[Clayart] Low-fire slip or engobe recipe for bone-dry clay

[Snail Scott]

> On May 31, 2018, at 10:33 AM, Tammy L. Lynn <tammylynn30 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...I am firing Laguna's R2 terracotta to 02 and I'd really like to
> apply a white layer to the bone-dry pieces...Does anyone have a suggestion for a slip or engobe
> recipe?  I'm looking for a thin opaque layer but it's okay if a little of
> the red clay body shows through…

Tammy-

For white slip on bone-dry, I generally use the dry ^5 B-Mix slip base with 10-15% zircopax added. It’s probably a little refractory for ^02, though, especially with all that zirconium, so you might want to add some flux - maybe 10-15% gerstley borate or a frit?   My usual engobe recipe, which works pretty well on greenware, is an old Richard Zakin recipe (Ontario Engobe) from one of his books…I’ll have to check the exact recipe tomorrow in my studio. I use it in the ^4-6 range, but I often add extra flux to tweak the vitrification levels or offset refractory colorants, and you may find frit 3124 to be useful in bringing it down to ^02. (I know you don’t want it fully vitrified, but you won’t want it dusty, either.) Just guessing about the 3124, though. I’m not sure what the optimum flux for that temperature range is, since I seldom work lower than ^2, but perhaps someone else can offer input?

I have obligations all day tomorrow, but i will try to find a better recipe for you on Saturday.


Snail Scott
claywork at flying-snail.com
www.snailscott.com