Glaze Blisters

Blistering is a common surface defect that occurs with ceramic glazes. The problem emerges from the kiln and can occur erratically in production. And be difficult to solve.

Key phrases linking here: glaze blisters - Learn more

Details

The principal home of information on this issue is in the troubleshooting section in the Blisters topic.

Related Information

What can you do using glaze chemistry? More than you think!

This picture has its own page with more detail, click here to see it.

There is a direct relationship between the way ceramic glazes fire and their chemistry. These green panels in my Insight-live account compare two glaze recipes: A glossy and matte. Grasping their simple chemistry mechanisms is a first step to getting control of your glazes. To fixing problems like crazing, blistering, pinholing, settling, gelling, clouding, leaching, crawling, marking, scratching, powdering. To substituting frits or incorporating available, better or cheaper materials while maintaining the same chemistry. To adjusting melting temperature, gloss, surface character, color. And identifying weaknesses in glazes to avoid problems. And to creating and optimizing base glazes to work with difficult colors or stains and for special effects dependent on opacification, crystallization or variegation. And even to creating glazes from scratch and using your own native materials in the highest possible percentage.

Links

Troubles	Glaze Blisters Questions and suggestions to help you reason out the real cause of ceramic glaze blistering and bubbling problems and work out a solution
Glossary	Surface Tension In ceramics, surface tension is discussed in two contexts: The glaze melt and the glaze suspension. In both, the quality of the glaze surface is impacted.
Glossary	LOI Loss on Ignition is a number that appears on the data sheets of ceramic materials. It refers to the amount of weight the material loses as it decomposes to release water vapor and various gases during firing.
Glossary	Decomposition In ceramic manufacture, knowing about the how and when materials decompose during firing is important in production troubleshooting and optimization
Glossary	Glaze Bubbles Suspended micro-bubbles in ceramic glazes affect their transparency and depth. Sometimes they add to to aesthetics. Often not. What causes them and what to do to remove them.
Firing Schedules	Cone 6 Drop-and-Soak Firing Schedule 350F/hr to 2100F, 108/hr to 2200, hold 10 minutes, freefall to 2100, hold 30 minutes, free fall

By Tony Hansen
Follow me on

Got a Question?

Buy me a coffee and we can talk