: pricklypotter - Viewing Profile

Hi,

I've tried this recipe for a cone 10 reduction turquoise matte (I found it online):

Neph Sy 50
Strontium Carb 38
OM4 6
Silica 6

add:

Copper Carb 3

I know it's low on silica.

I quite like the colour, turquoise where thin and almost black and matte where thick, and the nice, dryish frosty surface. In my little line blend of adding the copper 1% at a time, the 1% tile reduced to a matte pinkish tone, the 2% tile partly reduced, and the best turquoise was at 3%. I was thinking I could add 0.5% to 1% more copper to see if it improves more.

My problem is that it crazes on my clay bodies (plainsman P700 and SPS Kutani).

The problem is visual since I am not going to use this in contact with food.

I was thinking of fixing this in three different ways:

0. adding silica until it's within the acceptable limit, and risk making it shinier or somehow changing the nice colour response
1. adding (5%?) zircopax (this also adds silica)
2. substituting spodumene for some of the neph sy, to replace some (definitely not all!) of the KNa with Li.

My direct question is how to do (2), would a mole of Li for each missing mole of KNa work?

And the more general question is which of these approaches would seem more promising.

Thanks!

PS for (2) I thought of matching the flux mole for mole, then balancing out the remaining alumina with clay and finally balancing out the remaining silica.

...And some non-SPS bodies.

I have just diversified from exclusively cone 6 oxidation (actually ^7 but that's a different story) to ^10 reduction (updraft, gas)

I live in Vancouver BC where clay is expensive, luckily my SO is going to Seattle next week, so I can get some cheap clay from there. But we don't go there every day so 'buy a bit and try' is less of an option.

I've looked at the 5 SPS ^10 porcelains and have no idea how to compare them. I am going for white and translucent.

In particular I'm trying to figure out the differences between Kenzan, Kutani, and the SPS Grolleg body.

Phoning SPS is useless, they're evasive and vague, I tried. That's also been my experience when I bought a bunch of their Dove (^6) porcelain and asked them in person. FWIW, I was highly disappointed with Dove. I found it limp (so needs to be thrown thicker), short-ish, not that white and only a little translucent. I use Laguna Frost for my ^6 work and find it easy to throw thin and to handbuild with. And of course it is stark white and extremely translucent. Luckily people bought some Dove off of me when I got sick of it.

SPS also carry Aardvark's Tom Coleman porcelain, and I am considering that one too. I am aware that SPS carries Southern Ice as well but it's too expensive for me.

And of course Greenbarn carries Plainsman P700. I got some to try it out, it's a dream to work with, very easy to get it thin, trims nicely, and hopefully my extremely cavalier joinery habits won't bite me in the back when I go back to my ^10 studio on Tuesday (they don't with Frost). I will only see fired results in November though. And it's expensive as well.

I have heard conflicting reports on Kenzan and the Tom Coleman - some people say they're translucent, others say they're not. I suspect that the people who say that they're not haven't gotten it thin enough? They also say Coleman is a gorgeous white, and that Kenzan is not so white but good for wood, salt and soda firings, which are not in the cards for me at present.

SO:

Any comparative info on

SPS Kenzan, Kutani, Grolleg
Aardvark Tom Coleman
Plainsman P700

how white, how translucent, how hard to get a pot thin (throwing)?

And again my benchmark is Laguna Frost ^6 which I find easy to get thin, a gorgeous white, and extremely translucent

Thanks!
David

Hi all,

I have a problem - maybe people here can help. I currently live in Vancouver, BC and pot with the Burnaby Potters' Guild and at UBC. I will soon find myself in Paris for half a year and can't stand the thought of being away from clay. I have tried to find a community studio space/ pottery club/ a place to do pottery a few times a week on a drop in or subscription basis but have come up with nothing. Does anyone here know if such studio spaces even exist there? Or if there are other options that will allow me to do pottery on a semi regular basis (as opposed to a one time workshop, a class that I don't really need, etc).

Not sure this is in the right forum or if there is even a right forum for this question, any information will be greatly appreciated
Thanks.
David