One thing I’ve been exploring is using a cone 10 glaze for the sprinkles. This has several advantages over cone 6 sprinkles.

Firstly, they can sinter correctly in a bisque firing (there does seem to be a bit of variation based on colourants though). This means you don’t have to do a separate firing just to sinter the sprinkles.

Secondly, they’re more static at cone 6. The base glaze around them should provide enough flux and boron for them to fully melt, but they won’t run as much as a cone 6 glaze in the same setting. This gives better defined speckles.

Thirdly, they’re cheaper to make. Without boron the recipes can be simpler and less expensive (for comparison, 4321 base is under half the material cost per kilo than 20x5). It won’t save much, the sprinkles are just a small part of the overall glaze after all, but it makes the experimentation stage a little less costly.

OldForge Blizzard