Monthly Tech-Tip | No tracking! No ads! |
Are you really sure the problem is with the materials? I had been using an 85% Ravenscrag, 15% frit glaze for many years with no crawling problems. But then it started crawling. I tried mixing with new materials and the old ones. Still crawled. The problem? What was I thinking? An 85% clay glaze is going to crawl so the question should have been: How did I get away with it for so long? I actually do not know! But I am now calcining Ravenscrag as appropriate (as documented at ravenscrag.com) and I love the control this gives me in balancing slurry properties with drying hardness.
This thrown piece has thin walls and a thick base. A thickly applied inside glaze. No glaze on the outside (showing off the beautiful red body color). These factors are a recipe for glaze compression failure. And that is what has happened! But this has worked for the potter in the past! So what is needed to continue doing this unrecommended technique and get away with it? Thicker walls. Thinner base. Thinner glaze application on the inside.
Glossary |
Crawling
A ceramic glaze fault that occurs during firing of the ware, the molten glaze pulls itself into islands leaving bare patches of body between. |
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