[Elmoclayman]

I teach a high school ceramics class and I have noticed that a couple of my glazes (stored in 5 gallon buckets), solidify at the bottom of the bucket if they sit over night. I have to drain the liquid off, then chip away at the "solid" glaze material, then remix the glaze. It is very time consuming. Is there a material I can add to my glazes to prevent this without altering the color of the glaze?

Thanks in advance

[Matt Oz]

You'll get lots of good advice here, in the meantime here is a popular article on the subject.

Adjusting Glazes for Application by Pete Pinnell

[Pres]

Elmoclayman, on 19 April 2012 - 01:11 PM, said:

I teach a high school ceramics class and I have noticed that a couple of my glazes (stored in 5 gallon buckets), solidify at the bottom of the bucket if they sit over night. I have to drain the liquid off, then chip away at the "solid" glaze material, then remix the glaze. It is very time consuming. Is there a material I can add to my glazes to prevent this without altering the color of the glaze?

Thanks in advance

This usually happens when the clay content in the glaze is low. I used to have a gallon jar in the classroom of Epsom Salts dissolved in water(dissolve as much as you can without residue). a couple of tablespoons of this would deflocculate the glaze and make it stay i suspension longer. Others use things like gum Arabic, but as that is organic, it will grow mold. Bentonite can be added to the glaze in small percentages to help with this also.

[Mark C.]

What Pres said
Epsom Salts dissolved in warm water-add to glaze after you have poured off some water and remixed all the solids.
If this is not enough to keep it suspended there are other ways as well but are a bit more costly and more work.
Mark

[Marcia Selsor]

Yep. Epsom salts. I put it in when I first mix the glaze if it is prone to doing that.
Marcia

[TJR]

I use 2% Bentonite if the glaze does not have much clay in it. Mix in hot water first, then dump in the glaze bucket.You will have to mix quite well. For 5 gallons og glaze you would need 100 grams of Bentonite.
TJR.