Mixing powdered glaze with water
Hi all. My name is Caitlin. I recently moved to Sweden and don’t know much Swedish yet. I’ve also never mixed my own glaze. I tried to communicate at the store in Swedish but I clearly missed something. My husband is Swedish but even with him translating the label, I have some questions that he isn’t able to answer. The label shows two different water volumes, one for “Täckande glasyr” and one for “transparent glasyr.” What does this mean? Does it mean that one should add more water if they want the glaze to be more transparent? I am also confused because I thought the guy in the store said one kilo of powdered glaze would make 3 liters of glaze, but the label makes it appear that it will only make about 1 liter of glaze. I also thought I understood that the woman in the store said I should add water until the glaze had the consistency of whipping cream. Any info you could offer would be greatly appreciated! Or advice on glazing plates with the minimum volume of glaze as it is quite expensive! Thanks!
I make mostly from 1 kg of powder with 1 litre of water. It will be about 1 miter of glaze. If you want the glaze to be transparent, then you should take more water.
Paola Näslund
Brenneyia Krukmakeri
https://www.facebook.com/brenneyia
Hi Caitlin,
Your first question:
What the text basically means, or what I beleive it tries to describe, is that opaque/coloured glazes should contain slightly less water than clear or transparent glazes, as you normally want a clear glaze to build a slightly thinner layer….. So far, it should make sense to any potter…
The stated amounts of water though, look to me way too high…! Possibly (?) the text means (?) that the total amount of 1 kg glaze AND water will land on these stated total volumes….! (?) That is the only way that I can make this text make any sense…. This info is not very clear, I have to say. Normally you - generally - add about 0.8 L of water to 1 kg of opaque/coloured glaze, and (maybe) 0.9 L water to a clear glaze…. Generic figures of course.
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Second question, on the "3 litres"-statement:
This is physically impossible…..!
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I hope THIS made any sense…..🙂
I would like to add that wether or not a glaze is opaque or transparent is not a question of adding different amounts of water (even though transparent glazes usually are preferred a little thinner). Opaque and transparent glazes have different recipes so you'd probably want to know what type of glaze it is. But adding a little water at a time and checking the consistency - aiming for unwhipped whipping cream - is a good start :-D
#3: I like the "unwhipped whipping cream" metaphor…… 🙂
Beeing exact is not easy when it comes to glaze thickness…..even though we want to quantify everything these days, this is a tricky one….😛
Before I retired, I frequently used this description to customers: Dip….count to 2½…..lift up……and an ordinary clear glaze should have built the "thickness of a printer paper", whilst a coloured glaze should be "credit card thick"…..
Science….?…no way…..but it may help to get going from Point Zero…….😉
@paonas @Bosse Cebex Gbg @AnnaLow Thank you all so much fo your responses! This is definitely helpful! Sorry it has taken me so long to say thanks! I just saw them now because this my fist time using iFokus or a forum like this and I thought I would get an email notification when someone responded. It is so awesome that to have a community where people generously share their expertise! -Caitlin