Drip glazing and bare outsides: Deceptively difficult.

Why? Glaze fit. Do these yourself and they might end up being glaze compression demonstration pieces. These are available on Aliexpress (as Drip Pottery, Drippy Pottery or Goopy Glazes) and they are made by a manufacturer that has close control of body maturity (and thus strength) and the capability to tune the thermal expansion fit of glaze-on-body. Glaze fit has to be better than normal because of the absence of an outside glaze. Too low an expansion and the compression (outward pressure) will fracture body (especially for thin-walled pieces). Too high and it will craze. And the glaze is thick, it will shiver or craze with far less forgiveness than a thin layer. And how did they get the glaze on this thick? They likely deflocculated it, up to 1.7 or more, glazed the inside, let it dry, then glazed the outside. And applied the glaze to preheated ware. If done right these pieces are a visual and technical achievement. However hobbyists, for example, often just brush multiple layers of commercial glaze that only by accident fits the body they are using. No wonder their pieces often end up as time bombs or crazed bacteria farms.

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Is inside-only glazing a good idea? We say it is not.

$Glaze compression fractures porcelain mug$

This mug is made from 325 mesh MNP, the strongest porcelain I have. Since the walls are of even thickness with no abrupt corners or contour changes and the glaze is thinly and evenly applied I thought I could follow a social-media-driven trend and glaze only on the inside. But I got glaze compression time-bombs waiting for hot coffee triggering! Three other mugs failed this same way! But four with this same glaze inside and out were fine. Why? The outside glaze counters the inside one pushing outward. And it closes crack initiation points.

I got lots of pushback on social media saying glaze compression problems are overblown. But I also got stories and pictures much worse than this (especially with thick and drippy glazes). But, some still feel that inside-only glazing can work by carefully tuning the thermal expansion fit between body and glaze. Or even by accident. Either way, there is still an elephant in the room: Glaze fit has to be just right - too much and pieces break, too little and the glaze crazes. That is a problem because it brings intolerance of even slight changes in body, glaze or firing.

Of course, by making thick-walled ware having a glaze thickness is not excessive, you may still get away with doing everything just advised against! But think about this: This coffee could have ended up in my lap rather than on my paper?

Glaze at 1.7 specific gravity on green-ware. Way too thick!

This is G2926B clear cone 6 glaze deflocculated with Darvan. Because the Darvan is thinning it, 2.5kg of glaze powder is suspended in only 1100g (1100ml) of water (half the normal amount). While the slurry in the bucket flows well and appears like it should work, a one-second dip produces twice the desired thickness. It dries slowly and it is very difficult to prevent runs. The lesson: Make sure the specific gravity (SG) of your glazes is right. What should the SG be? Measure it when your glaze is working well. Or take note of it in instructions that come with the recipes you use. For bisque ware: 1.43-1.45 with a flocculant (like Vinegar or powdered Epsom Salts) added to gel the slurry slightly.

Why are these vessels cracking when hot water is poured in?

They are time-bombs. Why? Yes, they have even wall thickness, the glaze is not crazing and the clay is vitrified. But, they are glazed only on the inside and that is a problem here. The glaze is under some compression, that is why it does not craze. That means that it is pushing outward from the inside. Ware can be very strong under glaze compression, but only to a point. When a hot liquid is poured into containers like these the inside glaze is the first to thermally expand, creating more even compression. The porcelain is under tension already, being stretched by pressure from within. And ceramics do poorly under tension. And third: The outer surfaces have incised lines that provide irregularities for internal forces to exploit and start cracks at. It is a perfect storm waiting for hot water to trigger it. Making the pieces thicker would help. Increasing the glaze thermal expansion would help. But unglazed outsides and incised lines will always be a weakening factor.

This crack is "spring loaded" out of the kiln. Why?

It is possible for glazes to be under a condition called "glaze compression". This is L4410P, a low-temperature dolomite body, formulated to have the highest thermal expansion possible without the use of talc. This inside transparent glaze is G3879C (we made this as a brushing glaze, four coats are needed on this body). That glaze was formulated to have the lowest expansion possible (given frits we have). As the kiln cooled the body was unable to withstand the increasing compressive forces of the solidifying glaze inside, resulting in what you see here. In the days following the firing, it kept widening, branching and travelling until the mug spontaneously split in two. Another identical mug with Spectrum 700 clear inside (same outside glaze) bounced like a ball when dropped onto concrete from two feet (a subsequent ricochet right onto the handle took off a chip). But when I dropped this one the pent-up stresses within exploded it into dozens of pieces. Neither the body or glaze are at fault, it is their mismatch that causes this. The thicker the glaze the worse it is. If the outside glaze is also "pulling" (because of a higher thermal expansion than the body) the situation is even worse.

Links

Glossary	Glaze fit In ceramics, glaze fit refers to the thermal expansion compatibility between glaze and clay body. When the fit is not good the glaze forms a crack pattern or flakes off on contours.
Glossary	Glaze Compression In ceramics, glazes are under compression when they have a lower thermal expansion than the body. A little compression strengthens ware, too much can weaken and even fracture it.
Glossary	Deflocculation Deflocculation is the magic behind the ceramic casting process, it enables slurries having impossibly low water contents and ware having amazingly low drying shrinkage
Glossary	Glaze thickness Many ceramic glaze benefits and issues are closely related to the thickness with which the glaze is applied. Many glazes are very sensitive to thickness, so control is needed.

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