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A Low Cost Tester of Glaze Melt Fluidity
A One-speed Lab or Studio Slurry Mixer
A Textbook Cone 6 Matte Glaze With Problems
Adjusting Glaze Expansion by Calculation to Solve Shivering
Alberta Slip, 20 Years of Substitution for Albany Slip
An Overview of Ceramic Stains
Are You in Control of Your Production Process?
Are Your Glazes Food Safe or are They Leachable?
Attack on Glass: Corrosion Attack Mechanisms
Ball Milling Glazes, Bodies, Engobes
Binders for Ceramic Bodies
Bringing Out the Big Guns in Craze Control: MgO (G1215U)
Can We Help You Fix a Specific Problem?
Ceramic Glazes Today
Ceramic Material Nomenclature
Ceramic Tile Clay Body Formulation
Changing Our View of Glazes
Chemistry vs. Matrix Blending to Create Glazes from Native Materials
Concentrate on One Good Glaze
Copper Red Glazes
Crazing and Bacteria: Is There a Hazard?
Crazing in Stoneware Glazes: Treating the Causes, Not the Symptoms
Creating a Non-Glaze Ceramic Slip or Engobe
Creating Your Own Budget Glaze
Crystal Glazes: Understanding the Process and Materials
Deflocculants: A Detailed Overview
Demonstrating Glaze Fit Issues to Students
Diagnosing a Casting Problem at a Sanitaryware Plant
Drying Ceramics Without Cracks
Duplicating Albany Slip
Duplicating AP Green Fireclay
Electric Hobby Kilns: What You Need to Know
Fighting the Glaze Dragon
Firing Clay Test Bars
Firing: What Happens to Ceramic Ware in a Firing Kiln
First You See It Then You Don't: Raku Glaze Stability
Fixing a glaze that does not stay in suspension
Formulating a body using clays native to your area
Formulating a Clear Glaze Compatible with Chrome-Tin Stains
Formulating a Porcelain
Formulating Ash and Native-Material Glazes
G1214M Cone 5-7 20x5 glossy transparent glaze
G1214W Cone 6 transparent glaze
G1214Z Cone 6 matte glaze
G1916M Cone 06-04 transparent glaze
Getting the Glaze Color You Want: Working With Stains
Glaze and Body Pigments and Stains in the Ceramic Tile Industry
Glaze Chemistry Basics - Formula, Analysis, Mole%, Unity
Glaze chemistry using a frit of approximate analysis
Glaze Recipes: Formulate and Make Your Own Instead
Glaze Types, Formulation and Application in the Tile Industry
Having Your Glaze Tested for Toxic Metal Release
High Gloss Glazes
Hire Us for a 3D Printing Project
How a Material Chemical Analysis is Done
How desktop INSIGHT Deals With Unity, LOI and Formula Weight
How to Find and Test Your Own Native Clays
I have always done it this way!
Inkjet Decoration of Ceramic Tiles
Is Your Fired Ware Safe?
Leaching Cone 6 Glaze Case Study
Limit Formulas and Target Formulas
Low Budget Testing of Ceramic Glazes
Make Your Own Ball Mill Stand
Making Glaze Testing Cones
Monoporosa or Single Fired Wall Tiles
Organic Matter in Clays: Detailed Overview
Outdoor Weather Resistant Ceramics
Painting Glazes Rather Than Dipping or Spraying
Particle Size Distribution of Ceramic Powders
Porcelain Tile, Vitrified Tile
Rationalizing Conflicting Opinions About Plasticity
Ravenscrag Slip is Born
Recylcing Scrap Clay
Reducing the Firing Temperature of a Glaze From Cone 10 to 6
Simple Physical Testing of Clays
Single Fire Glazing
Soluble Salts in Minerals: Detailed Overview
Some Keys to Dealing With Firing Cracks
Stoneware Casting Body Recipes
Substituting Cornwall Stone
Super-Refined Terra Sigillata
The Chemistry, Physics and Manufacturing of Glaze Frits
The Effect of Glaze Fit on Fired Ware Strength
The Four Levels on Which to View Ceramic Glazes
The Majolica Earthenware Process
The Potter's Prayer
The Right Chemistry for a Cone 6 MgO Matte
The Trials of Being the Only Technical Person in the Club
The Whining Stops Here: A Realistic Look at Clay Bodies
Those Unlabelled Bags and Buckets
Tiles and Mosaics for Potters
Toxicity of Firebricks Used in Ovens
Trafficking in Glaze Recipes
Understanding Ceramic Materials
Understanding Ceramic Oxides
Understanding Glaze Slurry Properties
Understanding the Deflocculation Process in Slip Casting
Understanding the Terra Cotta Slip Casting Recipes In North America
Understanding Thermal Expansion in Ceramic Glazes
Unwanted Crystallization in a Cone 6 Glaze
Volcanic Ash
What Determines a Glaze's Firing Temperature?
What is a Mole, Checking Out the Mole
What is the Glaze Dragon?
Where do I start in understanding glazes?

Working with children

Why Textbook Glazes Are So Difficult

Description

The trade is glaze recipes has spawned generations of potters going up blind alleys trying recipes that don't work and living with ones that are much more trouble than they are worth. It is time to leave this behind and take control.

Article

If you are like me you have racks
of test samples that never quite worked

These recipes used to be in textbooks, now they are in computer databases and on the web. But most still do not work! So many potters and companies simply buy prepared glazes. In fact, recent years have seen an explosion in the number of small manufacturers of prepared glazes. Yet, there are still lots of masochists out there that are determined to make their own glazes and continue on their quest to find that perfect glaze just by trying textbook recipes at random. I want to make my own glazes but I am not a masochist and I do not need faith. Like me, more and more ceramic artists and technicians are saying "I am at the stage now where I want to know why, I want to understand glazes so I can fix and adjust and even formulate my own". I want to make my own glazes either from scratch or adjust an existing base, it is the only way I will get what I really want. And it is alot less expensive.

It can take new potters years to get textbook glazes out of their system. However, experience soon teaches us that these glazes seldom behave, and they are frequently touchy and introduce more problems than they solve. Sometimes people claim to have found useful glazes that work well in their circumstances. But how well? The glaze may fire to the surface they want, but what other problems and quirks do they have to endure with it that they simply overlook and tolerate. Perhaps you will agree that textbook quests don't normally breed intimate knowledge of how glazes work or even that they can be adjusted and controlled.

A good glaze is a little like a good dog. It is best to raise your own from a pup rather than trying to adopt someone else's full grown hound. Let's consider some of the reasons why a textbook glaze might not "travel" very well. As we will see, much more goes into achieving a particular glaze effect then just weighing it, throwing in some water, and slapping it on the ware. I'm not trying to discourage the use of all glaze recipes that you might import into your studio or business but I am saying a few words of warning.

Yes, there is something that travels even better than oxide formulas. It is the knowledge of what each oxide type contributes to a glaze, what each mineral type does to give it fired personality, and how they affect physical working properties. Each new recipe either confirms or fine tunes your existing oxide-effect knowledge, or educates you in the effects of its special purpose source materials (i.e. colorants, opacifiers, crystal forming agents) or unique formula (i.e. crystals from high CaO and low Al2O3 ). Each can be adapted to your own proven base recipes.

Add a smattering of line blending and trial and error adjustment, and you can make anything you want; adjust it any way you want. You can tell the glaze what to do. So why jump through hoops trying to pacify temperamental recipes that are always throwing ceramic tantrums in your kiln? You don't have to put up with that any more.

Related Information

Links

Projects Recipes
Articles A Textbook Cone 6 Matte Glaze With Problems
Glazes must be completely melted to be functional, hard and strong. Many are not. This compares two glazes to make the difference clear.
Glossary Glaze Recipes
Stop! Think! Do not get addicted to the trafficking in online glaze recipes. Learn to make your own or adjust/adapt/fix what you find online.
By Tony Hansen
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