Deep wine red or ?

In March I glazed this little pitcher with our shop Raspberry glaze.

same glaze, new batch

It may be leaning towards purple, but not quite that of the "plum" variety of glaze shown in the square dish

Another cup, same glaze, so it's not just one kiln load giving the new coloration  (PS, the turquoise is a reflection of my camera phone)

We are scratching our heads, though the recipe has gone through several hands, so perhaps something was changed.  Maybe this week we'll figure it out, or maybe not.

A community studio means lots of folks will use the glaze in the big buckets, then when they are low, a new batch will be made, using the same recipes.  Unfortunately our book of glaze formulas, or recipes as we lovingly call them, has been missing.  We had a friend who had copied some of her favorite formulas, and we used that one on this last batch.  But I've also found an earlier Xerox of the original formula that's several years old...shall take it tomorrow to compare with the copied by hand details to see if there's the least difference.  Then we'll start looking at the various manufacturers...you know how it goes.

Sherlock Holmes would be proud, I'm thinking.

Raspberry Orchid tumblers

Raspberry (NOT) delight!

Our raspberry glaze at the BMCA clay studio is gorgeous deep red, with some blue tinges here and there.  It works well as long as you honor it's limits.
Too drippy to be on with another glaze near the bottom of a pot...guaranteed to run onto the kiln shelf.  Gorgeous all by itself


And now I know she just (being persnickity, must be female, raspberry) won't paint onto anything either.  I tested it about 6 times, painting little orchids onto the clay, then firing at cone 6 (all our glazes are geared for that temp).  They came out grey and fluid looking. And I learned the drippiness of the glaze means it blends like a watercolor, completely without control, when other glazes like white or yellow are added.  These were on a verticle surface and I knew too much of raspberry would run downhill.  I just didn't know that all the red in it would run away too!

But I actually like the free flowing nature of these blossoms...watch out impressionists!