Considering it's at least a thousand dollars for a medium sized professional kiln, it's actually really quite impressive you've managed to make your raku style glazes and get them to work from a homemade gas kiln.
Those thousand dollar kilns are a rip off too. At least they are when you want a part for one. I just tried to buy some gas parts from GreatKilns/Olympic for a burner. They wanted $60 each for the small gas connector that I found for $20 and pretty sure if I keep looking I'll find them cheaper. They told me they cost so much because they were special made by a local machine shop (lie). LOL I found them 200 miles from them for $39. Even more surprising is I found them in a well known burner; I can buy that whole burner kit for $51.
The opalescent and copper colors are truly stunning. I have an old ceramic kiln and it would be fun to try to make a raku kiln out of that and the weed torch. Thanks for your straight forward instructions without any extra useless babble.
Absolutely wonderful YT channel. High production values so it’s watchable but more importantly the communication of the techniques is great and the notes with videos are fantastic. I hope you consider producing a simply produced ‘beginner firing and glaze recipes’ style of book. So much of what is available teaches perfection of technique whereas you really do teach the art. Cannot thank you enough.
Thanks! I'm still trying to find a glaze/surface finish that I think works with the unprocessed clay texture. Glad to hear you're liking some of the pieces!
Amazing videos! Definitely the best information I could find on this topic 👌 Question: can you actually use raku as dinnerware? Is the glaze food safe? Thanks a lot :)
I love your presentation. Thank you so much. I'm new at making my own glazes and don't understand what actual quantity ( a part ) represents. You have 80% + 20% +100% ben then you a "part" what is the quantity of a part? Thank you in advance. Matthew
A "part" is whatever measurement you use. Grams, kilograms, ounces, pounds, etc. Typically, a base recipe adds up to 100%, and then there are additions of colorants on top of that. This simplifies the math.
Thank you Q; Is there any way to figure out how to force just iridescent blue/green/copper? Note I'd like do this with handmade clay beads. If you have links/videos to learn this for beads & making the colors I'm looking for, this would be most appreciative. Thank you again - very nice
I did a Raku firing with this glaze yesterday. The out side of the bowl turned out very nice, the inside stayed rather glassy green with some copper flash where the flames came over I think. It's nice but I'm wondering if the glassy green is a sign the firing temperature wasn't hot enough, any thoughts?
@@tinkerandthink I had it in a small trash can with sequoia needles in the bottom, it flamed up good and we let it burn a minute before putting the lid on......the guy doing the firing wasn't using a pyrometer, just watching the glaze.
Yeah, sounds like the bottom, which was touching the needles, got more heavily reduced. The inside got much lighter reduction, just from the smoke from the needles below. Copper will be green/blue with light reduction/oxidation.
Por favor pone el subtitulado en español por favor así puedo aprender y poder hacerlo me encanta lo que haces los colores del esmalte glaze como decís vos
Amazing job, congrats , i have a question propably because of my poor english , you add Gerstley Borate 80, Custer Feldspar 20 and then + Gerstley Borate 1 (Part) + EPK (Kaolin) 1 (Part)... i cant understand that step how much is a Part, Thank you in advance for your time
Glaze recipes are all about proportions. If you add 80g Gerstley Borate and 20g Feldspar, then you add 1g extra GB and 1g EPK. But you can make as much as you want, with those percentages.
The math is easier. The main recipe adds up to 100. If it's 81 GB and 20 Custer, now it's no longer adding to 100%. It helps with scaling and makes glaze recipes written with a universal formula
@@tinkerandthink But in reality, at the end of the day, you are adding 81% gerstley borate in this recipe, right? Just checking to be sure. Meaning if I were measuring ingredients in a jar ready for glaze mixing, I'd measure 81% gersley borate - not 80%, and then 1% separately. I am familiar with color and such being added outside of the 100% formula, but I wasn't aware of the main ingredient, gerstley borate, being added on top of the 100%. Thanks for your response.
Oooo these are fantastic, love it. I was wondering, can you put a layer of glaze over an existing layer of glaze? That would allow the texture of the crackle glaze, while still being able to be entirely food safe.
I didn't use a pyrometer or cone pack, so I don't know the exact temp. I just watched until the glaze looked melted, waited a couple minutes (held at that temp, basically), and then pulled pieces. I talk about firing pieces with raku glaze here: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XTh86PrXayM.html
"Reducing" pottery literally refers to reducing the amount of oxygen it receives. Anytime you deprive it of air, whether through a secondary reduction like I do here when I cover it in pine needles (anything combustible works), or in a gas or wood kiln where you cut off the air supply but keep feeding the kiln fuel.
@@tinkerandthink hi... you put pine staw in the bottom which touch the outside of the bowl but you didn't put anything inside of the bowl but cover the whole bowl with a bucket so no oxygen will go in? Is the picture that I am imaging right?
@@lindalee945 it turns out that combustibles can block the surface of a piece from receiving oxygen from air entering the fire chamber. A wonderful side affect would be pine needle shapes appearing in various colors ( depending on the glaze). These nuances have crept me firing my various hand built raku and pit kilns yearly for 50 years. There is never a dull moment, and never a complete grasp of the results of the process. Always a journey! I have had great luck with newspapers, various sawdust sources including pet bedding and cheap metal bowls for reduction chambers.😊
I understand the terms "colorants / clear base" but i so don't relate x.x i would cover my piece in pure cobalt or iron or copper carbon.. feldspar can make color with combined with the right material. The line is soo much more blurry than common potter speach would suggest
One important thing! You never said the firing temperature of this glaze neither did you mentioned the type of kiln You used either for bisc or for ra-ku firing. And that's one of the most important factors in the process!
