Making your own crucibles to make your own speckle


Tuesday 24th March 2015

I mixed a cone 6 insight-live.com/glossary/71">porcelain body and a cone 6 clear glaze 50:50 and added 10% Mason 6666 black stain. The material was plastic enough to slurry, dewater and wedge like a clay, dry and break into small pieces. I then melted them at cone 6 in a Zircopax crucible (I make these by mixing alumina or zircopax with 3-4% veegum and throwing them on the wheel). This material does not completely melt so it is easy to break the crucible away (and no zircon sticks). I then break the black up with a special flat metal crusher we made, size them on sieves and add them to glazes for artificial speckle. If specks fuse too much I can lower percentage of glaze (and vice versa). Of course, the particles are glass, jagged and sharp-edged so care is needed in handling them.

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

Calcined Alumina, A magnesia speckle matte at cone 6 oxidation is impossible, right? Wrong!, Making my own home-made fired speckle for cone 6, Crucible, Reduction Speckle


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