 glaze chemistry via Matthew Katz’s Advancing Glazes course and his papers: Boron in Glazes, Mid-Temperature Glaze Science, Glaze Safety/Durable Glazes Presentation. Click here for full image of […]
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Tichane’s Tests
Some of Robert Tichane’s glaze tests and reproductions of Chinese Glazes donated to the Freer and Sackler Galleries: https://archive.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/default.cfm?searchTerm=tichane&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0&btnG=Search
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Orton Cone 11 R2O 0.18 Clear & Celadon Regions
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Glaze Transparency Test
Recently I’ve been wondering if there’s a reliable way to test glazes for transparency. A method that would allow one to compare results from different firings and glaze types. Paint manufacturers have a system for testing paint opacity that uses a black and white card from which a contrast ratio can be calculated. The primary manufacturer is Leneta. […]
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Mixing test glazes
It’s important to wear a NIOSH certified mask whenever using dry glaze materials. I guess mixing up glazes isn’t that big of a deal, but I’m sharing my technique just in case there are some absolute beginners out there. I find it easier to use a digital scale, see my article here. Glazes “don’t travel well”, in […]
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Qing Dynasty Test Tiles
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Orton Cone 10 Reduction Glaze Line Blends
Leach 4321 is a simple, reliable glaze that we can use to compare coloring oxides. All of the following glaze variations can be found on Glazy: http://glazy.org/search?search_words=leach&category=36&cone=high
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Digital Scales for Weighing Glazes
After years of using simple balance scales to measure out glazes, I finally decided to invest in a better setup. I couldn’t find any triple-beam scales for sale in Jingdezhen, so instead I purchased a cheap 200-gram digital scale from a local shop. I was delighted at how much simpler and faster it was to mix up […]
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Triaxial testing
A lot of potters in China still seem to mix glazes the old-school way- one cup of this, two cups of that. And strangely enough this technique seems to work pretty well for complex traditional materials. Being a foreigner I tend to make things overly complicated. I am also terrified of mixing up a great glaze […]
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How I Make Glaze Test Tiles
October 2020 Update I’ve simplified my test tiles. Now, the test tiles themselves are just simple slabs of clay. But I make test tile holders out of a strong clay. Flat, Square Test Tiles Flat test tiles cut from slabs are ideal. You can easily make them from any type of clay. No need to […]
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Porcelain Stone Glazes
Jingdezhen Porcelain Stone There are a number of types of porcelain stone mined throughout Jingdezhen and the surrounding countryside. Some are more suitable for making porcelain clay, while others are traditionally used for glazes. It is difficult to know how similar modern-day porcelain stone is to traditional materials. During the few years I have lived […]