Same body, same glaze, same firing. Why did one crawl?

The body: M370. Glaze: G2934Y (with added green stain). Firing: Cone 6 drop-and-hold. Glazing method: dipping (using tongs). Thickness: The same. Surface: Clean on both. The difference: Wall thickness. The one on the right was cast much thinner so the glaze took a lot longer to dry. Common pottery glazes contain clays which need to shrink somewhat during drying. The bond with the bisque, although fragile, is normally enough to prevent cracking during drying. But drying needs to occur quickly - that is only possible when the body has enough porosity to absorb all the water quickly. Otherwise, cracks appear and these become crawls during firing. A complicating factor is that stain and/or zircon additions make an already-crawl-susceptible glaze even worse.
One or a combination of the following can be done to minimize crawling on even very thin-walled pieces:
-Apply a thinner glaze layer.
-Heat the bisque before dipping.
-Glaze the inside and outside separately (with drying between).
-Deflocculate the glaze to reduce water content.
-Brush or spray on a CMC gummed version in multiple coats.

Related Pictures

Crawling glaze on slip cast ware is common

This cone 6 white glaze is crawling on the inside and outside of a thin-walled cast piece. This happened because the thick glaze application took a long time to dry, this extended period, coupled with the ability of the thicker glaze layer to assert its shrinkage, compromised the fragile bond between dried glaze and fairly smooth body. There are several measures that can be taken to solve this problem. The ware could be heated before glazing, the glaze applied thinner, or glazing the inside and outside could be done as separate operations (with a drying period between).

Crawling in G2934Y Zircopax white glaze: Here are some fixes.

A matte glazed G2934Y mug where the glaze has crawled on the upper handle join

G2934Y, a variation of the G2934 base, is a good stain matte base glaze but it is not without issues. It has significant clay content in the recipe and high levels of Al₂O₃ in the chemistry, these make it susceptible to crawling. This base is normally fine as is but when opacified or certain stains are added (especially at significant percentages) it can crawl. This has 10% Zircopax. Even though the glaze layer thickens at the recess of the handle join it is still crawling. We also get this on the insides of mugs where wall and foot meet at a sharp angle. This was initiated because the glaze cracked here during drying. Normally it would heal but the zircon stiffens the melt, making it less mobile. The easiest solution is to adjust the specific gravity of the glaze to 1.44 and flocculate it to thixotropic, this assures that the application is not too thick. Another measure is to add a little CMC gum (by replacing some of the water with gum solution). Lastly, use a blend of tin oxide and Zircopax, as in the G3926C version of the recipe, to opacify it.

Links

Recipes	G2934Y - Cone 6 Magnesia Matte Low LOI Version The same chemistry as the widely used G2934 but the MgO is sourced from a frit and talc instead of dolomite. It has a finer surface, less cutlery marking and staining.
Troubles	Crawling Ask yourself the right questions to figure out the real cause of a glaze crawling issue. Deal with the problem, not the symptoms.

Got a Question?

Buy me a coffee and we can talk