Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake

 

When your 90-year-old mother asks for cheescake for Mother's Day, you make a cheesecake. It's the law. It might even be in the Bible. I know this is not remotely pottery related! I couldn't even bake it in a stoneware pan - you need a springform pan for cheesecake. but I made a cheesecake, it was amazing, and I want to share it with you. 

Chocolate Almond Cheesecake

Crust

• 1/2 package of chocolate wafer cookies
• 3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

You'll also need cooking spray

Cake

• 3 packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels, melted in double boiler

Preheat oven the 325°.

Grind cookies in food processor to coarse crumbs. Melt butter in microwave (takes about 30 -45 seconds) Mix crumbs, butter, brown sugar, and chopped almonds well in batter bowl. Spray interior of springform pan with cooking spray. Press mixture into bottom of springform pan. Bake 10 minutes, then remove from over & place on cooling rack. 

Meanwhile, put softened cream cheese in bowl & beat with stand mixer or hand mixer until creamy. Add sugar & beat until uniform beige color. Add eggs, milk, and almond extract; beat until well blended. Mix in melted chocolate. 

Pour into crust.

Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes (at least, that's what the original recipe said. In my oven, it was more like 45 minutes.) until the center barely jiggles. Turn off oven, crack open door but leave cheesecake inside for an hour or more, to cool slowly. 

Cover with foil & place in refrigerator to chill overnight.

Enjoy. I plan to have the last piece for breakfast! 

PS! I meant to mention, I swapped out the amaretto for almond extract, because we're an alcohol-free household. Tastes exactly the same!
Just seeing if you're paying attention. 😄

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

 

I have sort of a ritual with my hiking buddy, who goes by Hiking with Yowie on instagram. (Here's me, btw) We do our hike (or snowshoe, or bike ride, or paddle), then we find a local restaurant & have lunch. Yowie is vegetarian, so we always look for a place that has good choices in that vein. Last week we hiked the Gannett Woods trail to Shed Pond, then came back to Augusta & ate at State Lunch. We both had salads as our entrées, which were fine, but most memorable was the appetizer: Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts. 

I liked those so much I decided to try them at home! I've had an air fryer for over a year, but until recently basically only used it to heat up fishsticks. It can be a quicker way to prepare healthy foods (& an energy saver!), so I made a resolution to learn to do more with it. First I learned homemade chicken nuggets - no batter, no oil, but juicy, spicy, & quick! - and now I have figured out this new dish.

Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

10-12 Brussels Sprouts, cut in half
Optional: diced red bell pepper, 3/4s cup
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 cup Dry Roasted Peanuts, no salt
1 clove & 2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Honey
1/2 teaspoon Ginger
Splash of Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1/4 teaspoon Cornstarch

I rarely measure when I cook, so these are approximations.

• Mix soy, ginger, honey, hot sauce  & 2 cloves garlic together. Whisk in cornstarch to thicken. Heat in saucepan until just boiling. Reduce heat & stir in peanuts. Remove from heat after 2 minutes.
• Toss cut brussels sprouts (& bell pepper, if using) with 1 clove garlic & cook in air fryer 9 minutes at 400°. 
• Place cooked vegetables into bowl. Pour sauce mixture over & toss to thoroughly coat. 

Makes 2 servings if side dish, one if main course. 

Black Stain to try (recipe)

 Dropping this here so I can find it again. From the Ceramic Arts Network, contributed by Forrest Gard: 

Black Wash/Stain

Red Iron Oxide

 16.46

Cobalt Oxide

 16.45

Manganese Dioxide

 16.45

Nepheline Syenite

 25.32

OM 4 Ball Clay

 25.32

The Great Garlic Roast-Off

 

I am thinking of adding garlic roasters to my line up of items for the spring 2021 season, so I made a couple as class demos, and so that I would be able to take them for a test...roast. The big question: hole in the lid, or no? 

Today is the big day: got the garlic, got the oil, got 2 stoneware roasters, one with hole, one without. Let's give this a whirl. 

I started by removing all the paper skin that I could without disassembling the head. Then I cut off the pointy tips (not the root end!)

Then I put a teaspoon of water into the bowl of each garlic roaster, and placed the garlic root side down into it. I drizzled some olive oil over it (I just used the cheap, pale kind; you may want to use extra virgin) and covered it. I place the roasters in a cold oven, turned it up to 400°, and let it roast for 45 minutes. 

There was not a great deal of difference between the two, but I think the one without the hole was easier to wash - the garlic didn't bake onto the dish. Also, bonus: roasted garlic is amazing! I thought it was just like regular garlic only soft and spreadable, but it's not! It's much milder, nutty and almost sweet. 

One of these heads we spread on bread to enjoy; the other I mixed with some olive oil, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese and dressed some pasta & greens with it. 

For the potters: the roaster is thrown in 2 parts: the bowl is a shallow dish with a gallery for the lid to rest on, and took about a pound of clay; the lid was thrown as a deep bowl whose rim matched the outer edge of the gallery (you'll need calipers.) It required about 1.25 pounds of clay. At leatherhard the lid is trimmed to a smooth dome & the knob is added. They are fired together during both the bisque and the glaze firings. 

Satin Matte Black ^10 Reduction

Just storing this glaze recipe here so I can't lose it.

Black Satin Matte	BATCH SIZE	5000
	Percentages	Grams
Custer Feld	20%	1000
Soda spar (minspar)	20%	1000
Whiting	2%	100
Dolomite	15%	750
Talc	13%	650
OM4	10%	500
Flint 325	20%	1000
Chrome Oxide Green	1%	50
Red Iron Oxide (domestic)	3%	150
Cobalt Oxide	3%	150
Manganese Dioxide	2%	100

Very reliable, forgiving, smooth, true black. Iron spotting will occur over brown claybodies. Can be runny in combination with other glazes.

Always More to Learn

Amaco Velvet underglaze on Waxy White Glaze (recipe below), on Laguna's 900 claybody

Students are like those fabled bumblebees that didn't know they couldn't fly; sometimes they don't know they can't do a thing, so they go ahead & do it, and we all learn something! That happened in one of my classes last week.

If she had asked me, I would have told Jesse not to do it; putting underglaze on top of glaze, I would have predicted, would have crusty, unpleasant results. And I would have been so wrong! She did it, and - surprise! - the underglaze maintained its brilliant, right-out-of-the-jar colors, but took the waxy sheen of the glaze. Not all of them - blue turned watercolor-y and periwinkle, the black & brown were...not great - but the hot colors were amazing. Red & orange & yellow like I've never seen in reduction.
So I tried it, with the few underglazes I had lying around, and had the same results! All of the underglazes used were Amaco's Velvet series; I applied mine in 3 coats. (Jesse didn't know exactly but she said "thick." I used Flame Orange, Radiant Red, and Royal Blue. As you can see, the Royal Blue turned more of a watercolor-y periwinkle; the others are right-out-of-the-jar hues.

Amaco's velvet underglaze on Waxy White Glaze
on Laugna's 570 porcelain

We only tried one glaze (so far!), and that is this one:

Waxy White (not sure the origin, but I got it at Portland Pottery)
^10 reduction

4100 Custer Spar
1200 Gerstley Borate
700 Dolomite
1500 Talc
500 EPK
2000 Silica

Apple Green Conversion

It's been a couple of years since I expanded my glaze palette. Mixing glazes is not my favorite thing to do (if it's yours, please let me know! 😄 You might be utterly unique.) The glaze kitchen tends to get cluttered up with bikes and gardening equipment, so I have to clear it out before I even begin. Every firing seems to be pushed against a time limit (and whose fault is that?) so adding an additional task - mixing a test glaze - isn't feasible. But! I am starting to get antsy for new colors & surfaces. The green in currently have I rarely use - it's a little dark for the candy-coated vibe of my ware. This, though: this promises apple green! That would be right up my alley.

It's not currently chemically quite right for soda; and I will want to do a ^6 conversion on it also, to have both possibilities. I am doing a lot less ^6 these days - I find the soda glass itself is just not quite as luscious, somehow, so I've been unwilling to quit ^10 entirely. Keeping two sets of glazes and two sets of claybodies is actually something of a strain on the space limitations of my studio, in addition to the ever-present risk of getting a piece or a glaze in the wrong firing, with results either disappointing or disastrous, depending on which way it goes. Right now I fire to ^6 for a couple of orders, both of which have more glazed ares and less bare clay or flashing slip. It works well for these,but one of the questions I need to answer in the new year is whether it's worth the storage space & the risks.

I look forward to the Week of Reflection to decide this and other questions.

The easier conversion, obviously, is the one to make this glaze (hopefully!) appropriate for soda firing. It has the necessary percentage of whiting, so I would only need to replace some of the silica with boron. There's a goodly amount of silica in this recipe, too: 28%. I am thinking to switch out 3% of it with boron and run it up the flagpole. ETA: NOPE

Which is to say, run it through the glaze calculation software & see what  it turns up.

Here's the recipe as-is, which I got from Claybucket. 

COLEMAN APPLE GREEN CELADON*

Coleman Apple Green

Cone: 9 – 10

Color: transparent green

Surface: glossy

Firing: reduction

Recipe:    (percent)

Whiting …………… 17.95

Custer Feldspar …. 43.59

EPK …………………. 10.26

Flint …………………. 28.20

Totals:        100 %

Also add:

Chrome Oxide ………  0.25

Red Iron Oxide ……… 0.77

Here's how it looks when Elaine Coleman uses it over porcelain:

Here's the recipe with the alteration I hope will adapt it for soda, with the changes highlighted:

Apple Green for soda

Cone: 9 – 10

Color: transparent green

Surface: glossy

Firing: reduction

Recipe:    (percent)

Whiting …………… 16
Gerstley Borate............1.95

Custer Feldspar …. 42.59

EPK …………………. 11.26

Flint …………………. 28.20

Totals:        100 %

Also add:

Chrome Oxide ………  0.25

Red Iron Oxide ……… 0.77

Now, this recipe also has a large percentage of potash feldspar (Custer Spar) at 43%. It's probably worth trying a 1-for-1 substitution of Custer for Neph Sy - that might be enough (again, GlazeMaster might have something to say about it.) If that doesn't do the trick itself, I'll have to remind myself which frits are best for these colorants and for soda.

The first mix is on my to-do list for today; I'll be testing it in my own kiln next week and in the Portland Pottery stoneware kiln as well, so I can see how it performs without the influence of soda.
Photos next week!
After all this, I decided it would be smart to mix it as-is first, because every now & then a glaze surprises me & does just fine in soda. 

*Why why why doesn't spellcheck know the word "celadon?" I mean "tenmoku" & "shino" I get but celadon is just the name of a color. 😕

OM4 70 Neph Sy 30

Testing a new flashing slip recipe - I kind of just made it up, with crowdsourced suggestions. Let's do it.

Results to follow next week.

Kiln repair went well, I am unloading the bisque today. More info about that (for the kiln geeks among you - I love you, kiln geeks! 💙) soon.

FAB Raku Results, & Recipe

These pieces are all wearing the same glaze: the aptly named FAB Raku, a copper luster variation (Thanks, Captain Obvious.) It can also do some brilliant turquoise crackle results, and some yellow/peach/puce (I know, it's a terrible color name! But a beautiful color. All I am saying, is give puce a chance. 😄)
It is a very variable glaze, but all of its variations are great - provided it gets hot enough. It also does an interesting toadskin thing when it is not quite hot enough which most people probably would not consider a successful surface but it has some nice qualities, especially on sculptural work.
It is a glaze that likes to be hot, though: maybe 03? Hot enough that thin or delicate earthenware bodies warp in the kiln.

Because Portland Pottery is right in the middle of an urban neighborhood, we try to use a minimal-smoke approach - which means combustibles on the ground, trashcans over top after a few seconds of free burning. We use pine or cedar pet bedding as our combustible - it's cheap & easily accessible, but contains some pitch which will create black smoke marks on the finished piece that need to be scrubbed off to see the colors. Different combustible material will give you different glaze results, to a certain extent - it's all about how fast they burn and how loose they are to let oxygen through. My very favorite combustible is dry leaves: they burn quick and clean, and create very little rough texture - but good luck getting enough, in June.

 It's tricky to get the FAB into the pile of combustibles while it is still molten enough to get the wonderful copper results but not so molten that is gets a crusty sawdust texture. You can see a bit of the texture on the third photo.

Here's the recipe. This ia for a 4000 gm batch, so WILL NOT translate as percentages - you'll have to do the math on that. (Hint: multiply everything by 2.5.)

FAB Raku

Frit 3110             2800
Gerstley Borate    200
Flint (325)            200
Soda Ash              400
EPK                      200
Copper Carb         140
Bentonite                80

More oxygen in post-fire gives more turquoise, less gives more copper. Join e for the next raku workshop at Porland Pottery on September 16th, from 12-4 pm, or mix it up yourself & have some fun!

To register for the workshop, call 207-772-4334. Bring 5 - 8 bisqued pieces, made of porcelain, groggy stoneware, or a body made specifically for raku. Wear cotton clothing & closed-toed shoes.

Mad Dog Shino

Now you'll recognize me at NCECA

One nice thing about working at Portland Pottery is I always get a handful of pots out of each kiln load. I don't fire all my demos - I'd be buried in a mountain of not-quite-polished pots - but every firing there are a few.

This one is a trick I love to show students. It's Malcolm Davis Shino, onto which I brushed liquid wax resist...and then didn't do anything else. Just glaze, then wax. No second layer of glaze, no water sprayed on, no sponging.

The mug, before firing

It's the only glaze I know that will do this. The wax prevents the soda ash from rising to the surface of the glaze, and then provides carbon for the glaze to trap as it burns off, creating the contrast between the waxed and unwaxed areas.

It's a highly changeable glaze, its results varying wildly from firing to firing, prompting my students to proclaim that the "M.D." on the bucket stands for Mad Dog. It was a good dog this time, though.

Perhaps because of the high percentage of Neph Sy in the recipe, MD Shino has performed well for me. with NO alteration, at ^6 also. Here's the recipe:

Malcolm Davis Shino
Soda Ash                     16.3
OM-4                           13
EPK                             17
F-4 Soda Feldspar         9.3
Neph Sy                       38.6
Red Art                          5.7

This version is best on white clay; for a version for brown clay, just out the red art one-for-one with EPK.

Yellow Copper Lusters, Beading Glazes, and Other Special Treats for Raku

I am more or less of a recreational raku-er. Ceramics can be a solitary pursuit; raku - for me at least - is a team sport. I regularly offer raku workshops for Portland Pottery, and occasionally do a firing with my classes. In a communal studio like Portland Pottery, students have little exposure to the hot side of things. They make the work, put it on a cart and then...well, it goes away for a while, and comes back changed. It's not practical to involve students in the firing of the stoneware kiln, apart from peeking into the spyholes on occasion, but we can load, fire, and unload the raku kiln all in one evening. It gives students a chance to be directly involved and take some of the mystery out of the firing process.
The workshops are a bit different. Often they are folks who already know and love raku, but don't have their own kilns, sprinkled with a few beginners who have heard about it and want to try it. It's been a great season for raku, with the workshops filling up quickly and we've had some gorgeous results. I've got one last workshop to teach, and I want to shake things up a bit, with new glazes and some terra sigs to use with horsehair and feathers.

Our last raku of the season is Saturday November 1. Give Cooper at Portland Pottery a cal if you want in; 207-772-4334. 

PALE LEMON LUSTER

Colemanite  75% (Sub. Gerstley Borate)
F/4 Soda Spar 25%
Copper Carb 3.0%
Manganese Dioxide  1.5%

Lemon Luster

Gerstley Borate 1500
Copper Carbonate 45
Manganese Dioxide  20 

Glass Bead Raku
 50 gerstley borate
 40 borax
 10 flint
 50 magnesium carbonate
 10 zircopax

Karen's Clear

Karen's Clear ^10 (Reduction or Oxidation)

Custer Spar     2700
Whiting           2000
EPK                2000
Silica              3300

Bentonite          200

Good to go in soda. Dove gray over iron bearing claybodies, cool white to pale gray over white claybodies. Photos to come!

Granola, Watershed Style

I got this recipe from Hope Rovelto, a sculptor and then-kitchen manager at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. I did a work-week residency there years ago (I've done a couple, actually) and I was amazed at how much better Hope's granola tasted than any store-bought granola I'd ever had. Turns out to be super easy to make, also! Here's how it goes.

Watershed Granola

3 Cups rolled oats
1/2 Cup canola oil
1/2 Cup honey
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp cardamom
Tiny pinch salt
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 Cup sliced almonds
1 cup raisins

Preheat over to 325º.
In small bowl, combine honey and oil. Pour over oats in mixing bowl. Sprinkle vanilla and spices on top. Mix thoroughly (hands are best!)

Spread mixture onto baking sheet in 1" layer. Bake at 325º for 10 minutes; flip mixture with spatula, and bake 3-5 minutes more.

Remove from oven and let cool enough to touch. Mix in raisins and almonds.

Serve with milk, yogurt, or ricotta cheese and fruit.

Speaking of Watershed! This Saturday is Salad Days, Watershed's annual fundraising blowout party. It's like a potter's reunion. They'll have a band, beautiful plates, and all the salad you can eat. Check it out here. 

Last Outdoor Glazing

Finishing up the last glazing today for a ^6 reduction soda. This will probably be the last firing for which I can glaze outside, which is a bummer: glazing is such a messy business, and my studio inside is pretty small. In the winter I have to do a minor re-arrange every time it's time to glaze. It's a bit chilly out there today, but I don't mind: I've got my hot flashes to keep me warm.

This firing will include 8 test glazes and two flashing slip variations; basically to bring a flashing slip from^10 to ^6 you can usually just add 5-8% Neph Sy to the existing recipe. Write that down! That's my pearl of wisdom for today. That, and, if you are in a hurry, a kind of boilerplate approach to dropping a glaze from ^10 to ^6 is to replace to feldspar 1-for-1 with Neph Sy, and add about 10% gerstley borate. This isn't always the best way to preserve the color or the hand of the glaze but it will get you in the neighborhood. (Always keeping in mind the proportions flux of alumina and silica, which is what I have Glazemaster to help me out with. Yes, it's working again!) Alternatively, you can add 10-15% Ferro Frit 3134, which is now my favorite frit, as it is well-balanced enough itself not to require a lot of adjustment when used in this way.

Among others, I am trying again with the Amber Celadon. Here's the recipe I am testing at ^6:

Amber Celadon test

Alberta Slip          32.2
Wollastonite         12.7
Kaolin                     7.2
Gerstley Borate      9.0
Whiting                   6.8
Silica                    12.7
Neph Sy               19.5

Add:
Yellow Ochre         7.6
Bentonite               2.0

Flashing Slip to Try

Found this while noodling around in a Pottery Basics Yahoo group.

#1997 Fake Avery Flashing slip opaque white to orange Cone 6 10

15 Newman red or Red Horse clay
84 EPK
1 Soda Ash

Wait, but...Newman Red is a fireclay. Red Horse is an earthenware. How are these interchangeable in this recipe?

Guess I'll have to mix them up and find out.

Progress Report

I've been working on getting out Rewards to my Kickstarter backers this week - cards, pendants, and teabowls all took wing. More of them will go out on Monday, and still more after the next test firing.

Speaking of which! The first batch of glaze conversions - five ^6 versions of Old Yellow, my favorite out of the Watershed Glaze book. The ^10 original looks like this:

Neph Sy     7155
Dolomite    2363
OM-4           482

Add:
Zircopax     1792
RIO             240

That's kind of a weird recipe, right? With like 18% opacifier added after the total. This sounds like a job for Glazemaster!  The first thing I had to do was rebalance the recipe so the only ingredient below the total line was red iron oxide. After I do that, the recipe looks like this:

Old Yellow
Cone:  10    
Amount     Ingredient
60.7          Nepheline Syenite
20             Dolomite
4.1            OM #4
15.2          Zircopax

100         Total
Add:
2         Red Iron Oxide

Next I look at the proportions of alumina and silica by the Unity ratios, which the software kindly tells me, otherwise I'd be up all night counting atoms. Alumina is at 0.429; silica is at 2.106. Remember these are relative to the proportion of flux, which is always set to 1.Then I'm gonna compare those numbers to the ranges I found in Cushing's handbook. (There's a way to compare to limit formulas within the software also, but I've got the Cushing numbers right here in front of me.)

According to the good professor, in a satin matte cone 10 glaze, alumina should fall wiht in the range of 0.25-0.6. So we're good there. Silica should be within the range of  2.0-5.0. Also good.

To change this to a ^6 glaze I have to add a a flux.( I can't just increase the flux - dolomite - that is already present, because it's not a strong enough flux at ^6 to persuade the silica to melt.) But adding flux is going to mess up those ratios that I've been talking about, so depending on what I add - a commercial frit, or a material like gerstley borate or lithium - I may have to add more silica or clay (the usual source of alumina in a glaze.) Here are the test recipes I came up with:

Old Yellow ^6 Test 1

Cone: 6 Color: Cream/yellow

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Semiglossy

Amount       Ingredient

50.5             Nepheline Syenite

16.7             Dolomite

3.4               OM 4

12.7             Zircopax

12.5             Gerstley Borate--1999

4.2               Silica

100 Total

Add

2 % Red Iron Oxide

Old Yellow ^6 Test 2

Cone: 6 Color: Cream/yellow

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Semiglossy

Amount         Ingredient

55.2              Nepheline Syenite

18.2              Dolomite

3.7                OM 4

13.8              Zircopax

9.1                Frit--Ferro 3134

100 Total

Add

2% Red Iron Oxide

Old Yellow ^6 Test 4

Cone: 6 Color: Cream/yellow

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Semiglossy

Amount        Ingredient

52.8              Nepheline Syenite

17.4              Dolomite

3.6                OM 4

13.2              Zircopax

13                 Frit--Ferro 3185

100 Total

Add

2% Red Iron Oxide

Old Yellow ^6 Test 3

Cone: 6 Color: Cream/yellow

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Semiglossy

Amount            Ingredient

48.1                 Nepheline Syenite

15.9                 Dolomite

3.2                    Ball Clay--Old Mine #4

12.1                 Zircopax

15.9                 Frit--Ferro 3134

4.8                   Silica

100 Total

Add

2% Red Iron Oxide

 Old Yellow ^6 Test 5

Cone: 6 Color: Cream/yellow

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Semiglossy

Amount        Ingredient

50.6             Nepheline Syenite

16.7             Dolomite

3.4               Ball Clay--Old Mine #4

12.7             Zircopax

16.6            Frit--Ferro 3110

100 Total

Add

2% Red Iron Oxide

 I mixed all of these up in the glaze kitchen, storing them in those little plastic tubs you buy at the supermarket to keep leftovers in. (Plan A - to eat enough Talenti Gelato to use those containers - was a non-starter, even in hot weather like we've been having.)

I have a ^10 firing coming up, as I am trying to keep up with all my outlets at the same time I execute this project. (That wasn't the original plan, but baby, things change. Moron that later.) That should happen next week, with the next ^6 test hard on its heels.

Four VC Glazes

I spend my evenings now paging through the Cushing Handbook, looking for ^6 glazes that might perform well in soda, for the upcoming test firing. None of them are specifically meant for soda, but I'm looking for things that meet the criteria offered by June Perry in her very helpful comment here. I'm also trying to stay away from barium.

I've found a few that fit, or will, with some minimal alterations:

VC Transparent Glossy 3 (Gonna have to give that - or its descendant, if I alter it, a more succinct name!)

Custer Spar       40.0%
Gerstley Borate 18.0%
Whiting              16.0%
EPK                   10.0%
Flint                    16.0%

This sounds like a good base glaze. I'd like to get a good chartreuse or spring green without barium. 

VC 71 Base
Neph Sy           24.0%
Frit 3124             9.0%
Whiting              16.0%
Talc                     9.0%
EPK                   10.0%
Flint                    16.0%

Just listen to the description:  "Wonderful surface. Really sensuous smooth matt. Has a kind of glow like looking at a pearl. All the colors keep this same character; a gorgeous base glaze.- V.C." I don't just want to mix this glaze; I want to sleep with this glaze! Sadly, it's characterized as an oxidation glaze but it can't hurt to try it is reduction.   

VC 72 Base
Neph Sy            24.0%
Dolomite            11.0
Gerstley Borate  12.0
Whiting                4.0%
Zinc Oxide           2.0%
EPK                     7.0
Flint                    40.0

This one is described as a little more glossy but with a glow; Colors break with some texture.

And, finally:
VC Easy Gloss 1
Gerstley Borate 50.0%
EPK                  50.0%

I have no particular reason to believe that this glaze will perform well in soda, but I am a sucker for a 2-ingredient glaze. It seems worth it to test it, on the off chance that it will work  and I'll forever more have a recipe that is a joy to mix.

Of course, I am still without a scale, because the one I recently ordered bought the farm after only one use. I contacted the Big Ceramic Store, who, bless their hearts, offered to credit me towards any other scale, or refund my money. That particular model - 7001DX - has been discontinued. It seems I didn't just get a lemon, they are all defective. Despite the bum scale, I am pleased with how the Big Ceramic Store handled it: they got back to me right away, and were as helpful as could be under the circumstances.

Anyway: it's amazing how quickly I got spoiled. Mixing with the digital scale was so much faster and easier than using the triple beam that I never want to go back. I did repair the triple beam (more or less) for using in my soaping hobby, so technically I could just bring it back for studio use, but I think I'll wait.

A Glaze for Sweet Life

Remember I said I have yet to choose a glaze for my currently-gestating line, Sweet Life? I have a candidate in mind, although it will need some tweaking: I have here Ingrid Bathe's Clear recipe. I don't think I am revealing secrets by publishing this recipe, since Ingrid hands it out at workshops. Here's the glaze in its original form:

custer feldspar 51%
whiting 9%
zinc ox 8%
strontium 21%
om4 10%
neodymuim 5%

This glaze is rather matte, and blue in the pools, as you can see in the image of Ingrid's plates. I am looking for something icy and with a bluish cast, but maybe not as blue as this. That is fortunate, as the ingredient which is contributing most of the hue is neodymium, which goes for around $60 a pound. So, scratch the neodymium.

Second, I will need to make some adjustments for the soda, per some sound advice I was given recently. So, let's increase the whiting to 15%; at least in one test. In the other I will add 6% dolomite instead. My expectation is that the additional-whiting test will be shinier, and the dolomite-variation test will retain the more matte surface.

And, because I need some source of boron, let's replace the missing neodymium with 5% gerstley borate in both tests. This will have the effect of making the glaze more fluid at the same time it helps protect against the soda vapor. (Which, by the way, quit hating on gerstley, all you gerstley-haters out there. I have had none of the problems of material irregularity that people are talking about...maybe it's a low-fire thing, and I wouldn't understand.)
These changes make our recipe:

custer feldspar 51%
whiting 15%
zinc ox 8%
strontium 21%
om4 10%
gerstly borate 5%

Or, alternatively:

custer feldspar 51%
whiting 9%
dolomite 6%
zinc ox 8%
strontium 21%
om4 10%
gerstley borate 5%

I know those batches don't add up to 100%; I will worry about re-balancing the percentages when I know which one I will be using.

Watch for result 2/26!

Glazes to Try

...via Vince Pitelka:

Killer Tomato Red
Kona F-4 48.2
Flint 25.9
Bone Ash 11.6
EPK 7.1
Magnesium Carb. 7.1
+ Red Iron Oxide 7.1%

Caramel Yellow
Neph Sye 19.0
Flint 17.9
Spodumene 17.8
Dolomite 16.9
G-200 14.3
EPK 14.3
+ Titanium Diox. 8%

Honey Luster
G-200 Feldspar 40.9
Flint 19.1
Talc 14.0
Gerstley Borate 11.5
Dolomite 7.3
Ball Clay 7.2
+ Mang. Dioxide 8%

That last one sounds like an exterior-only glaze.

Also, is it just coincidence that all of the glazes from the list that got my attention have food references in the name? I must be getting hungry!

And thanks, Vince, for publishing these; and thanks to other potters who do the same. I've always thought it completely silly when potters get all possessive about their glaze recipes; as though bodies of work might become indistinguishable if someone uses your glazes! Painters don't do that: "Oh, I've got my special blue, and no one can use my blue except me." I often find glazes online, and almost always alter them to work in my kiln, and when I do, I am more than pleased if someone else can use the recipe. either as-is or with their own alterations. In this way, we all benefit.

Not sure how these will play in the soda atmosphere...but I can think of a good way to find out!

A Glaze and a Half

To test:

June Perry Oribe I
Custer Spar 30
Talc 6
Whiting 10
Strontium Carb 11
Ball Clay 15
Silica 20
_______________
Copper 6
Tin 4

June Perry Oribe II
Custer Spar 15
Neph Sy 15
Talc 6
Whiting 10
Strontium Carb 8.75
Ball Clay 15
Silica 20
_______________
Copper 6
Tin 4

This oribe is rumored to stay a nice, bright green, rather than turning turquoise as most do. Not that there's anything wrong with turquoise! But I already have a good turquoise oribe.
Both of these recipes have been modified to flux at 8-9. I hope.