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designing a glaze

updated sat 31 may 03

 

Stephani Stephenson on wed 28 may 03


This is response to Wes' comments about 'picturing ' a glaze first and
trying to design it from there.
I too , have sometimes pictured a glaze in my mind, in fact there's one
or two in particular I have been chasing after for some time.
One is a rich semi matte terra cotta or brick iron red which breaks a
bit on raised surfaces, at cone o4-02. I can FEEL this glaze, but I
haven't nailed it yet. There are a few more. I get close, but not quite
there.

What I have found is that there is no shortcut, (unless you get lucky I
suppose, and hit something right off the bat).

It is like entering the 'tunnel of glaze discovery'
you enter into the main tunnel with a glaze in mind,
thinking 'Oh this is where I discover my dream glaze'

But the main tunnel splits off into several other tunnels.
every time you pass through yet another passageway, IT opens up into
even more tunnels.
Every tunnel has a name. 'let's explore calcium, let's explore boron,
let's explore titanium, let's explore limits, let's explore trace
elements, let's explore alumina silica ratios, lets explore ash, let's
explore colorants....."
at every turn you make a choice, knowing that by choosing one, you are
not choosing others.
and there seem to be a host of tunnels beckoning you! You can't go down
all of them at the same time, yet you have to know your way around a
good number of them in order to design a glaze

Just look at any given element, and all of the things it can do in
combination with other elements
then think of how many variables there are just by choosing your base
materials
then think of the variables encountered just changing the percentages
of chosen materials .
This is before considering the variations that come via interaction
with your particular clay body and firing/kiln conditions
This is far too much information for my brain to digest at once.

There are methods to help you make sense of it, but if you even utilize
these methods ,
it takes time and you really must apply yourself,
be prepared to feel like a greenhorn for quite some time.

I feel like a slow bug learning at a very slow bug pace. But there are
many wonderful and fabulous discoveries along the way. Yes, there are
moments of AHA and I just keep building on them.

I am waiting for Newton's apple to fall on my head and the whole wide
tableau
to unfold before me in rich polychromatic detail and splendor.
But that hasn't happened yet so I keep plugging away.


By the way if anyone would like to send me a big chunk of money or a
grant so I can do this full time for awhile , that would be most
appreciated,
(unfortunately life keeps interrupting my glaze experiments!!!! hah ha!)

I always poked along using a combination of intuition, line blends and a
lot of reference materials. and of course I would try all sorts of
published recipes, trying to get a winner. I have gotten a couple of
good base glazes and special glazes this way, but it brought me no
closer to the glazes I REALLY wanted.
finally I just got frustrated enough to try a new approach. It bothered
me that after all these years I still did not have the palette I wanted
and did not know how to get it. This after 20 years working with clay.
I adapted a glaze a couple of years ago, which I felt was successful,
and am still learning about how I can stretch it, push it, what it will
and will not do.

In the past year I finally started applying Ian Currie's grid method and
am also trying to get up to speed on limits and have also started
learning how to use a glaze calculation program

I like Ian Currie's method, which I surmise is an adaptation of
quadraxial blends, because it shows me some observable relationships.
The only frightening thing about it, is that it REALLY opens up the
possibilities!. Suddenly you have before you a gazillion possible
glazes!!!! YAAAAAAAA!!!

Because these grids show you an observable, tangible pattern of
relationships with a given set of materials, you can begin to make sense
of it.... I am trying to combine this with what I am learning from
materials databases, and I am trying to combine what I see with what I
learn via reference material and glaze calc software about glaze
expansion, limits, etc.
I also listen ravenously to tips and anecdotal information I get from
those more knowledgeable than I,

but it is still a long road, and there's no getting around doing the
work.

I guess my final analogy would be that the glaze you picture is the tip
of the iceburg that is visible above the water line.
The work you have to do to get there is that part of the iceburg below
the water line.

best wishes
Stephani Stephenson
steph@alchemiestudio.com
Carlsbad CA 92018

iandol on thu 29 may 03


Dear Stephani Stephenson,

Good summation of the trials, torments and tribulations of the Wild =
Glaze Explorer.

Ah, the Quadraxial Blend Matrix, be it 7*5 or 6*6. Not sure about the =
7*5 but the common or garden 6*6 only gives you one third of the =
possibilities! And if you go through the High, Medium and Low ranges for =
your primary melting agent you increase the factions by a factor of =
three again.

Best regards,

Ivor Lewis.