[Nelly]

Dear All,

I have a white stone ware body and don't want the hassle of going to pick up some speckle commercial clay this week and got to thinkiing, can I not simply make this glaze with the addition of some manganese?

Would this provide the same speckle effect under glaze and of course I have to ask about food safety??

My thought was to simple take either some solution of manganese say and water and put this in my bag of clay and let it absorb it or put some dry manganese in while thoroughly wedging??

Has anyone tried this? Can this be toxic or cause any harm to my kiln?

Nelly

[Marcia Selsor]

Manganese is toxic stuff. Handle with care, do not breath fumes. It is one of the more lethal chemicals which has had health effects on Hans Coper and Dave Shaner to name two famous deceased potters.,

Marcia

[GEP]

Nelly, we had a similar discussion about this not too long ago ...

http://ceramicartsda...p-for-speckles/

Mea

[Nelly]

Marcia Selsor, on 11 May 2012 - 07:28 AM, said:

Manganese is toxic stuff. Handle with care, do not breath fumes. It is one of the more lethal chemicals which has had health effects on Hans Coper and Dave Shaner to name two famous deceased potters.,

Marcia

Dear Marcia,

Yes, I do know about the toxicity aspect of his work. But man oh man, was he a potter!!! His work was breath taking. There is a great book out there on his I read and really studied. He used his washes on the surface of his bisque and fired them predominantly. Thank you again for the warning.

Nancy

[Nelly]

GEP, on 11 May 2012 - 08:28 AM, said:

Nelly, we had a similar discussion about this not too long ago ...

http://ceramicartsda...p-for-speckles/

Mea

Dear Mea,

Thank you so very much for sending me to this site. I do agree, the results from their rutile and ileminite are beautiful. I think I also read on an old post somewhere on the internet that some people have experimented with really fine metal shavings. I won't do the metal but I will certainly try the rutile and ileminite and I do like the salt/pepper shaker approach idea on wet glaze. Thank you for sending me this post.

Nelly

[TJR]

Nelly;
I sent this post out previously but you might not have been on the blog. If you want speckles, I am assuming for an oxidation glaze, you can add material to the glaze rather than the clay body-less expensive. The materials of choice are granular illmanite and granular rutile. Granular rutile gives a softer look.
TJR.

[Nelly]

TJR, on 11 May 2012 - 07:13 PM, said:

Nelly;
I sent this post out previously but you might not have been on the blog. If you want speckles, I am assuming for an oxidation glaze, you can add material to the glaze rather than the clay body-less expensive. The materials of choice are granular illmanite and granular rutile. Granular rutile gives a softer look.
TJR.

Dear TJR,

Thanks so much for the insight. I was able to see the notes on the past blog as someone sent them to me. Monday, I will order a tiny batch of both of these chemicals from Tucker's pottery supply. I will give it a go!!!

Thank you for your feedback.

Nelly