May Luk: Dip Into Glaze

Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:56:10 GMT

Some Understanding of Stoneware Glazes After I have digested what I've learnt from the lecture yesterday. I did a Si:Al graph with the high magnesium glaze grid. Then I followed what Mike had said and plot the materials on the graph as well. I feel like getting an eye test, every new bit of glaze information is like an optometrist putting a stronger lens on me and I gradually am seeing better! The material graph actually show why a particular area of the glaze grid is glossy. The area follows the plotted graph and it works. Well, almost. There is zinc oxide in the recipe and the zinc has no al or si input, therefore it's not in the grid. But the zinc is an important secondary flux and I know that it affects how the glaze look. Click here to see some photos from the lecture.

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 19:20:35 GMT

Understanding Stoneware Glazes Today at the Craft Council from 2 - 4:30 pm, Mike Bailey led a lecture on understanding stoneware glazes. A quick demo on LOI was done and the reasons explained. He took us through a quick calculation on % analysis. Without the calculation, we cannot plot the graphs. Then we each took some tiles and assign codes to them by appearance; going from matte to transparent. From this grid/chart, we understand where the eutetic point of the glaze is. Knowing this position, we know how to balance a glaze. We can also plot the position of a material. It helps to have this knowledge for adjusting glaze; sometimes, it has to do with the flux, and sometimes, it maybe the silica that requires adjusting. All this information is in his book. He made it much eaiser to understand by showing us all the fired tiles.

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 12:44:54 GMT

May 04 Glaze Report - Pink Glaze

June 04 Glaze Report - High Magnesium Matt Glaze