"You are world famous consultant & that is why asking your opinion in details about above (best solution from production quantity, quality & optimal cost)."
"omg i just discovered your page this is like breaking bad for ceramics, learning how to cook. this is a great page thanks !"
"Again, thanks for being such a resource to potters over the years!"
"Thanks a lot for this sea of knowledge."
"THANKS so much for all of the information you share at no cost. It really helps me. I feel a little guilty for not subscribing to Insight, but I am working toward that. You have truly changed the way I think about glaze, and I appreciate you. thanks. future subscriber/fledgling potter"
"Tony, the Boraq II substition for gerstley borate in the formula I sent you a while ago was succesful. Congratulations for figuring out boraq! I've tested Murray's, Gillespie, Laguna, IMCO, and also raw materials such as Cadycal, Ulexite, Colemanite, and the substitutes you recommended in your articles made of several components blended with Cadycal (I referred to these in my previous letter) all with varying degrees of success but only the boraq II produced results that were indistinguishable from GB. This glaze is very sensitive so I consider the test a success. It had to mess with the plasticity with additions of hectorite and ball clay."
"I must say I am amazed by what I saw here. I am even more surprised to see so much of cermaic material stuff here."
"I have been in the pottery business for 52 years, Pemco use to be 10 miles from us. Your advise on solving our glaze problem worked perfectly and you explained it so well. I have had this problem for 7 years, re-firing lots of ware. Pemco guys and Pfaltzgraff Pottery glaze dept. told me different recipes but it never solved the problem. None of them talked about firing cycles. Tony, how did you get so smart? God has Blessed you."
"I am very delight about the services provided by your site. It is really very informative."
"I Just wanted to say thank you for all of your research! every question i ask google about ceramics ... POP there is your artical with the answer. !"
"I just wanted to say, thank you! I’m relatively new to pottery, taking a mostly self-taught approach and I’m at the stage where glazing is in my mind. I don’t want to be (and can’t see myself ever) buying glazes from commercial suppliers. I want to learn my craft with glaze as much as I do with my clay preparation and pottery making. I’ve seen “the dragon” and been uninspired by so much of what I find online and to be honest, in many glaze books. It seems more popular to try and present a mass of glaze possibilities than to offer a learning experience beyond being told a glaze needs a melter, a refractory and a glass-maker. Enough to offer a very basic understanding, but nothing upon which to build the understanding that will allow some degree of mastery (or at least influence) of your glaze making. I am so pleased to have found digitalfire.com. You’ve shown me exactly how to approach and understand glazing, giving me the foundation for approach I sought. I was thinking of base glazes and what you’ve shown me about working on from those is fantastic and exactly what I was looking for. To have a reliable base glaze to modify and develop to meet different needs; to understand how to shift a melting point or adjust the surface gloss; to come to know how the mechanisms in a glaze and understanding them gives me the route to creating glazes that realize my intentions - wow! I can’t thank you enough. Rather than having to form a dumb reliance on a book of recipe cards and a bunch of website bookmarks (which I wasn’t wanting to go for) you’ve given me the foundation for a lifelong development and understanding of the glazes I will make, that will become “my” glazes. You have really opened my mind to the whole subject and it doesn’t seem to be a problem that I’m no scientist or chemist. You’ve shared your knowledge in a way that is completely approachable and remarkably easy to understand for someone without any kind of science/chemistry background. "
"Awesome program you have!"
"Learning ceramics has been a long process full of tests, frustration but at the end full satisfaction once we learn more every day... Thank you for your website, I use it for constant reference"
"I have everything hand written in my notes from my glaze void, but obviously, is not searchable. It's great what you've done."
"I have been following your Site and posts continually and gained a greater understanding. Thank you for that. It is so exciting to have a positive outcome from your glazes rather then the bought glazes. ... All good and exciting. My pottery clients are excited and have recognized the difference. There is nothing better than to pass on the best work possible to those who love the pots. So much work and testing, but well worth it. Thank you so much. "
"Your Digital Fire is so important in this community!"
"Thank you so much for visiting my site. It really means so much to me, being that the info and recipes on Digitalfire helped me SO much and greatly contributed to where I am today with my pottery. I am so grateful for all of the information you share!"
"Your understanding and explanations of glazing process and chemistry are always fascinating. Like the help you give for us amateurs, but also I love the posts explaining how commercial facilities deal with cost and efficiency issues like getting production products rapidly glazed and fired without defects."
"This article was very interesting and prompted me to write to thank you for the fantastic resources of DigitalFire and Insight-Live. I'm a fairly new potter---both to the craft and glaze chemistry---and your scientific approach is an absolute treat compared to vague advice often trafficked outside of industry. Furthermore, Insight is a wonderfully powerful tool which has defined how I approach testing and analysis of clay and glazes. It's incredibly refreshing to have information usually buried under the expense and jargon of industry journals and textbooks freely available."
"Your work is so thorough and helpful Tony. When I read your articles I suddenly feel I know nothing, despite working professionally with ceramics since 1997! "
"Everything downloaded perfectly onto my Mac and the video lessons are really helping me understand the software. I've been using INSIGHT to swap out materials in glaze recipes with similar materials available in 'the shed'. Also, I am trying to move from ^10 gas to ^6 electric. I will be graduating soon so I am trying to prepare myself for a method of making that more cost effective. School starts tomorrow and I can't wait to test out some of my new ideas :)"
"I am very impressed with your generosity & your beautiful new program. Now, if it can teach a non-chemistry person like me (I always avoided it in h.s. & college) how to make glazes with understanding, then I will be in your debt forever!"
"I am a Ceramic Engineering Student doing a COOP at Kohler Company until August. I have found INSIGHT to be very helpful on all of the issues I have faced since I started here. If I get a job in glazes after college I will resort to INSIGHT for any glaze issues I face."
"I liked INSIGHT so much I wrote a book about using it!"
"I continue to use Insight almost daily and it is a fantastic tool. "
"After looking at a number of glaze programs these last few days I must compliment you on Insight. Everything is very well done especially the Help on the main menu and your InsightManual.PDF."
"Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that 2006-20 now works fine under Gentoo Linux 64-bit version! Thanks!!! I can quit running the windows version under WINE now.!!!"
"Thanks, this software is FANTASTIC! I may not understand what is going on completely but with more practice, I think I will get there."
"Your software loaded fine and looks great. Your message of control is spot-on. I have a Master of Fine Art degree where I concentrated in ceramics ... Coming from a time when I did all the chemistry on pad and paper, I'm delighted to see the strides you've made in your software because I've got 15 years of ideas pent up."
"I have a Mac and operate OSX. You can send it to me at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemisty ... Again, thank you, I really enjoy working with INSIGHT. "
"Food safety of our product has suddenly come to our attention. The biggest health problem I think we have is crazing (maybe some leaching). We need a way to solve this yesterday."
"There is a local potter who has been selling for 30 plus years. He has sells all of his work as food safe and dishwasher safe. One of my students bought a black piece, sent it through the dishwasher and it turned blue, we did a 12 hour vinegar test and it turned green."
"We are using your 1916 glaze recipe on low fire ware and my students are asking a lot of questions about the safety of the pottery they are making, does it leach. I do not know how to answer them. Please help."
"I've just received an email from a customer about one of the mugs she bought from me. She said there was a metallic taste and stopped using the mug. Okay, so is this possible, that there would be some kind of leaching from the glaze that would cause a metallic taste?"
"I am now at a point where I want to build my own kiln and develop my own pallet of glazes as well as a clay body ... I want to understand better why glazes do what they do ... how to fix them. I also want to make sure they are safe. When a friend from Japan comes in the summer I try and figure out what he does and why but he, being a master potter, seems to just go by the look and consistency of it. Boggles my mind!!!"
"I have a huge concern about liner glazes. I have run across some potters who have taught classes where they gave no direction about what is suitable for liners. When doing a simple lemon test their glaze failed miserably."
"Your comments about the ethics involved in selling functional wares make sense to me, but not to my studio friends. I'm studying ceramics under studio potters (making functional wares) who NEVER test new glazes for durabilty, leaching,etc. (despite? college degrees in ceramic art)."
"I just read on another site that crystal glazed ware cannot be on functional (eat off of) ware. I do not believe this is true. I suspect it depends on the glaze formula. There is a pottery in Maine that does almost all crystal glazes and they are on food dishes."
"I have been doing a LOT of reading and learned of your software through the book Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy. It became obvious in my reading about glazes that to glaze a piece and know that it was safe for others use and handling was paramount to me, ... people will always use an object in ways you never imagine:) I also want to know why for everything."
"I have large cobalt blue glasses in my kitchen. At night I leave water in one when I go to bed. I noticed a distinct metal taste in the water each morning. I tried putting water in an identical sized clear glass and noticed no metal taste after more than 24 hours. I repeated the experiment with different water(bottled). I got the same result. After 24 hours the cobalt glass reeks of metal taste. Can cobalt glass actually excrete cobalt into water?"