Manipulating glaze melts - using 'R to F' (Recipe to Formula) in Matrix.
Lesson Number 14
In the course of your work with glaze you will, from time to time, wish to alter the maturing temperature of a glaze. This task may be motivated by a desire to make a subtle change to a glaze that is not quite melting enough or is a little too fluid for your needs.Sometimes, however you may wish to make more radical changes moving a glaze designed to be fired in say the C.10 range down to the C.6 range.
The degree of change which you can make to a glaze melt while retaining the quality of the glaze at the new firing temperature is dependent on the nature of the original glaze and the degree of change required. The greater the change required the less likely you are of achieving success. This is due to the fact that large changes in maturing temperature may require radical changes in the choice of materials in the recipe. Such changes usually result in greater differences in the fusion process and ultimately in the quality of the glaze.
Glaze software such as Matrix can make the task of changing the chemistry of a glaze less daunting but theoretical changes to the chemistry of a glaze may not necessarily bring successful reproduction of the melt qualities at the new temperature due to factors beyond the mere chemical content of the materials.
Sometimes it may be easier to locate another recipe specifically designed for the target temperature to use as a starting point for manipulations which could result in a glaze similar to the one you originally fired at the previous temperature. i.e. if you have a matt glaze designed for C.10 and you want a similar matt glaze for C.6 then it might be easier to find a glaze originally designed as a C.6 matt and manipulate that to reproduce the qualities of the C.10 original.
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