Sunday, April 29, 2007

The REAL Blue

I've been experimenting with some blue color variations of the Waterfall Brown glaze. The recipe for this glaze is included in "Mastering Cone 6 Glazes" by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy. Like many other potters out there, I'm a big fan of this book.

The first tile, shown below, is what I used to call Waterfall Blue, since it had some lovely subtle blue tones, thanks to the Rutile.
Yesterday, while firing a load of glazed tiles, I mixed up a few small batches, trying to find a nice green that would go well with wood. I did a tri-axial blend with 3 oxides, and I think I may have been lucky enough to hit a home run. Now THAT'S what I call Waterfall Blue.
These samples are about 3 inches square, and since I place them on a pegboard display, I put a small hole in them for hanging.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm a sucker for blue and love waterfall. I have the book. Can you tell me what colorants you used when you stumbled on this one? Also, is this a darker clay body?

I'm enjoying watching your progress on the search for the green. Keep us posted.

Wood It Is! said...

Warren,

The recipe for the REAL BLUE glaze uses the four base ingredients, plus this: 4% Copper Carb and .5% Cobalt Carb.

And yes, I do use a very dark clay, it fires the color of a Hershey bar. It's called Black Mountain, purchased from Aardvark, in Las Vegas.

Good luck- let me know what you come up with!

Unknown said...

Thanks! I'll give it a try. I use mostly light colored clay bodies, but I have a terra cotta body that fires dark brown. I'll try it on my white stoneware and let you know how it works.

You've inspired me to get back into glaze testing. I just need to make some test tiles. Since I do mostly functional pottery, I will try some vertical tests and see how this runs.

Sacredclay said...

Thanks for sharing your experience and your recipes. It really makes me proud to see how us potters share all the info. Warmly, Kathryn Hughes in NC

Wood It Is! said...

Kathryn,

That's a really good point about the wonderful sharing aspect of the ClayArt board.

I've been a member of the Furniture Society for many years, and not only don't we have anything like this idea exchange, but there really isn't the camaraderie that the potters enjoy.

I would love to have something like that with my wood buds.


Jamie

Maple Hill said...

Could this be converted to cone 9/10?

Wood It Is! said...

I know I've read how convert cone 6 recipes to cone 9/10, but I don't remember where I've seen them. I would contact the authors of the book (John Hesselberth and Ron Roy) and see if they would be willing to help. They were awfully gracious and helpful when I wrote to them many years ago.

Anonymous said...

What is the formula for waterfall blue?

teresitacapurro said...

Hello I had the book and It got loss in the mail when I mover back to My country ( argentina) would you be so kínd to Share the recepie? Thanks!

Kay Wiemer Gerke said...

Have you posted your glaze recipes? I would really like to do my own experimentation with them. Please share them!

Kay Wiemer Gerke said...

I am interested in the cone 6 glazes, primarily, but the cone 10 would also be appreciated. Please share the recipes, thank you so much!

Wood It Is! said...

Kay,

Out of respect for the authors of the "Mastering Cone Six Glazes" book - I never completely published their recipes. But I used their base recipe, and then added in the various colorants/chemicals to achieve the version that I wanted. If you read my old blog posts and have that book, it's pretty easy to figure them out.

If you can't - send me an email at jamie@wooditis.com and I'll try to help.

Thanks for reading!

Jamie