10 Ways to Make Mocha Diffusion

[@Spinquilter]

I've done Mocha Diffusion. My instructor - 81 years YOUNG - is a master with all of this. She taught at the College level. She uses chewing tobacco and water and boils it, lets it sit and then strains. We have used the wet (dip) the piece into the Fish Sauce - that is what she calls it - and then use an Eye Dropper to put the tobacco juice on it. When I did it - I started from the top but now I know to start from the bottom because I have an Upside Down Tree Vase - but I love it. Great demo as usual!!!

[@annruel1982]

Thanks for the great information. We tried a eye stopper but didnt get as vibrant a result as with the brush. Guess it all depends on many factors.

[@CeeJayKay]

Looks like Chewing tobacco juice was the coolest one here.

[@llanitedave]

As I watched this, I couldn't help but think "Pottery tie-dye!" Seriously, this opens up a whole new world of exploration potential!

[@ginaleith1510]

This is the BEST ceramics tutorial video I've seen. Everything so clearly documented and described! Thank you so much 😍

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Thanks Gina! Glad you liked it.

[@brittanytate3559]

Agreed

[@loveandlight4875]

You are my virtual pottery instructor

[@tomlederle1960]

you just saved me oodles of time. thanks very much for this. I have had mixed results with colorant (glaze) and lime juice or red wine. and don't let you acid bearing element stay in the same container as the colorant because it neutralizes real fast. mix and use quickly. and if the slip is too wet it just runs into a be old nasty lookin' mess. Live and learn, that's what ceramics is all about

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Thanks for sharing that Tom - great tips!

[@GinetteGERMAIN]

super cette video. merci pour toutes ces recettes difficile à trouver sur internet.

[@Gingy50]

Love your little laugh when you got to number 7 the urine test 💖 Thanks for this video, it was really interesting 👍 xx

[@freddiemoretti8456]

Ann, I was really impressed with the chewin baccy's reaction on the pour side, I thought all the rest had stronger reactions on the brush on side. I am afraid after reading your warning I may have to curtail a lot of my doings on a daily basis. Neat results with a good laugh at the end. Ta for sharing!

[@annruel1982]

Haha. Jim dressed me up like the kid fro m "The Christmas Story",haha. It was fun to experiment though :-)

[@loveandlight4875]

That was such a great video. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Wow.

[@lucia-maria]

I am truly impressed. Might try that tomorrow 🤩

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Great, share a pic when you are finished. You can post on the Facebook Pottery Studio group!

[@concernedcitizen8968]

Ms. Ann, I giggled with you when you discussed the streaming effects of urine. Tee hee

[@irenaostrowska7049]

Dziękuję za testy. Genialne.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Zapraszamy

[@bbjo787]

I am so thrilled to have found your channel. My hubby built me a studio and it's loaded with everything but a pug mill. Do you have any suggestions for wedging for people who have arthritis?? I'm elderly and am starting to have lots of problems in my wrists due to wedging clay and I LOVE throwing clay - especially since I've been watching your videos! Also, I'm anxious to try the mocha diffusion. Thank you for all the wonderful videos. Your instructions along with the videos are amazing.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Wedging with softer clay (moisture added to bag of clay) can be helpful.

[@LindaGisla]

Hello BB Jo. I have osteoartritis and have found a way to help me a bit when it comes to wedging. I begin by slamming the clay down on my table, making a rectangular shape from slamming on all sides. This softens the clay and then I can wedge it, on my good days, that is :-) Good luck 😃

[@katharinelloyd5293]

It might work to cut the mass of clay in half or into several 1 inch slices and slam it down on top of itself. You’d have to cut through a few times to make sure you aren’t getting air bubbles in there.

[@katharinelloyd5293]

Great video! Thanks

[@kwlloyd7]

Great to see all this! Thanks

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tinadegroot7699]

Hello Ann, This is beautiful and thank you for sharing this. I have a few questions. Do you apply the slip on an unbaked ceramic vase, cup or plate? And when it’s done you put it in the oven? Or do you need to bake your creation first? Afterwards I would like to use transparant glaze but. Is it possible to do it al together in one go? Or first bake then glaze? Im trying to safe energy:) Thank you!

[@LittleStreetPottery]

The slip was applied to greenware (unbaked stage). Then bisque fired to cone 04 and then high fired to Cone 5. We've not tried it in one shot - not sure how that might work...you might be able to pull if off with a very slow fire.

[@jojohare425]

Thanks for the video, have you tried apple cider vinegar? I’ve had good results sometimes... any idea why it wasn’t consistent?

[@annruel1982]

Hi JoJo. We found that this technique can be a bit precarious. The alkaline base needs to be applied freshly. If it has started to dry on the surface, the acid wont react to it so you only have a short amount of time to apply the acid. Also it could have been that the colorants had settled to the bottom of your acid mixture. They settled quickly and I found that I needed to stir it each time I dipped my brush down in the mixture.. I hope that helps. Good luck :-)

[@MartinBannister]

Fascinating study and some very interesting results. Bleach is an alkaline though, not an acid, and urine could go either way.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Thanks for the clarification Martin...you know, we are always on the lookout for great researchers to join the LSP Research Facility...think about it 🧐. Thanks for watching!

[@AJoyfulClayTutor]

Awesome!

[@arcticbear9619]

It would be interesting to see if there is a difference in the reactions if you had used tomato paste, tomato juice or fresh squeezed tomatoes. The most surprising reactions were the chocolate juice and tobacco. But the POM juice and merlot were beautiful reactions too.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Thanks! We've received a number of interesting suggestions that we are gathering and look forward to trying in Mocha 2, Son of Mocha Diffusion!

[@janlewis9099]

Love the experimentation !!. Interesting results. Have you glaze fired these test pieces or just fired them without a glaze?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Fired without glazing. We want to do a follow up to this at some point to try some new ideas so stay tuned!

[@sandybachmann8673]

Does the slip have to be porcelain? Can I use slip from my cone 5/6 stoneware? I’m also assuming that I can use iron oxide for my colorant?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Slip does not have to be porcelain - however, the more groggy the clay the less smooth it will be on the surface.

[@megantoth6721]

Question- could this technique also be used with a copper carbonate for a green color instead of cobalt ?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

It may work...we used something darker (mag diox, cobalt ox)so it would show up better on the clay for the video. A lot depends on the clay - the copper carb may not show up as well.

[@candidateforum6574]

If you want a colorant other than blue, like maybe green or red, how would you change the recipe?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Experiment with the different mason stains is what we would recommend...perhaps we will in a future video. The cobalt we used just happened to be handy.

[@heididerksen8227]

Hi Anne Can you use mason stains and apple cider vinegar

[@LittleStreetPottery]

I have not tried it...the stains tend to burn out...the Apple Cider is interesting, we will try that!

[@Lavatera66]

Thank you for the detialed report. My classmate and I had to take the test for school. After the biscuit fire the patterns were beautiful. But after the glaze firing some of it disappeared completly. We used CuO, Fe2O3, MnO2 and Co3O4 on red and white clay with home made assid and boiled tobacco/water. The glace is leaded. Do you have tips and tops?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Some colorants do burn out when they are high fired (the higher the fire, the more they will burn out) so its best to take good notes on what is working for you. Watch the video again as well to make sure you have the right mix of manganese and cobalt etc recipe. Good luck!

[@keaneprasertsintanah9114]

Can this be done on bisque ware?

[@ZahiroAnand]

Muito bom. Parabéns.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Gracias!

[@julies4106]

When you say high fire, at what cone did you fire to?

[@annruel1982]

Good question Julie. I fire to cone 5, but I bet you could go to a higher firing. I would experi ment.

[@Majoofi]

Does the acid eat at the kiln bricks?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

It never comes in contact with the bricks...should be dry before firing. No issues with the fumes either. Not heard of any problems with that.

[@bbjo787]

did you fire then glaze and refire?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

We put the Mocha on bone dry and then bisqued fired...did not high fire. But you can glaze after the mocha if you like. Thanks BB Jo!

[@stefaniedunnwald3392]

Hi! Thanks for the video! If i only use manganese, will the deffusion be black? Or do i have to add blue??? 🤔 And can pls tell me someone what the heck is porcelain slip? 😆😅 Is it rly pocelain just mixed with water? Thanx

[@annruel1982]

Hi Stefanie, My pleasure.. Good question. I actually did experiment by using just the Manganese without the cobalt. The result was that while the results are a nice dark black while the clay is in the greenware stage, once it is fired, the color faded to a very light gray which I wasnt happy with. I also tried just the cobalt by itself. The opposite is true. The cobalt is a very light blue when applied to greenware. It is so light that it almost disappears on the surface and hardly shows up. I felt like I was working blind with just the cobalt before it was fired. Of course when you fire the cobalt it deepens and it a beautiful blue but I ended up with smudges on the surface from getting the cobalt on my fingers with out realizing it and then touching the surface of the clay, haha. The better way I found was to mix the two and that way the manganese shows up at the greenware stage and the cobalt shows mixed with the manganese after the firing. Does that make sense?

[@annruel1982]

Oh, and as far as the porcelain slip. YOu have that right. I use a porcelain mid range clay. I just scooped out some of the dregs from my reclaim clay bucket and mixed it with water. It slakes down very quickly. Easy peasy.

[@stefaniedunnwald3392]

Sorry, for answering so late. Somehow it didn't pop up, till 1 Minuten ago. Strange 🤔 Well, thanx for the info. I will try it one day. But I have ( it feels like ) 100 other things to try first.😅

[@annruel9142]

@@stefaniedunnwald3392 Have fun in the studio! Thanks for watching!

[@maggiec2797]

Do you do this on green ware or bisque? Thanks. It is a great and very thorough video. Thanks

[@annruel9142]

Thanks for watching Maggie. WE did this experiment months ago and I believe we did it on greenware as I was afraid the slip might crack or flake off over the bisqueware but you can give it a try. Thanks for watching :-).

[@carolhodges4906]

Thanks so much.

[@kimberlyrobbins411]

where can I find some Male Urine?

[@Cnthpollard]

Thankyou!

[@annruel1982]

Glad you enjoyed it Cynthia! Thanks for watching

[@puck34fan]

Kevin Kowalski used fingernail polish remover and the result was fantastic but he didn’t say what kind of remover. I am assuming non-alkaline (?).

[@LittleStreetPottery]

cool...we'll have to try that...we're thinking about Mocha II Video...

[@leam1978]

i would have liked to see citric acid and vinegar be used, but good video

[@LittleStreetPottery]

Yes, good ideas...for MD2!

[@artbymarionhughes]

Can you use vinegar?

[@LittleStreetPottery]

yes! I can work too.

[@Pherine1]

Excellent, I did it many years ago at college, we walked the streets looking for cigarette butts !! Yuk wouldn't do that now !!

[@darlink57]

Have you ever tried coffee? Or strong tea?

[@KatanaBart]

You may be the first person to note that "smokeless" tobacco fails to perform as advertised above cone 3.

[@Nottherebutthere]

Bleach is not an acid.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

You are right...I think our researchers might have been tipping back some of that sake...

[@lucia-maria]

@@LittleStreetPottery 🤣🤣🤣

[@socalboomer]

@@LittleStreetPottery Be VERY careful when combining Bleach with an acid. The resulting chemical reaction releases VERY TOXIC Chlorine gas. . .

[@sandiebrown9521]

Bleach is an alkaline, not an acid???

[@lisascenic]

It’s interesting that one of the most traditional effects came from bleach which is alkaline rather than acidic.

[@LittleStreetPottery]

I know - weird!

[@xhoxolatequilts]

Who said....chocolate kisses!

[@kimberlyrobbins411]

what are you smoking?!?!

[@LittleStreetPottery]

The GOOD STUFF obviously...😉

[@brittanytate3559]

Haha best reply ever!