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Stains can and do influence the degree of vitrification of a porcelain. Some stains will make a porcelain more refractory (decreasing fired shrinkage), others will make it more vitreous (increasing the firing shrinkage). Obviously, the greater the percentage of stain the greater the effect. Stained porcelains having differing fired shrinkages will stress at boundaries in accordance with the degree of difference in their fired shrinkages. In this piece, you can see how the boundary between the red (more vitreous) and green (less vitreous) porcelains is the point-of-failure. The only solution is to adjust the porcelain recipe to move the fired maturity in a direction that counterbalances the effect of the stain. For example, you could employ three recipes (regular, more vitreous, less vitreous) and use the indicated one for each stain added.
Glossary |
Marbling
In ceramics, bodies of different colours can be kneaded together to produce a marble-like result. But caution is needed. |
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Glossary |
Firing Shrinkage
During drying, clay particles draw together and shrinkage occurs. During firing the matrix densifies and shrinkage continues. More vitreous bodies shrink more. |
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