BRUCE WILD LEAVE REPORT - INTRODUCTION

 

My research of black and brown glazes was inspired by a catalog titled Hare’s Fur, Tortoise Shell, and Partridge Feathers that accompanied an exhibition of Song Dynasty dark glazes at the Harvard University Art Museum in 1996.  The author and curator, Robert D. Mowry, assembled the largest exhibition of ancient Chinese dark-glazed pots to date from collectors and museums around the world.  On page 68 of the catalog, he gives the ultimate percentage analyses (UPAs) of four dark glazes.  (For further clarification, please see the explanation of UPAs below.)  These are the only UPAs of dark Song Dynasty glazes I have seen.  Because of my ongoing interest in glazes, I was very excited to try and replicate these glazes using only native Oregon materials. 

 

In April of 2002, I researched Oregon geology in various libraries.  I found a considerable amount of information.  Of particular value to me was a rare Oregon State publication called Bulletin 64, a 1967 survey of a number of significant deposits of materials that have commercial value.  Some of these deposits have been mined for a long time, some were never mined, but all of materials and locations of these deposits were well-documented.  This information, combined with Metzer’s county maps, enabled me to find the approximate deposit locations, so that, when on site, I could talk with local farmers and townspeople to find the exact location of each deposit.  I knew I was looking for dark, high-iron materials, which in nature would appear brown to reddish to black.  The materials in Bulletin 64 that seemed most interesting were deposits of pumice, cinders, syenites, granites, metallic oxides, and clays. 

 

I planned three trips.  The first trip was to explore north and northeast Oregon.  The second trip would take me to southwest Oregon.  The third trip would include a section of the Oregon coast. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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COLLECTION OF NATIVE MATERIALS

 

First trip: north and northeast Oregon

·         I remembered a low-fire clay in Othello, Washington, about thirty miles northwest of the Tri-Cities, that I had used forty years ago.  I thought this clay may be a good material for this project.  I went up the Columbia River Gorge to see if I could relocate this material.  On the way, I stopped frequently to investigate interesting outcroppings.  East of the town of The Dalles, I found a really dark, soft clay.  I took a sample of about twenty-five pounds, the usual amount for testing.  Next I went up to the Tri-Cities and on to Othello, which of course had changed a lot in forty years.  But I was able to locate the material I was looking for in what is now the city dump.  I gathered about two hundred pounds of the material, because I was reasonably certain this material would work for my purposes. 

·         I went on to Pendleton, where I found a large deposit of pumice adjacent to Blue Mountain Community College.  I gathered a sample.

·         I went south to Ukiah and revisited the clay and pumice outcroppings I had used seven years ago in my celadon research.  I gathered about two hundred pounds of each material. 

·         I proceeded further south to Hamilton, to a location one-and-a-half miles southeast of the town, where there are considerable amounts of manganese dioxide nodules one can just collect off the ground.  I gathered about twenty pounds. 

·         I went west to a large pumice deposit at Tumalo, about fifteen miles east of Sisters, where I collected another sample.

·         I proceeded further west to Santiam Pass, where near the top was a large cinder cone.  I gathered another sample there. 

 

Second trip: southwest Oregon

·         I traveled southwest to the Mount Ashland region to Williams, where approximately three miles west of town, I gathered about two hundred pounds of limestone at the Bristol quarry. 

·         Next, I drove south to Mount Ashland.  Over the years of glaze testing, the lightest-firing rocks I have found have invariably come from Mount Ashland.  But I had also seen a few darker rocks on the mountain, although I had never tested them.  At the base of the mountain, just west of the town of Ashland, I found an old quarry that had been used to provide gravel for Lithia Park many years ago.  The granite-type rock I found  there was dark and soft.  I took a sample. 

·         I went up Mount Ashland looking for other dark rock.  It was not until I got to the very top that I saw a dark outcropping that looked surprisingly similar to the rock I had found at the base.  I took a sample to compare the fired results of both. 

 

Third trip: Oregon coast

·         The third trip took me to the Oregon coast.  At Florence, I collected some beach sand.

 

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·         I went twenty miles north to Blodgett Peak, where there is a dark, syenite rock which is quarried for bedrock.  I collected a sample there as well.

 

I had, over the last month, processed many of the materials as I collected them.  I used my jaw crusher, roller mill, and ball mills (each material is ball-milled for 18-24 hours to reduce  the samples to fine powder of about 350 mesh) for making tests and samples for analysis.  In all, I had collected:

·         dark clays from Othello and The Dalles

·         light clay from Ukiah

·         pumices from Pendleton, Tumalo, and Ukiah

·         two similar granite-type rocks from Mount Ashland

·         nepheline syenite from the Blodgett Peak quarry

·         limestone from the Bristol quarry

·         light sand from the Florence beach

·         manganese dioxide from Hamilton

 

In addition, I collected wood ash from the fireplace of a friend who only burns oak.  And finally, I added another dark clay I found behind my studio.  The collection of the above seemed like a good starting point for my research. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GLAZE TESTING

 

I finished processing the last of the materials.  I mixed the finely powdered materials with water and applied each material to white clay tiles for the first firing.  I decided to fire all of the tests to cone 9 (1260C/2300F) in a reduction (carbon-rich) atmosphere in my gas test kiln.  Each fire takes approximately twelve hours to reach temperature and another twelve hours to cool. 

 

The first tests were fired primarily to see the colors and degrees of melt.  After the fire, I found:

·         the dark clays and the cinders were very dark brown and immature (not melted)

·         the manganese dioxide had changed only in color (to almost black), and otherwise remained so immature it stayed powdery

·         the pumices, the nepheline syenite, and the granites fired lighter and fairly glass-like, indicating a more thorough melt

·         the two granites were so similar I deducted they had to be from the same outcropping, with one deposit at sea level, the other deposit at 3000’.  Mount Ashland is an intrusive mountain, so it is quite possible both deposits originally were part of the same outcropping that has now been separated into two (or more) deposits at different locations on the mountain

 

From this initial test fire, I selected the most promising raw materials to be analyzed:

·         Pendleton pumice

·         Blodgett syenite

·         granite from the base of Mount Ashland I had labeled G-1 (granite-1)

·         The Dalles clay

·         Othello clay

·         cinders

 

The limestone, oak ash, Ukiah clay, and Ukiah pumice had already been analyzed during my earlier celadon research.  The manganese dioxide and beach sand have commonly known analyses. 

 

The six raw materials to be analyzed were weighed in 100-gram amounts and placed in small plastic bags.  I took them to the University of Oregon Geology Lab for analysis using their x-ray fluorescent spectrometer.  I had to wait between two and four weeks for the results, which would provide me with the ultimate percentage analyses (or UPAs) of each material. 

 

The percentage weight analysis provides the exact percentage weight (i.e. the percentage given in weights) of each oxide in a particular mineral.  The main categories I needed to know were the percentage weights of silicon dioxide, alumina oxide, sodium oxide, potassium oxide, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, iron oxide, and manganese dioxide.  I needed these analyses because the published UPAs give the exact percentage weights of the oxides in the
Song Dynasty black and brown glazes.  So with the analyses of my materials, I could then

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calculate these materials into the UPAs of the Song glazes.  During this time, I processed ten pounds of each material to 350 mesh.  This would give me a large enough quantity to begin glaze testing. 

 

With the analyses done, and using the four published glaze UPAs, I was able to do the calculations using several different materials.  I calculated ten formulas with pumice as the main ingredient, ten formulas with Blodgett rock as the main ingredient, and ten formulas with G-1 as the main ingredient.  To see what role the iron oxide played, I added the darker materials in varying amounts in an effort to approximate the iron oxide contents of the published UPAs of the Song glazes. 

 

CHART 1: UPAS FOR NATIVE MATERIALS USED IN GLAZES

MATERIAL            SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3        MnO        P2O5

The Dalles clay            51.75        8.4        0.5        1.4        0.63        -        37.4        -        -

Othello clay           59.6        23.4        0.7        4.5        0.91        3.7        7.2        -        -

Pendleton pumice 71.6        14.6        2.6        4.8        2.3        0.86        3.2        -        -

Manganese nodules -        -        -        -        -        -        -        100.0        -

Cinders                51.3        20.1        1.5         3.0        11.1        3.4        9.6        -        -

Bristol limestone        -        -        -        -        55.5        -        -        -        -

G-1 rock              63.0        17.4        3.5        4.1        4.43        2.8        4.7        -        -

Florence beach sand   100.0        -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -

Blodgett rock          59.8        19.5        4.5        8.2        1.2        0.92        5.6        -        -

Oak ash                14.4        3.2        1.6        4.0        56.1        2.4        1.0        -        17.3

 

CHART 2: PUBLISHED UPAS OF SONG DYNASTY GLAZES

GLAZE                                 SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3

Black glaze #1 (temoku)               65.4        14.3        2.8        0.96        7.7        2.7        5.9

Black glaze                            66.4        15.9        2.3        0.5        8.0        2.6        4.6

Kaki (russet)                           70.7        17.1        2.7        1.2        3.7        2.2        2.4

Tea dust                               68.1        18.5        2.5        1.8        3.3        2.6        3.2

 

The glaze formulas were converted to gram weights.  The powdered materials were carefully weighed on a gram scale to make 100-gram test batches.  Each batch was then mixed with water to a creamy consistency and applied to an off-white, extruded clay tile that had been bisque-fired to 871C/1600F.  Each glaze was applied on a tile in three layers to show thin, medium, and thick coatings.  Varying the thicknesses is important, as it shows the depth of the glaze as well as the quality of its melt.  All thirty tests were fired at cone 9, 1260C/2300F.  The fired results were not good.  The glazes were dry and matte, not smooth and glass-like.  And although they were brown and dark green, there were no dark browns or blacks.  I recalculated many of the glazes to see if I had made a mistake, but my calculations were all accurate.  What could be wrong?

 

When I spoke with the technician who performed the analyses, I was told the accuracy was +1/-1%.  I had varied the tests enough to make up for that.  It was possible, but unlikely,

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that the published UPA was wrong.  The other variable left was temperature.  The author of the catalog had mentioned that the Song glazes were fired between 1236C/2257F and 1294C/2361F, and I had fired my tests at 1260C/2300F.  So it was possible I was at the low end of the temperature range and the glazes were simply not mature.  A higher temperature would be required.  It also dawned on me that the large climbing kilns used during the early Song Dynasty would take days to fire with wood.  Perhaps the temperature was not hotter than indicated, but rather the long time at that temperature (referred to as the fire’s soak) would eventually melt the glazes.  My choices were to fire at a hotter temperature or to hold the kiln at a lower temperature for a longer time.  Neither was a good solution, because my kiln will not fire hotter without damage from the excessive heat and I was not prepared to spend hours and hours trying for a longer soak. 

 

My solution was to recalculate the glazes so they would melt at a lower temperature.  The alumina oxide is the highest-melting (i.e. melting at the highest temperature) oxide in a glaze.  I began lowering the alumina oxide by 1-3% increments.  I recalculated fifteen of the original glazes with lower alumina oxide contents.  The dry materials for each formula were weighed, mixed with water, applied to tiles, and fired.  The results were a little better, but the glazes remained dryish and dull. 

 

I recalculated the formulas again by lowering the alumina oxide contents more.  Again the dry materials for each formula were weighed, mixed with water, applied to tiles, and fired.  The results were much better, but the glazes still were not glossy and smooth. 

 

The amounts of sodium and potassium oxides in my calculated glazes seemed low.  So I raised the amounts of these oxides by 1% and 2%, holding the amounts of alumina oxide constant.  The dry materials for each formula were weighed, mixed with water, applied to tiles, and fired.  These results were much better.  All of the glazes were melted to some degree, and some of the glazes were slightly shiny.

 

Early on, I also considered the amount of calcium oxide to be very low.  However, I initially assumed the high iron oxide content would somehow offset the low calcium oxide content.  When it did not, I recalculated the fifteen glazes, varying the calcium oxide by 3% and 6% in each. The dry materials for each formula were weighed, mixed with water, applied to thirty tiles, and fired.  The results were very promising.  Most of the glazes were very glassy, and some actually melted off the tiles. 

 

The best glaze melts were those where the thickest applications showed a smooth, glassy depth and stability without runs, showing some of the qualities of the old glazes I had seen in museums and books. 

 

The blacks and dark browns I was looking for did not appear in these tests.  My guess was that the iron oxide contents of the published UPAs may be of a different type of iron oxide, because the published UPAs indicated the iron oxide to be FeO, the pure oxide form.  The analyses of my materials indicated the iron oxide to be Fe2O3, a less pure form and

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thus not as powerful a colorant.  I next tried to increase the strength of my colorant by increasing the amounts of iron oxide in the formulas.  I recalculated the ten best glazes, increasing the iron oxide contents in the brown glazes by 1% and 2%.  I raised the iron oxide contents of the dark green glazes by 4% to 6%.  I used the materials with the highest iron oxide content, which were:

·         The Dalles clay

·         Othello clay

·         cinders

·         clay from my property, which appears very similar to the The Dalles clay

 

I then left the amounts of alumina oxide, sodium and potassium oxides, and calcium oxide the same as I increased the iron oxide amounts.  The dry materials for twenty formulas were weighed, mixed with water, applied to tiles, and fired.  The results were very successful, ranging from dark browns to almost black-browns with very smooth, glassy surfaces.  Of these, I selected five glazes that were the darkest.  Three glazes were dark brown to black and two were brown.  The goal of my research was to get two temokus (a variable brown and black glaze), one kaki (an iridescent brown glaze), one tea dust (a brown-black glaze with green specks), and one black glaze.  With the exception of the black glaze, I was very close to the glazes I was trying to recreate.  

 

I experienced problems applying these glazes.  Although a glaze may be technically formulated, it also has an important aspect that is physical: a glaze must be suspended so that the particles will not settle out in the water.  But if a glaze becomes too suspended, it will not dry properly on a bisque tile or pot.  The problem I had was that the glaze formulas were now very high in clay content, which was necessary for the glaze colors.  However, the test glazes, when applied, would not dry quickly and cracked when finally dry.  I decided I would have to calcine the dry clay materials.  Calcining usually means firing the material to 871C/1600F, which reduces its plasticity and shrinkage.  I calcined the materials and the result was that the glaze instead settled too quickly and would not remain suspended long enough to be properly applied.  I tried calcining the clays at a lower temperature to try and retain some of the plasticity.  After many attempts, I found 621C/1150F to be right.  There was still some suspension, but the applied glaze dried quickly.  I calcined

·         The Dalles clay

·         Othello clay

·         clay from my property

·         cinders

to 621C/1150F and began further testing. 

 

I recalculated the darkest glaze with 1% to 6% increments of manganese dioxide to move the glaze toward black. 

 

I was also interested in creating a “tea dust” glaze, usually a dark brown glaze with green specks.  One of my dark glazes had a little of this quality.  This particular glaze was made with a coarse (not ball-milled) calcined The Dalles clay that was accidentally added when I

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ran out of the properly processed material.  I thought the coarser material may have caused the green specks, so I screened the The Dalles clay at 150 mesh, 120 mesh, 100 mesh, and 80 mesh, then remixed the tests to see if it increased the green specks. 

 

The kaki glazes were recalculated increasing the alumina oxide by 1% to 3% in an effort to change the surfaces.  Another set of kaki glazes was recalculated increasing the silica dioxide by 3% and 6% in an effort to slightly dull the surfaces. 

 

CHART 3: UPAS OF MY GLAZE RESULTS

GLAZE                         SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3        MnO

Brown to black glaze (temoku)        66.7        12.5        1.46        3.2        7.2        1.3        7.4        -

Black glaze                    62.7        11.4        1.4        2.9        8.1        1.2        7.8        4.5

Tea dust                       63.4        13.0        1.5        3.4        9.0        1.47        8.2        -

Kaki (russet)                   63.8        16.5        2.6        3.8        5.9        2.7        4.6        -

 

By this time, it was late summer.  School was to start soon, and I decided to put further testing on hold so I would have time to revisit some of the sites before the rains started.  I needed to get larger quantities of the best working materials to be able to finish this research.

 

The materials I had most consistently used were

·         Othello clay

·         The Dalles clay

·         Pendleton pumice

·         cinders

·         G-1

·         beach sand

·         Blodgett syenite

 

So I went back to

·         The Dalles, where I gathered approximately two hundred pounds of clay

·         Pendleton, where I gathered approximately two hundred pounds of pumice

·         Santiam, where I gathered cinders

·         Mount Ashland, where I gathered approximately two hundred pounds of G-1

·         the coast, where I gathered approximately two hundred pounds of sand

·         Blogett Peak, where I gathered approximately two hundred pounds of syenite

 

I had already gathered sufficient quantities of Othello and Ukiah clays and did not need to revisit these sites. 

 

I ran the hard rock materials through my jaw crusher and roller mill to reduce them to approximately 1/8” particle size and stored the separate materials in large metal garbage cans.  I now had about 1400 pounds of raw materials which, for some time to come, would enable me to make consistent tests and eventually, large quantities of glazes.

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CLAY TESTING

 

Throughout the spring and summer, I had also been experimenting with local clays to formulate a suitable clay body.  Clay-testing is somewhat different than glaze-testing in that there are more physical considerations.  For instance, if the clay body shrinks too much, it will crack upon drying.  Therefore, only 10-15% of shrinkage is acceptable.  Also, a clay body should have a relatively low absorbency, ½-2½% when fired, which means it is water tight and will not expand or contract significantly.  Expansion or contraction greater than that could cause the glaze to craze and the pot to become fragile.  On the other hand, if the clay is too tight, with for example 0% absorbency, it would be very glass-like and the pot could deform during firing.  Finally, the clay body must be plastic, i.e. workable in the wet stage, so it can be formed and not slump or collapse from its own weight. 

 

Over the years, I have used local clays for my stoneware clay body, which has a very dark brown color and a rough texture.  For the brown and black glazes, however, I wanted a much lighter, tan-colored clay with a relatively smooth surface, similar to the clays of the ancient dark-glazed pots I had seen in museums and books.

 

Several of the clays I have found over the years tested well for physical properties such as plasticity and shrinkage.  All, however, had up to 10% fired absorbency at cone 9. 

 

The main clay I intended to use for the new body was Elmira clay, a clay I have used for twenty years.  The clay deposit is located approximately 3½ miles west of the town of Elmira.  The raw clay is very sandy and must be mixed with water to a thin consistency and poured through a 120 mesh screen to remove the coarse sand.  This process helps the resulting clay be more plastic. 

 

Another clay, named Hobart Butte clay, gathered near Cottage Grove at Hobart Butte, is a kaolinite and very light-colored after firing.  Different from the Elmira clay, Hobart Butte clay is very hard and will not slake down in water.  Therefore, it must be ground and ball-milled. 

 

These two clays, combined in various percentages, produced a clay body that was light-colored and smooth after firing.  It was not very plastic, however, barely throwable, and too absorbent.  The Ukiah clay I had used in my celadon research on porcelains was a very plastic clay when ball-milled, so I tried adding various percentages of it to the other two clays to increase plasticity.  I ended up adding 11% Ukiah clay and now had a physical body suitable for wheel-throwing. 

 

I had the analyses of Elmira and Ukiah clays from previous research.  I had found an analysis of Hobart Butte clay in a 1938 Oregon State publication named Oregon Clay Deposits.  So with these three clay analyses I hoped to calculate a clay body very similar in color and absorbency to the analysis of the Song Dynasty clay that was published in Hare’s Fur, Tortoise Shell, and Partridge Feathers.  I could not calculate an exact copy of the

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published body with my clays.  The alumina oxide in the Song Dynasty UPA was higher by 3% than any formula I could calculate.  This is because the Chinese clays were probably all true koalins, and therefore high in alumina oxide, and the Oregon clays I collected are mostly high in silica dioxide.  3% is an acceptable variation for a clay body. 

 

By using a light granite rock I called MA-4 (I gathered it from Mount Ashland), I was able to get the sodium and potassium oxides to within ½% of the Song Dynasty UPA, assuring a low absorbency rate.  And finally, I was able to get the iron oxide content to within ¼% of the Song Dynasty UPA, assuring a very similar color.

 

CHART 4: UPAS FOR NATIVE MATERIALS USED IN CLAYS

MATERIAL                            SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3

Ukiah clay                             71.25        19.74        1.4        0.53        1.12        0.05        1.7

Elmira clay                            73.0        22.0        1.0        0.43        -        -        1.3

Hobart clay                            58.6        29.2        -        -        -        -        2.0

MA-4 rock                            75.0        15.4        8.0        1.3        1.22        -        -      

 

CHART 5: PUBLISHED UPAS OF SONG DYNASTY CLAY BODY

MATERIAL                            SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3

Song Dynasty clay body              70.4        25.5        1.2        1.0        -        -        1.9

 

I made ten test tiles of various calculations to test for shrinkage, absorbency, and color.  The resulting fired tests showed one to be the best, having 14% shrinkage, ½% absorbency, and a light tan color.  I mixed up five pounds to test the workability of the clay body.  The clay was a little short on plasticity, but workable.  I felt that after the clay had aged for a month or so, giving all particles a chance to hydrate, the clay would become more workable.  So I mixed up twenty-five pounds of the clay body to make extruded tiles for testing the glazes.

 

CHART 6: RECIPE AND UPAS OF MY CLAY BODY

%        MATERIAL                    SiO2        Al2O3        K2O        Na2O        CaO        MgO        Fe2O3

9.8    Ukiah clay                    7.0        1.93        0.14        0.05        1.2        -        0.17

48.3   Elmira clay                    35.3        10.6        0.48        0.21        -        -        0.63

19.0   Hobart clay                    11.13        5.5        -        -        -        -        0.38

22.9   MA-4 rock                    17.2        3.5        1.83        0.29        -        -        0.34

100.0  UPA TOTALS                       73.0        22.2        2.5        0.56        0.12        -        1.6   

 

The preparation of my clay is as follows:

·         the Elmira clay is mixed with water to a thin slurry so it can be screened through a 120 mesh screen

·         the Hobart Butte and Ukiah clays are crushed to 1/8” particle size, then mixed with water so they can be ball-milled for approximately 12 hours

·         the three clays are stored separately in their wet states in lidded, plastic containers

 

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·         to accurately calculate a clay formula, it is necessary to determine the wet-to-dry ratios for each clay material; to do so, a 100-gram amount of each slurry is dried and the dry materials are weighed again; the weight differences give each material’s ratio

·         using the ratios, it becomes possible to weigh the dry ingredients of a formula without having to dry each clay material, a lengthy and space-consuming process

·         using the clay formula (or recipe), the three clay slurries are weighed and mixed together

·         the MA-4 powdered rock is added in its dry state

·         all materials are thoroughly mixed until the particles are evenly distributed

·         the resulting slurry, referred to as slip, is poured out into plaster troughs or batts that absorb the excess water, a process taking five to ten days

·         when the clay is firm enough, it is removed from the batts and stored in plastic bags to age for a minimum of three to four weeks

 

After processing the clay in the above manner, it was extruded and cut into 150 tiles to be used for glaze tests.  The tiles were allowed to air-dry for a week, then bisque-fired to 871C/1600F. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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BRINGING CLAY AND GLAZES TOGETHER

 

I now proceeded to test the temoku, tea dust, kaki, and near-black glaze formulas on the new clay tiles.  The results of the fire were very good.  The glazes fit the new stoneware clay nicely.  The glazes darkened slightly because of the iron oxide content of the new clay, but they looked excellent nonetheless.  There are still tests to do – the tea dust and kaki glazes were not quite right yet and I want to fine-tune the color and quality of the melt – but I considered the main stage of my research completed at this time.  In all, this stage took most of the year, twenty-seven kiln firings or approximately 324 hours of firing, and approximately 750 glaze and clay tests. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRUCE WILD LEAVE REPORT - PAGE 13

 

CONCLUSION

 

I was surprised that my final glaze results very closely resembled the celadon I had done before in terms of their chemistry.  In other words, the UPAs of my dark glazes and celadons were in the same ranges of silica, alumina, sodium, potassium, and calcium percentages.  The significant difference was the presence of high amounts of iron, which of course causes the dark glazes’ colors.  When I started the project, I was interested in the relationship between iron and calcium, assuming that the iron would flux more and thus the calcium, sodium, and potassium would be in lower percentages.  This assumption was quite incorrect.  The fact is that the iron oxide within the 8-10% range does not increase the melt, its only effect is to give color.  To verify this in the latter stages of my testing, I simply used a celadon glaze, which is a light grey-green color containing ½% iron, and to this glaze I added 9½% pure commercial iron oxide.  The result was a dark brown to black glaze with an almost identical quality of melt as the celadon, proving that the iron contributed little to the melt.  The intent of this project, however, was to use native materials that contain iron oxide, rather than adding pure iron oxide to a glaze. 

 

Over the coming years, I hope to find more information and analyses of Song Dynasty dark glazes and I hope such glazes will eventually indicate why the published UPAs were so different from my final glaze UPAs.  Again, it could be due to temperature or, perhaps, the published UPAs were inaccurate.  Time will tell.  Regardless, I now have a complete palette of dark native glazes that have the quality and colors I had hoped for. 

 

All that remains to be done is to mix up large quantities of clay and glazes and make and fire pots.  However, the processing of large quantities of clay needs to be done during dry and hot months to leave enough time to properly dry and age the clay, so this stage of the process will have to wait until the late spring and summer of 2003. 

 

Following are the recipes and UPAs of the brown to black glaze (temoku), the black glaze, the tea dust glaze, and the kaki (russet) glaze that resulted from my research.

2011 Site Archive