Ilmenite Glazes

Glossy Frog Skin
+ 3 grams Ilmenite

MC 0001
Cornwall Stone - 64
Gerstley Borate - 14
Flint - 7.5
Whiting - 7.5
EPK - 5
Zinc - 2
Rutile - 3
Ilmenite - 2

Satin Base with 5 grams Ilmenite
(no Rutile)

     These are just a few glazes that I used to test the material Ilmenite. It's basically just really dirty Titanium and is generally granular. These three glaze bases show how the Ilmenite can interact with the glaze. From melting entirely to remaining in its granular form the color effects are similar to Rutile's, but seemingly darker (when melted in).

Shino Glazes

     Shinos are one of my favorite types of glazes, if not my most favorite. They are incredibly variable and incredibly cheap. There's no need for expensive colorants - let alone any colorants for that matter - to make interesting colors in the glaze. That's not to say that colorant's can't be added, but there really isn't any need. With just various mixes of the basic ingredients that make up a shino (clay and feldspar at the most simplistic level) colors like tan, orange, red, gray, black, and gold can be achieved. And, they don't run so there isn't any worry for your shelves.
     There are a few types of shinos: Traditional, Carbon Trapping, Red, and High Alumina (or white, very similar to traditional but with more alumina). I don't have a personal High Alumina glaze, but these are my Traditional, Red, and Carbon Trap shinos:

Carbon Trap Shino

Neph Sye - 45
Spodumene - 15
OM4 - 15
F-4 Feldspar - 10
Redart - 5
Soda Ash - 18

Traditional Shino

Neph Sye - 70
Fire Clay - 30

Red Shino

Neph Sye - 20
EPK - 20
OM4 - 20
Soda Ash - 20
Spodumene -20

      A common shino idea is that you can mix 70% - 80% of Neph Sye with 20% - 30% of pretty much any clay to get a shino, and that's all my traditional shino is. There's no need to hunt down any Fire Clay to make one, just use OM4 or EPK. Really, any clay could work. Even XX Saggar - as seen below.
     I personally am a fan of Carbon Trap Shinos the most, so I experimented more on mine. Additions of various ingredients and substitutions of others have interesting effects.

Carbon Trap + 1% Rutile

Carbon Trap + 3% Rutile

Carbon Trap + 2% Rutile

Carbon Trap with 5 grams
extra Redard added

Carbon Trap with XX Saggar
substituted for OM4

Carbon Trap with Salt
substituted for Soda Ash

     Sodium is what captures the carbon in Carbon Trap shino's giving that nice gray - black speckling. Therefore, just about any high sodium material can be added in an attempt to trap carbon. Using wax resist right after glaze application will prevent sodium build up and show a wonderful effect of different colors in the glaze due to carbon trapping and fluxing. Substitutions like salt work well.
     Now, my Carbon Trap Shino already has a nice metalic lustrous shine, but with additions of Rutile increase that golden shine. Interestingly enough though, from 1, 2, and 3 percent the color changes from brown/gray to blue/black, to gold respectively.

     However, there are some important things to know about shinos:

• Because they have such high clay content they generally have a higher melting point that other glazes. This means that other glazes should generally be layered on top of them if you layer glazes. That's not to say that some artists have success disregarding this, because some do.  
• Iron Oxide washes painted on top of a shino will go gun metal and run.
• The crazed surface in high sodium shinos will bed bacteria just like other crazed surfaces.
• Shinos are fired in reduction, and the Carbon Trapping shinos like heavy reduction firing.