THE Rutile Glaze

IMG_2586, originally uploaded by miyCeramics Studio.

As we start exploring in depth cone 6 glazes and start understanding how chemicals behave in the glaze matrix you can get some just gut wrenchingly beautiful effects.

This picture is rutile brushed haphazardly on floating blue. Floating blue was dipped on the stamped surface, then wiped also haphazardly to reveal some of the clay and the relief of the stamp and then the rutile is brushed around. Floating blue in our studio comes out a greenish where thick and brownish where thin.You will notice the blueish white that appears that is the titanium from the tin playing with the cobalt coloring of the floating blue glaze. Pictures just don’t do it justice you just want to reach out and touch it!

To mix the rutile glaze we use our studio cone 6 clear the Glossy Base 2 from MC6G handbook and add 5% rutile to it. This glaze by itself is also pretty especially over a warm toasty iron bearing clay body. It looks like cloud misted around your your pot. So basically it is just a clear glaze with some rutile. Rutile is made up of dirty titanium so it is cheaper than regular titanium its effect in the glaze matrix is to help little crystals grow during the cooling phase of the firing and it is these sparkly crystals that take and otherwise dull straight functional form and make it visually exciting.

This glaze just does amazing stuff over just about any glaze! It is really a great exciting addition to any studio to jazzy up your colors!