Craig Martell on wed 4 nov 98
Hello There:
I always dry mix my glazes and I probably always will. It's kind of hard to
wet mix a glaze that has a fair amount of kaolin or ball clay and some
bentonite, macaloid, or vee gum "t". Some of my glazes that are low in clay
and contain macaliod or vee gum to keep them in suspension would take a lot
of extra time to mix wet as these pesky montmorillonites don't wanna do
anything but lump if you don't wet blunge them before adding, or mix them in
thoroughly in the dry state.
I do agree with Joseph Herbert's reasoning about dry mixing glazes and if
you CAN wet mix successfully, it's fine. I use a 5 or 10 gallon container
with a tight fitting lid that has a small hole in the center that is just
big enough for the shaft of my mixer and I dry mix glaze with the lid
tightly fastened and this almost totally cuts the dust thing. For amounts
of glaze, say around 100 lbs to 150 lbs, I use my stainless steel clay mixer
which is in a separate building from the workspace. I mix the glaze, shut
the mixer off, and let the dust settle for a couple of hours, to a day or
two and then, with a mask on, bag the dry and wet mix what I need.
I'm not disagreeing, just offering another approach.
regards, Craig Martell in Oregon
Paul Lewing on thu 5 nov 98
Another way to dry mix glazes if you don't have a drill mixer is to
put all the ingredients in a round container with a tight fitting lid,
like a snap-lid bucket, or one of those paper barrels. Cut a wooden
slat to the length that will just fit on the diagonal. Put this in the
container, seal it up, and roll it around on the floor. Craig's
suggestion of waiting a while for the dust to settle is a good one.
Damn, he's bright!
Paul Lewing, Seattle
the Gallagher's on fri 6 nov 98
Hi Craig,
I think your system mixing small batches of the liquid glaze, and keeping the
ready-mixed dry and safely away until needed is a good way to have many
different glazes at your grasp, but not taking up much space in a small
studio.
This is especially handy for tiles that require small amounts of many glaze
colors.
Michelle
In Oregon
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I always dry mix my glazes and I probably always will.........
For amounts
of glaze, say around 100 lbs to 150 lbs, I use my stainless steel clay mixer
which is in a separate building from the workspace. I mix the glaze, shut
the mixer off, and let the dust settle for a couple of hours, to a day or
two and then, with a mask on, bag the dry and wet mix what I need.
I'm not disagreeing, just offering another approach.
regards, Craig Martell in Oregon
Richard Ramirez on sat 7 nov 98
Hello,
Have they mention plastic bags? Zip locks for small batches and garbage bags
for larger batches. Clear plastic better for seeing the mixture. yes do wait
for the dust to settle. My .02$. "The Clay Stalker"
ps. Thicker mil plastic the better.
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