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Here are some examples of achievements with this enamel:

For this glaze, which I call "crocodile skin", my starting point was my red oil glaze, to which I added cobalt oxide in various proportions. Here's the result:

It is very little visible, but a green and bluish color appears on the 2nd and 3rd samples.

I decide to continue the research with the cobalt concentrations of the first 3 samples and by varying this time the iron oxide, top cobalt at 0.1%, middle 0.5% and bottom at 1%, and from left to right from 5 to 9% iron oxide.

The middle line shows a drop of oil with an orange/brown tint on a green background. I find the effect interesting.

I select the leftmost sample on the middle row and decide to test it on a small piece:

As the result was very disappointing in my opinion, I was about to throw in the towel with this enamel. Instead of throwing away the excess enamel, I decided to apply it on a piece to finish it. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, I had a little more left over than I expected. I had to apply it quite thickly to finish it.

And here is the result!

I tell myself that, in the end, it's still worth it!

So I decided to test it with different thicknesses:

This "crocodile skin" glaze shows once again the importance of enamel thickness(link to build a small tool to measure enamel thickness)!

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Here are some pieces made with this enamel:

I named this glaze starry night. I wanted to obtain a "khaki" glaze using Daniel de Montmollin's diagram 48 as a starting point, with an iron oxide content of 25%. I make a small series using a triangle:

The point A0 (close-up) that I select to continue my research:

I add bone ash at different concentrations:

... and I get, for the highest concentration, on a particular area of the test, a rather intense glittery red that intrigues me!

I then choose to think further and do a search with the cross method:

I find my intense red glitter and some details that make me think of crystallization! It turns out that the result is quite different from the previous result. This should not be the case. It is only when I go back to my tests several months later that I discover my mistake. The concentration of iron oxides is 2.5 times lower between the sample in the close-up and the one in the middle of the picture above.

I decided to test the top sample on a larger piece:

This glaze is very interesting; I decide to make a larger quantity. Once prepared, I test it on a larger piece:

The result is just as interesting although different, probably due to the thickness of the enamel. This test made me think of a starry night, hence the name of the enamel.

The importance of thickness:

Using a tool to measure the thickness of the enamel, I make a few samples to observe the impact of the thickness on the enamel:

The importance of the enamel thickness can be seen. On the left, we obtain a brown color without much interest. In position 2, the thickness is ideal to see the nucleations appear and, from the 3rd sample, the enamel flows. It will be necessary to be careful when applying this glaze. I lost a big bonsai pot by using it too early (before this thickness test), failure due to big drips.

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Some pieces with this enamel:

To make this metallic eggplant glaze, along with my oil drop research, I make a triangle with a higher iron concentration than my oil drop glaze in diagram 48. I make a small series using a triangle:

I retain sample B0 (2nd from the bottom left):

Then I perform a search with the cross method, varying SiO2 and Al2O3:

I then get, in the center of the cross, a metallic purple black that is close to the color of eggplant:

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Here are a few examples of how it's done:

To obtain this texture, I use a mixture of stoneware that tends to brown, which I named sepia stoneware, and manganese oxide juice. For information on how to obtain this color of stoneware, you can access the article here.

I then apply the same method described in "Manganese oxide juice on red sandstone".

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Here are some examples of pieces made with this enamel:

For this glaze that I named jade green, I started from my Tenmoku glaze. I removed the iron oxide and tested the glaze by adding different oxides at different concentrations. Here you can see the test at 3 different concentrations of copper oxide.

I selected the least concentrated: 0.5% copper oxide (the one on the left).

The enamel being far from being perfect, I decide to try a diamond (double triangle) to continue my research.

The point -D1 seems to me the most interesting, I continue and I proceed to a test with the method of the cross (by making a little larger cross):

I select the bottom test (close-up below):

I use a larger amount of enamel to test it on a larger piece:

I'm not fully satisfied with the result, the color doesn't come out enough. I decide to try again by doubling my quantity of copper oxide:

The result is still not up to par... Indeed, even if the enamel is interesting, the green of the copper hardly appears.

I repeat the same test with the same enamel but applying a more important layer of enamel:

Finally the color appears!

I then decided to do a research around the thickness of the enamel using a very practical tool to measure it. You can find a small description of the tool here.

Here is the result of the research around the thickness:

We realize that the appearance of the jade green is really impacted by the thickness of the enamel!

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Here are some examples of pieces made with this enamel:

In order to develop this glaze that I named rust, my oil red glaze was my starting point. First of all, adding bone ash in different proportions gives the following results:

Following the first trial, I decide to vary the bone ash (samples on the top row), then I vary the iron oxide (samples on the bottom row):

The test at the bottom left (with the red dot) is the one with the least amount of iron oxide. It reminds me not only of the color but also of the texture of rust. Below is an enlargement of this sample:

In order to validate this glaze, I proceeded to a test on a larger piece. I often use kusamono pots for this because they allow me to quickly observe the result that it would give on a larger scale without taking too much risk on larger pieces. Here is the result of this test:

In view of this first result, I consider this enamel to be valid. I'm adding it to my enamel "collection". I'm looking forward to turning larger pieces, as it looks very promising!

After making the enamel in large quantities, this is the piece I make:

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Here are some pieces with this enamel:

To find this antique red glaze, I started with my oil red glaze.

I added different oxides in different concentrations and mixing with the bone ash in different proportions resulted in this:

The sample with the highest concentration of bone ash (right) caught my eye. A nice red color with gold glitter can be seen.

Close-up:

I am trying this glaze on a large piece:

It is a success! (at least for me!) I decide to name it antique red! This name suits him well.

After that, I test the enamel on other pieces and, unfortunately, it is a failure:

Looking at these pieces, I notice that the expected result is located where the enamel is thicker! I decided to try again: test my glaze with different thicknesses. This failure encouraged me to do the same with all my enamels in order to achieve a better control during its application, and to build (or have built, thank you Dad! 😉 ) a very practical little tool (See here the making of the tool).

We can immediately observe that with a small thickness, the result is not as expected. The sample of the middle brings us the solution as for the thickness to put on the shard.

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Here are some pieces:

In order to find other colors of clay, I mixed sandstone.

The principle is simple: from 3 grounds at my disposal, a black ground (super manga), a red sandstone (MJ of Treigny ) and a clearer sandstone of St Amand (GSAT40), I carry out a mixture by triangle by making vary of 20% the proportion of each ground.

Here is the result:

Finding the 80% MJ 20% super manga mix interesting, I'm holding onto this one.

I specify that it is obviously possible to make this type of mixture with different grounds and in different proportions. It remains for you to see what you get, both in terms of color and the reaction of the clay to this mixture at the time of firing.

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Here are some pieces made with this clay:

Super manga is a stoneware of a rather deep black. At 1280°C, it tends to deform strongly.

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Here is the result on some parts:

To pursue my research into ashes and superimpositions, it seemed important to me to try and develop a glaze known as an " oil drop". This name comes from the kind of drops that appear on the glaze after firing.

Brief explanation of the "oil drop" phenomenon

This effect is achieved in glazes with high iron concentrations. At high temperatures, iron, in the form of Fe2O3, is no longer stable enough and is forced to give up oxygen to form FeO. It is this release of oxygen atoms that causes the bubbles on the surface of the enamel to burst, due to the viscosity of the enamel when the oxygen atoms are released, hence the appearance of the different-coloured "drops". This technique is only possible with oxidizing firing. Oxygen atoms are released before this phase in reductive firing.

Search for an oil drop enamel

I do my initial research pretty broadly around the 48 diagram and get a lot of garbage. However, I keep some samples to work on:

Based on these first results, I select the sample at the bottom right to continue the research. In a second step, I vary the % of iron oxides to observe the impact of it on the glaze:

I select the 6th sample on the picture, which is this one:

The effect obtained is interesting but the enamel does not seem to melt homogeneously. Therefore, I decide to make a triangle around this sample:

I then select the sample on the 3rd row (from the bottom) in the 2nd position, thus relatively centered on my triangle.

Here is the enlarged sample:

Finally, one realizes that the result on a larger scale of the enamel thus sought is not, in this case, identical to the research previously carried out. However, I choose to keep it by naming it oil red and not oil drop. I decide to continue the research around this glaze while keeping this one...

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