2 things i gotta add here.. Acid treating after the piece is finished will help the colors come out as well as making it more food safe by removing those heavy metals near the surface. 2nd if you are going to use glaze catchers just make them with the pot and trim them at the same time so they are perfectly fitting.
One of the best videos on youtube I have ever watched. I learned so much and you saved me so many hours with all these advices and techniques. Thanks so much!
Hey Dan! Greg here! I was just browsing crystal stuff and came across this video! I know this video is from quite a few years ago but i’s great to see you continuing to do crystals and spread the knowledge! Hope you are still doing it now! Hope you are well!
What an amazing teacher you are! You have a very beautiful soothing voice, you explain everything very well. Thank you for your expertise. Another leg in clay that I'm going to follow and going to experiment ...thank you!!!
As I like to give a tip back when someone shares something useful with me, the 'magic' suspension agents are usually tannin or tannin based, which is a common (and cheap!) commodity from black tea extractions (also popular with wine, though the tannins from tea and certain trees are far more potent). I use them quite frequently with my composite work when doing various brush-on solutions. You can buy them for a little as $13 a pound at current (2023) pricing as powder for additive uses. On the glue, I know shipping is as of late, an area that often is more than the product you are buying, especially with heavy liquids. The active chem in elmer's glue is PVA, which is more easily purchased as a soluble powder as well, in quantities anywhere from a few ounces to 50 pound bags. There's several variations, but if memory serves, something like PVA 206 is the more common variety for glues and available from chem or lab suppliers online for about the same price as tannin by the pound.
You should watch some of the advanced ceramics lectures on youtube because knowing some of the physics behind crystallization will give you many ideas on how to improve your processes. You CAN you control crystal grows extremely precisely through nucleation (look at semiconductor industry) but there are formulas that let you control porosity of ceramics and calculate the exact rate of pore closing. The reason thick glazed areas are not producing crystals is because your temp and cooling rate are off. The many small crystals in the thin areas are forming due to cooling too quickly. Ideally you want to fire and then take the temp down a little bit and almost hold it there. Thin areas have less thermal mass so they cool more quickly. Crystallization is a saturation or temp dependent process. In you case mostly temp since you are melting the glaze instead of dissolving. This means after melting you only need to slightly lower the temp to initiate crystal formation. The material freezes much like water when it gets cold and the slower that happens the bigger the crystals.
thought you should know! titanium is now being left out more and more. especially when making glazes to go over a colored slip, one would want zero opacity in the backround. most of my recipes are titanium free
Thank you for pointing that out! Our website was recently updated and the handouts didn't make the move. It's now at this link ovcag.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/RU-vid%20Linked%20Documents/Crystalline%20Glaze%20Class%20Dan%20Dermer.pdf
Great workshop. I like your teaching style. I see this in my future, maybe a workshop in my class. Just out of curiousity (as I'm currently changing out the elements in a Skutt 1227), if you have to change out elements that much more frequently, what kiln are you using, if you don't mind my asking...
