Not classified

Iron Blue

Here are some pieces made with this enamel:

In Daniel de Montmolin's book, it is indicated that iron blue can be obtained around diagram 25. So I went ahead and did a broad search on this diagram using the triangle method:

iron blue triangle

Differences in results are noticeable, results that can be obtained when you do research with good or less good surprises visible on this picture.

I decided to follow 2 paths:

The first one I will call iron blue around these 3 results:

triangle zoom

and the second one I will name Iron Yellow, which you can continue to follow in this article: Iron Yellow.

Starting with these 3 samples, I add different proportions of bone ash. Still according to Daniel de Montmolin, phosphorus would help the appearance of blue:

ash bone

I choose 3 samples to test on larger pieces (close-up):

Test of the 3 trials:

ech 1 iron blue
ech 2 iron blue
ech 3 iron blue

I choose the enamel from test #2 and proceed to a test on a large piece.

Surprise, disappearance of the iron blue

more blue

I lost the blue. A yellow enamel appears (interesting but not at all expected). What happened? The fact of having sifted the glaze? This particular firing?

I decide, in my next firing, to use this glaze again to confirm the absence of blue.

old enamel test

We can see that in the previous preparation, the blue has completely disappeared. Is this due to the fact that the enamel was left to rest for several weeks? The excess of water removed from this enamel may have caused a component previously diluted in water to disappear, which favored the appearance of the blue?

I prepare another quantity of enamel, this time without sifting (left) and sifting (right) :

iron blue sieve test

With that, it's not easy to get away with it! Is it really the sieving that makes the blue disappear or is it a little less glaze thickness on the right sample?

Therefore, we will try again to test the thickness of this new preparation.
If we get no blue, it means that the enamel cannot be stored. If, for a greater thickness, we see blue, we can question the sieving hypothesis:

Here is a thickness test that looks like something... We realize that the thickness is essential and that explains the setbacks I had previously! On the other hand, the enamel is quite runny. We'll try to fix that!

To know which direction to take, we will make the method of the cross (by adding or removing SiO2 or AL2O3):

The selection of the enamel at the top of the cross, which appears less runny, enabled me to develop a new enamel: " nénuphar".

I made a large piece with the enamel of the center of the cross and finally decided to stop the research there.

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Not classified

PACO" speckled grey

speckled grey

Here are some pieces made with this enamel "Grey speckled PACO":

To create this "Gris moucheté PACO" glaze my starting point was my Peau d'abricot glaze. I liked the speckled character of this glaze. So I carried out a series of tests using my Peau d'abricot glaze as a base, to which I added various oxides. The test with the addition of cobalt oxides caught my attention. Below, the addition of cobalt oxides in different proportions:

cobalt addition

Sample n°2 retained, I thus keep this concentration in cobalt oxides.

I then proceed to a test on a larger room to observe the result:

The result is very satisfactory, we observe the formation of a bluish gray with an ochre speckle.

I decided to do a thickness test using this recipe(link to build a small tool to measure the thickness of the enamel) :

thickness test

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Not classified

Navy blue

navy blue

Here are a few pieces made with this "navy blue" enamel:

I discovered this "Bleu Marine" enamel when I was researching a violet, in this case my " Bleuet".

Starting with my " Old Rose" glaze, I add cobalt oxide:

cobalt addition

The red dot on the left will provide my " Bleuet" glaze. The red dot on the right is the start of the development of this "Bleu Marine" enamel.

I perform a test by adding more cobalt. Indeed, the sample with the highest concentration of cobalt shows me the beginnings of a night blue. Adding more cobalt should intensify this aspect and I perform the test on large parts:

large navy blue room

The result is very good. We get a beautiful navy blue with a nice texture. I decide to try to make a thickness test (You have a small description of the manufacture of the tool here) :

navy blue thickness

I am fully satisfied with the result. I validate this new enamel!

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Not classified

Lava stone

lava stone

Here are a few pieces made with this "Pierre de lave" enamel:

This "Lava Stone" glaze came about during my search for an Iron Red. Indeed, after adding silica to make my Iron Red less runny, I noticed a dark red satin glaze tending towards black and with a little relief. I immediately imagine a lava-like glaze.

silica addition

I decided to test this enamel with my famous thickness test (You have a small description of the manufacture of the tool here) :

lava stone thickness

We notice that at important thickness, the enamel becomes literally red, even flowing.
The image of lava is still present, I already imagine pieces whose enamel has this texture.

Before validating this glaze, I test it on larger pieces:

large room

Although the glaze is more red than black, I like the look of it. It will be interesting to observe on pieces with more texture.

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Not classified

Iron Red

iron red

Here are a few pieces made with this "Iron Red" enamel:

To obtain this glaze (Iron Red), I followed the same methodology as to obtain my Water Green glaze. Namely, I had my transparent oak ash based glaze to which I had added different oxides at different concentrations.

Here we can observe the addition of iron oxide at different concentrations:

addition of iron oxides

With the highest iron concentration, we observe the appearance of red crystals. I explore this by adding silica:

increase in iron

This bodes well for a nice Iron Red! However, the glaze is quite runny, even with the sample with the most silica. I decide to continue in this direction and to add more silica:

silica addition

Following this test, I observe 2 very interesting results! The one on the left, which I think will give me my Iron Red, and the one on the right, which gives me a slightly underfired glaze with a texture and color that can be exploited. You can follow the development of the "Pierre de lave" glaze (right) here.

I then decided to proceed with a thickness test on these 2 samples (you can find a small description of the tool manufacturing here):

iron red thickness

Before validating this glaze, I test it on small pieces:

large red iron piece

The result is very successful in my opinion. One of my most beautiful enamels!

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Not classified

Apricot skin

apricot skin

Here are a few pieces made with this "Peau d'abricot" enamel:

To create this "Peau d'abricot" enamel, I started with my white enamel, to which I added rutile in various proportions:

rutile addition

Samples 2 and 4 (red dot) hold my interest, so I keep these rutile concentrations.

Tin oxide (part of my white glaze) is a rather expensive raw material. According to the literature, it is possible to use zirconium silicate as a substitute. So I replace the tin oxide by zirconium silicate. I use the 2 concentrations of rutile selected above and vary the zirconium silicate in two different concentrations:

zirconium addition

On the top, we find the low concentration of rutile and on the bottom the slightly higher concentration. The top tests seem a bit bland to me. Therefore, I abandon the tests with the lowest rutile concentration and concentrate on the sample (with the red dot), the one with the least zirconium silicate.

I decided to test a larger room to see the result:

piece test apricot skin

Where the enamel thickness is greater, we find the slightly orange speckled aspect.

Unsuccessful attempts

At the same time, we observe the development of the orange hue with the increase of the rutile concentration. Therefore, I decide to increase it a little more:

more rutile

The rutile concentration on the left gives the desired aspect. The 2 others give a more homogeneous and matte aspect which interests me less.

I add iron to this recipe to check if the orange color appears more pronounced :

iron addition

This is an interesting test! I add it and comment it because we see that, in this case, we move away from the desired orange shade. At first we think, well, we've made a mistake and lost time. It's partly true... and many tests end up like that.

In order to stay in the process of obtaining more orange hue, I add a little bone ash:

addition of bone ash

then a little zinc oxide:

zinc addition

a little titanium oxide:

addition of titanium

Finally, I decided to go back to the original sample during the zirconium test. I liked this aspect the most.

So I decided to do a thickness test using this recipe(link to build a small tool to measure the thickness of the enamel) :

apricot skin thickness test

That's it! After multiple tests, this enamel is validated!

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Not classified

Snail slime

snail slime

Here are a few pieces with this "Snail Slime" enamel:

To obtain this "Bave d'escargot" glaze, I followed the same methodology as for my Vert d'eau glaze. Namely, I had my Tressaillé transparent glaze based on oak ash. Then I added various oxides in different concentrations.

Here we can see the addition of green chromium oxide at different concentrations:

chrome

This is the first time I see chromium giving blue! I decide to continue the tests by varying the silica and by keeping the 2 concentrations tested above:

Below, test with high green chromium oxide concentration:

high chromium

I find the look a little too "chemical" and "fluorescent", I don't really like it.

And below, second test with a lower concentration of green chromium oxide:

lower chromium

I have some difficulties to define the color obtained! Is it gray? White? Blue? Green? A mixture of all of these! Anyway, I like this shade!

I then decide to perform a thickness test (You have a small description of the tool making here) by adding a little green chromium oxide. For this, I place myself close to the sample with the low concentration above but much less than the tests with the high concentration of chromium oxide :

snail slime thickness

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Not classified

Mushroom

mushroom

Here are a few pieces with this "Mushroom" enamel:

The starting point for this "Mushroom" glaze was my research into the " Forest Green " glaze. The test below was obtained by adding kaolin and copper to my Tressaillé transparent oak ash glaze:

copper kaolin

So I selected the sample on the right (in the red dot on the picture above). The copper is replaced by nickel oxide in different proportions:

nickel

The middle result has my preference. You can see 2 brown colors, chocolate? However, we can see that at the bottom of the sample, the glaze is partially melted. In order to increase the fusibility of the glaze, I decided to lower the kaolin content. Here is what we get:

kaolin removal

I select sample no. 3 (red dot), which appears a little more melted but not runny, and retains its "milk chocolate" appearance.

I decided to do a thickness test(link to build a small tool to measure the thickness of the enamel) with this base to confirm that this aspect is obtained:

mushroom thickness

The result is satisfactory. We can see that the sample with the thickness n°3 allows us to obtain the desired effect. We can also see that the enamel does not run, even with a large thickness.

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Not classified

Chinese Blue

china blue

Here are a few pieces with this "Bleu de chine" enamel:

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To find this "Bleu de chine" glaze, I used the results of my research on the " Vert forêt" glaze. The test below was obtained by adding kaolin and copper to my Tressaillé transparent oak ash glaze:

green forest

My starting point was the sample (in the red dot on the picture above). I removed the copper oxide, which provides the green, and replaced it with cobalt in different proportions, which results in a glaze in the blue tones:

cobalt

The test shows a melted glaze. In order to make it more fusible, I decide to proceed to a test by lowering the kaolin content (see below):

kaolin lowering

Sample #2 (with the red dot) shows a slightly glittery satin blue that looks promising to me! The samples with more kaolin are less melted. Sample #1 with less kaolin is starting to lose its satin look and also to sink. I decide to do a thickness test starting from this base (sample n°2)(link to build a small tool to measure the thickness of the glaze):

blue china thickness

The result is good. We observe on the sample n°3 the aspect and the color sought.

Not classified

Meteorite

meteorite

Here are some examples of achievements with this enamel Meteorite:

Obtaining this "Meteorite" glaze was a matter of chance. In fact, the beginnings of this glaze appeared during research into obtaining an Iron Red. At this stage, I was varying the bone ash to try to bring out the red:

bone cen

On this first try, I get a sample with a rough metallic appearance, which immediately makes me think of a meteorite. Here is a close-up:

meteorite close-up

I then decide to perform a cross test (addition and removal of silica in vertical and alumina in horizontal) starting from this sample:

cross test

At the same time, I decided to test the enamel on a larger piece:

large parts

On the crosshatch test, we find on the middle sample our metallic grey aspect. On the other hand, on the large samples it is less the case. We can see that when the enamel is thicker, .

I decide to do a thickness test(link to build a small tool to measure the thickness of the enamel):

meteorite thickness

We find the meteorite aspect with a great thickness. Unfortunately, the enamel becomes runny with this thickness and the installation will be complicated...

So I'm trying to lay it thick on a larger piece:

large thick meteorite piece

We can see that the enamel has flowed less than on a sample, we get the rough texture of the enamel. This will have to be confirmed on larger pieces, but it is satisfactory.

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