Bruce Girrell on mon 14 feb 00
Just curious what methods you folks find most effective for mixing
colorants, like Mason stains or just plain cobalt carb, into porcelain?
Sprinkling in the powdered form and wedging takes pretty long if you're not
going to have dust flying everywhere and mixing the colorant with water and
wedging seems to get most of the colorant on the wedging surface rather than
in the clay.
What else works for you?
Thanks for your replies.
Bruce and Lynne Girrell
with Lynne in northern Michigan and Bruce in Texas
separated for too long by business travel
and aching to be back together
Bryan on tue 15 feb 00
I ball mill colorants into a slurry and then add them to clay that I
am mixing in soldner mixer.
Pug, and bag, put in buckets or garbage can.
I'd like a good method for small batches.
Bryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Girrell
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Monday, February 14, 2000 1:32 PM
Subject: Mixing colorants into clay
>----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
>Just curious what methods you folks find most effective for mixing
>colorants, like Mason stains or just plain cobalt carb, into
porcelain?
>Sprinkling in the powdered form and wedging takes pretty long if
you're not
>going to have dust flying everywhere and mixing the colorant with
water and
>wedging seems to get most of the colorant on the wedging surface
rather than
>in the clay.
>
>What else works for you?
>
>Thanks for your replies.
>
>Bruce and Lynne Girrell
>with Lynne in northern Michigan and Bruce in Texas
>separated for too long by business travel
>and aching to be back together
>
vince pitelka on tue 15 feb 00
> Just curious what methods you folks find most effective for mixing
> colorants, like Mason stains or just plain cobalt carb, into porcelain?
> Sprinkling in the powdered form and wedging takes pretty long if you're
not
> going to have dust flying everywhere and mixing the colorant with water
and
> wedging seems to get most of the colorant on the wedging surface rather
than
> in the clay.
Bruce and Lynne -
Slice your lump of clay, sprinkle some stain or oxide on each slice and
spray lightly with water in a spritz bottle, stack up the slices, wedge.
Sure some colorant gets on the wedging surface, but you just keep wedging on
that surface and the lump of clay picks up almost all the colorant. Sponge
off the surface well, and no colorant will get on other clays. Or, staple
some canvas over a board, and use that to wedge colorants into clay, and
keep your normal wedging surface clean.
If you don't want to wedge, then mix the colorants into a slurry with a
drill-mixer or a hand-blender. This gives clay which is more plastic right
away, which is especially important when working with colored clays,
especially when coloring clays with Mason stains.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Antoinette Badenhorst on tue 15 feb 00
There are two ways that I will color my porcelain. Either I will use the slip
(that come from wheel throwing) and mix colorants that is already mixed into
water in there. Let it then dry out on a plaster bat. The other way will be
to mix colorants in water (mix it thick and with warm water) and hollow a
piece of plastic clay. Pour the colorant in there and let it sit for a while
to let the water soak away. Then work it through with your fingers and then
wedge it on a plaster bat.
If it is important to get a consistent color the last method will work better
if you measure everything.
Good luck.
Antoinette.
Alex Wilson on wed 16 feb 00
Jar mill or use Mels' Blender Method, Mix in a Bucket, Knead.
Short but sweet.
Alex, The Scottish Potter
Chris Campbell on wed 16 feb 00
I bought an old used Hobart commercial mixer from a restaurant supply house
and use it to mix in colorants (as well as to mix batches of paper clay).
The stains usually arrive in a plastic bag, so I just add some water and
shake it to blend it thoroughly. Then I add it about 1/3 of the clay and mix
until it becomes an evenly colored slip. I keep adding the clay until it is
all evenly colored.
For small batches use your studio blender to mix the color then add your base
clay till you have a smooth, thick slip. This is easy to kneed this into the
rest of your clay. Of course, you should always be rubber gloves when mixing
with your hands.
I actually sold my pugmill and only use the Hobart now.
Chris - in Carolina
David Hewitt on wed 16 feb 00
Vince,
I mix up 300g of coloured clay at a time. I weigh the oxide or stain and
mix with a little water to make a solution. This I then put into the
hollowed out clay and wedge until uniform in colour. Nothing different
in this to what others have said, but I note your comment about
'especially important when working with stains'.
Those 300g batches using stains seem always to become stiffer with time
than those mixed with oxides. This is in spite of the fact that with the
stains the % weight is always greater than with the oxides and hence
more water is added when made into a solution as described. Am I
imagining this stiffening or is this what others experience. If do you
know the reason, please.
David
In message , vince pitelka writes
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>If you don't want to wedge, then mix the colorants into a slurry with a
>drill-mixer or a hand-blender. This gives clay which is more plastic right
>away, which is especially important when working with colored clays,
>especially when coloring clays with Mason stains.
>Good luck -
>- Vince
>
>Vince Pitelka
>Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
>615/597-5376
>Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
>615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
>Appalachian Center for Crafts
>Tennessee Technological University
>1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
>
--
David Hewitt
David Hewitt Pottery ,
7 Fairfield Road, Caerleon, Newport,
South Wales, NP18 3DQ, UK. Tel:- +44 (0) 1633 420647
FAX:- +44 (0) 870 1617274
Own Web site http://www.dhpot.demon.co.uk
IMC Web site http://digitalfire.com/education/people/hewitt.htm
Stephen Mills on fri 18 feb 00
John Colbec in his excellent book on materials recommends making a thumb
pot with the clay to be coloured, putting the colorant into it together
with some water, and then with a piece of stick or similar implement
working it into a paste gradually incorporating the thumb pot until all
you can do is wedge it together.
Steve
Bath
UK
In message , Bruce Girrell writes
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Just curious what methods you folks find most effective for mixing
>colorants, like Mason stains or just plain cobalt carb, into porcelain?
>Sprinkling in the powdered form and wedging takes pretty long if you're not
>going to have dust flying everywhere and mixing the colorant with water and
>wedging seems to get most of the colorant on the wedging surface rather than
>in the clay.
>
>What else works for you?
>
>Thanks for your replies.
>
>Bruce and Lynne Girrell
>with Lynne in northern Michigan and Bruce in Texas
>separated for too long by business travel
>and aching to be back together
>
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
home e-mail: stevemills@mudslinger.demon.co.uk
work e-mail: stevemills@bathpotters.demon.co.uk
own website: http://www.mudslinger.demon.co.uk
BPS website: http://www.bathpotters.demon.co.uk
Tel: **44 (0)1225 311699
Fax: **44 (0)870 0526466
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