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The Magic of Fire II: Slaying the Glaze Dragon

Version 2.0 Dec 2003 Revision
by Tony Hansen

Note: If you have an INSIGHT Level 2, 4SIGHT or Magic of Fire serial number you can download this new version for free!
Just click the download link on our home page.

Always wanted to make and adjust your own glazes?
Ready to understand why glazes do what they do?
Ready to get off the glaze recipe treadmill?

Do you feel like a gambler playing a 'glaze recipe slot machine' that never seems to pay off! Is your company fighting a war with glazes that no one in the plant understands or can control. Is your classroom full of glazes with strange names, unknown histories and temperamental dispositions?

This book is for people who are ready to face the glaze dragon, ready to learn 'why', to see glazes on the oxide level, to 'understand' them and the materials that make them up. It is especially for people ready to employ the computer technology to harness the power of glaze chemistry and track development history.

Not a chemist! This book brings glaze chemistry within your reach so you can understand and employ it. Give this a chance. Twenty hours of learning a little chemistry will empower you to adjust and formulate your own glazes and could save you twenty years of struggle on the glaze recipe treadmill. If you are going to make ceramic ware, then put hard, non-crazed, well melted, non-leachable, easy-to-use, consistent glazes on it.

This book explains basic physics and chemistry issues at the oxide, material, and recipe levels for glazes and clay bodies, it does so in an understandable way, and it shows you how to use INSIGHT, FORESIGHT software and our www.ceramicmaterials.info information server to apply what you learn. The book shows you how to trouble-shoot all sorts of formulation and adjustment problems and how to create and test your own glazes, clays, and porcelains. No other book deals so thoroughly with issues like crazing, leaching, material substitution, bubbling, durability, color response, application properties, crystallization, crawling, opacification, melt fluidity, vitrification, etc.

Tony Hansen has been helping people and companies 'out of the ditch and back onto the highway' for almost three decades. He has always preached glaze, material and oxide understanding using the power of computers and internet technology. His websites and software are used around the world by professionals and beginners alike.

What people are saying..

However, I must add that it would be well worth it--the Magic of Fire is one of the best-written books I've read! I must admit, it's the first technical manual to keep me up 'til 3 a.m. because I just couldn't put it down... In fact, it has inspired a bit of a revolution in my small corner of the world... you see, I am one of those dreaded hobby ceramicists (well, actually, I cast cute kittens and ducks and what-have-yous for a ceramics store in Dallas, Tx), and I often have customers ask advice regarding firing, pouring molds, etc., and since I've been reading your book, I've been able to provide MUCH better answers... and I've often referred them to the book directly when they seem so inclined. I am beginning to have a hope that more hobby amateurs will take an interest in the whys and wherefores instead of the hit-or-miss-and-hope-like-hell method so prevalent in this side of the ceramics industry.
I have the downloaded version of The Magic of Fire for several years now and find it excellent. I'm now ready to purchase level 2 of Insight. Your resources are truly amazing and as an ex electronic engineer (now a potter), I really am impressed with your analytical approaches. Your site is almost a complete college level course on pottery (less the throwing & handbuilding).
Your work has been incredibly helpful. Magic of Fire especially.
I cannot express how refreshing it is to no longer be dependent on textbook recipes.
I've become fascinated with Glaze chemistry in the last year or so, have purchased your book, and refer to your site from time to time as well...What a great resource! I have read your book a couple of times, but have not completely digested all of it. I suspect it takes most folks quite a bit of time!
I'm half way through MF and have loads of questions but will wait untill I have finished and tried some experiments before I ask.

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	Suite 407, 1595 Southview Drive SE, Medicine Hat, AB T1B 0A1 Phone: (406) 662-0136, FAX: (866) 223-7132	CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commonc