Tuesday, April 15, 2008

My Favorite Glazing Tools

Every potter has their own way of doing things. I am no exception. These are my favorite tools for glaze mixing, minus the bucket. Well, and the scale. They include my Hanson Mixer, a cordless drill, shelving supports from a Closetmaid kit, a large sieve, and a bunch of cheap bristle brushes I have epoxied together.


This is how I set it up. I have a collection of old, oak school chairs that I use around the studio as bucket perches. I place my bucket on them, then shelf supports, my sieve and my brushy thing I made.

I use the shelf supports for a couple of reasons. They are triangular and coated metal, so the glaze just slides off of them and into a bucket and they are easy to wash. Since they are V shaped and upside down, I can use a knife to cut a couple of shallow notches in the rim of my bucket and everything is locked in place.

My test batch glaze set up is similar and shows off my brushy thing in action, sort of. Notice, my test sieve fits into the lid of a plastic container that we cut. Our test batches of glaze all go into these containers, so the sieve and altered lid can fit on any test container.

I use the brush when I am sieving because it makes quicker work. I have tried scrapers and stirrers and more, but the bristle brushes all epoxied together just scrub the glaze through the screen much faster.

Of course, the most important tool for mixing glazes is an accurate scale. I have mine thanks to Jorgensen Studio. When I was shopping for a scale, she had an extra one and sent it to me. She said it had been given to her by another potter and she wanted to pay it forward. I am so grateful! She makes amazing things, so please check her out if you are looking for amazing jewelry or one of a kind pottery.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! This is intereting. There's really a lot to it. I admire you for the talent you have :)

Natalie -- NKP Designs said...

Thanks! Great blog entry!

I bought some dry glazes from glazemixer.com and someone told me to mix it with very warm water to get it to dissolve faster so I've been doing that.

Do you do that? Do you use warm or hot water? Or do you use cold?

Anonymous said...

Wow that was great. I love seeing crafters doing what they do best. Such great talent there. :-)