Glazing

Many a pottery student becomes intimidated when faced with the procedure of glaze formulation. Glaze chemistry without fear is what we are going to touch upon in this issue.  Although some potters understand enough basic chemistry to perform complex glaze calculations without difficulty, those of us with non-scientific brains often struggle through the majority of glazing information. Too often, it’s

Many potters rely on glaze recipes available to them from pottery periodicals, books, college courses, online resources, friends, or colleagues…leaving little incentive for experimentation. It’s true that formulation of an original, new glaze might seem intimidating at first, but a simple method called “line blending” can yield very rewarding, unique results. A line blend is made by mixing together equal

Modification of a base glaze recipe can be as simple as making changes to a bread recipe in your home kitchen. Much like you might substitute molasses for honey to make your bread appear dark brown rather than light-colored, you can add different colorants to your base glaze to achieve a wide variety of colors. To begin experimenting with glaze

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things about working with clay is the endless variety of techniques that can be tried and experimented with to yield new and exciting ways to decorate one’s pots. Combination glazing techniques, in which two or more glazes are combined to achieve various effects, can be performed in many different ways to achieve countless possibilities.