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crystals seived out of my glaze bucket

updated fri 14 feb 03

 

Linda Knapp on wed 12 feb 03


A little late perhaps but I am just catching up on email. We have the same
crystals develop on the red glaze when the winter comes - nearest guess by my
father the retired Chemical Engineer is that they might be Lithium Silicate
crystals. In any case what we do is sieve them out put them in a small
container and put a little hot water on them - If that doesn't melt them we
stick em in the microwave (in water ) and heat them up a bit - that usually
does the trick and we put the solution back in the bucket. I am dealing with
a garbage can size bucket here so the small amount of water added is no big
deal - the owner of the studio and I have talked about putting an aquarium
heater in during the cold times. It only would have to heat it a little to
keep the crystals from forming.



On Wednesday 12 February 2003 06:51 pm, jspoces wrote:
> Due to some very good advice from several clayart sources I have dealt
> with finding the flat hexagon crystals in the Pam Frederick's Glaze. I
> just fired the results last night. The glaze minus the crystals is very
> similar to the original but a little more orange. I will continue to use
> it as is. What I like about the glaze is how it interacts with other
> glazes and that is the same. I tried Lili's suggestion and placed one of
> the 1/4 inch crystals on top of a stable glaze on a flat dish. What fun!
> The result was a 1/2 inch circle of glossy broken green color with a white
> halo radiating into the base glaze. My glaze room did get very cold but the
> temperature did not go below freezing. I rolled my oil-filled electric
> heater nearer the glaze buckets. Hope it won't happen again.
>
> Saundra in Zirconia, NC
>
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jspoces on wed 12 feb 03


Due to some very good advice from several clayart sources I have dealt with finding the flat hexagon crystals in the Pam Frederick's Glaze. I just fired the results last night.
The glaze minus the crystals is very similar to the original but a little more orange. I will continue to use it as is. What I like about the glaze is how it interacts with other glazes and that is the same.
I tried Lili's suggestion and placed one of the 1/4 inch crystals on top of a stable glaze on a flat dish. What fun! The result was a 1/2 inch circle of glossy broken green color with a white halo radiating into the base glaze.
My glaze room did get very cold but the temperature did not go below freezing. I rolled my oil-filled electric heater nearer the glaze buckets.
Hope it won't happen again.

Saundra in Zirconia, NC