Monthly Tech-Tip | No tracking! No ads! |
This is a cone 04 glaze on a terra cotta body. Two 300-gram test batches were made. Both have 5% tin oxide added to a base transparent, G1916Q. The one on the left was high-speed propeller-mixed for 10 seconds. That was not enough, small agglomerates appear as tiny white specks floating in the glass. The one on the right was blender mixed for 60 seconds. Now the incredibly small tin particles have been dispersed and can do their job of opacifying the glaze. Would sieving the slurry have worked? No, the particle agglomerates can be far smaller than the openings in an 80-mesh sieve (individual particles could be 1000 times smaller!). The thorough dispersion of the expensive tin oxide particles has real benefit: It enables making an accurate assessment of whether the 5% addition is enough. In this case it isn't, more is needed.
Glossary |
Opacifier
Glaze opacity refers to the degree to which it is opaque. Opacifiers are powders added to transparent ceramic glazes to make them opaque. |
---|---|
Glossary |
Propeller Mixer
In ceramic studios, labs and classrooms, a good propeller mixer is essential for mixing glaze and body slurries. |
Glossary |
Blender Mixing
An ordinary kitchen blender does a better job of mixing a ceramic slurry than any industrial machine. It even reduces clay particle size and hyper ages it. |
Glossary |
Agglomeration
The fine mineral, oxide and clay particles used in ceramics often aglommerate during storage or even in the latter stages of production. These must be broken down later. |
Materials |
Tin Oxide
|
Buy me a coffee and we can talk