Sanitary ware and process of production

Claim 1

A substantially completely vitreous, smelted, clear glass frit containing: (a) leachable amounts of deflocculent oxides and flocculent alkaline earths and adapted to serve as a ceramic body flux in a ceramic slip without thickening the slip to an unworkable viscosity, (b) said frit being completely liquid at a smelting temperature of about 2600° F. to about 2750° F. and containing in solution the diopside precursors CaO, MgO, and SiO 2 , said frit consisting essentially of the following: ______________________________________ CaO 15 to 25 MgO 10 to 20 SiO.sub.2 35 to 50 Additive 5 to 20 ______________________________________ said additive being selected from one or more of the following in approximately the percent indicated based on the total weight of the glass: ______________________________________ K.sub.2 O 0 to 5 Na.sub.2 O 0 to 10 Li.sub.2 O 0 to 5 Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 0 to 12, ______________________________________ (c) said frit being adapted upon heating to crystallize from solution at least a fluxing amount of said precursors in the form of fine diopside crystals having an average particle size less than one micron and being substantially free of unreacted alkaline earths, and (d) said deflocculent oxides and flocculent alkaline earths being leachable from said frit in sufficient relative amounts to counterbalance each other and prevent said thickening of the slip to an unworkable viscosity.