Titanium Matte Glaze Tests

Tim Carlson August 3, 2011

Conventions in these notes: Here, as in all my notes, the units used are by weight unless specied otherwise (e.g. 1tsp Sodium Silicate). Some may complain that the recipes included are in parts by weight which have not been normalized. A problem I nd is that in practice, all one needs to reproduce a specic glaze is the correct proportion of parts and the same kiln and ring schedule. Ha! Well, at least the correct proportions and a close approximation to the same ring schedule are achievable. Another problem I have is: what normalization do I use? Normalization to 100% overall by weight? Or normalization of the halides to a molecular proportion of 1?1 For all the glazes listed in my notes, we red to cone 10 (10) in reduction using a Bailey Downdraft 10ft3 kiln, though to be honest, the ring is more of a soft 11.2 The schedule which we red is approximately given by: neutral up to a Shino/body reduction, re strong reduction through to 9, tapering the reduction to neutral at 10 with a neutral soak for 20 minutes. The humidity we re in is fairly low, and is mentioned here since it has a lesser eect on the reduction environment in the kiln (I apologize that the actual humidity %, nor the barometric pressure are recorded here for reproduction eorts).
Some day, when I feel the urge to do a more complete analysis, I will provide a molecular proportion analysis as an appendix; currently, I am much more focused on the reproduction of colors and textures which requires the simplicity of testing, testing, testing. 2 I would list peak temperature, but the major factor in maturity of the clay body as well as the glaze is the amount of heat energy which is applied to the materials inside the kiln; here is the main reason for using pyrometric cones. The cones are a simple, reasonably accurate measure of the heat energy which has been supplied to the materials in the kiln.
1

Extension to the Satin Glaze test notes.

For the satin base glaze, the original formula I started with is from Anns blue (purple satin); a celadon blue in oxidation, and purple in reduction:

Custer Whiting EPK Copper Carbonate Cobalt Carbonate

63 19 18.5 1.5 0.5

The satin base glaze is determined without the copper and cobalt:

Custer Whiting EPK

63 19 18.5

The rst titanium matte which appeared was in an attempt to produce a nickel yellow in the satin base, the formula which is:

Custer Whiting EPK Titanium Dioxide Nickel Carbonate

63 19 18.5 10 2

Shown from left to right are examples of Purple Satin, the Satin Base, and the Nickel Yellow Matte.

Another example which prompted me to think that a titanium matte might be produced came from a yellow matte using rutile, which is:

Custer Whiting EPK Rutile

63 19 18.5 10

In both of these cases, the surface was not satin at all, but instead, remarkably matte.

The Titanium matte lineup.

The base glaze used for all of the following tests is:

Ti Matte Base Custer Whiting EPK Titanium

63 19 18.5 10

The picture below shows the sample tiles produced using the idea for a titanium matte. On the left is the base glaze, followed by various colorants to the right.

The base glaze produced a nice o-white matte glaze on B-mix clay. Possibly it might go to a really nice white matte on porcelain. 1. The rst colored sample used chrome for the colorant. Ti Matte Base 100 Chrome Oxide 1 Here, the chrome turned brown and reduced the matte to a satin texture. It might be nice to try using .5 to .75 for the chrome or maybe increase the titanium by an additional 5% in order to increase the matte texture. 4

2. The second sample used cobalt carbonate for the colorant. Ti Matte Base Cobalt Carbonate 100 1

While it did turn out blue matte, it seemed to have brown overtones. Whether this was due to the use of the reclaimed clay or not, I dont know. Generally a little disappointing, but worth more tests.

3. The third used ilmenite as the colorant. Ti Matte Base 100 Ilmenite 2 Surprisingly, the color is a peachy orange, with blueish tones when thick; also it maintained the matte quality. It might be interesting to try adding up to 6 parts Ilmenite, and maybe reducing it to 1 part alternatively.

4. The fourth used iron chromate as the colorant.

Ti Matte Base 100 Iron Chromate 2 The color in this case is a nice brown with the matte surface retained.

5. The colorant used in this sample was black Iron Oxide. Ti Matte Base Black Iron Oxide 100 1.5

Again, a nice peachy matte. The color variations may be due to the use of black iron oxide having the large particle size, but this is also used on reclaimed clay. Note: A nice orange peachy matte can likely be developed using the following formula: Ti Matte Base 100 Yellow Iron Oxide 2-6

This suggestion comes from looking at the rutile yellow satin glaze above and #s 3 and 5 of the titanium mattes above. The rutile is a tightly bound iron-titanium molecule leaning toward yellow and the looser bound iron-titanium Ilmenite produces peachy-ness closely resembling the black iron oxide matte. This suggests to me that the least bound iron (yellow iron oxide) in the high titanium matte has the best chance of producing a consistent non-blotchy peachy orange.

6. The colorant used is Copper Carbonate. Ti Matte Base Copper Carbonate 100 2

Here, the matte texture is very pleasant, but the surprise to note is that the glaze will darken to black where thick. 7. Heres an attempt to create a black matte, on a follow-up test to a question posed in an earlier set of notes: Ti Matte Base Titanium Dioxide Copper Carbonate Cobalt Carbonate Iron Chromate 100 2 3 2 1.5

Here, the matte texture is very pleasant, but the glaze produced a very dark green rather than a black.

Questions:

Would this make a better recipe for a black matte? Ti Matte Base 100 Titanium Dioxide 2 Copper Carbonate 4 Cobalt Carbonate 2 Iron Chromate 2 Would an inclusion of iron and/or nickel increase or decrease the blackness? What about other color modiers like strontium? 7