Ceramic Arts Daily

The accepted standard for understanding glazes, this book explores glaze and color making in a hands-on way that follows the empirical understanding used for thousands of years. Hopper provides an impressive description of his extensive research into glaze, color, texture, and surface enrichment. It is the perfect practical complement to any glaze theory or process of calculation, including glaze calculation software programs.

Download an excerpt

Save more than $35
when you
purchase all three
Robin Hopper books
for only $99

FREE SHIPPING
when you
order online
(US Orders Only)

Order
Ceramic Spectrum
For $44.95

Learn More

Order
Functional Pottery
For $44.95

Learn More

Order
Making Marks
For $44.95

Learn More

Hopper helps eliminate confusion for others through his personal experiences and observations with this medium. Pottery making is a continuum where one generation has learned from previous generations, some as a family pursuit and some through the inevitable seduction of material and process.

The primary intent of The Ceramic Spectrum is not as recipe book, but to demystify an extremely complex subject. Although it has over 500 recipes, all of which work perfectly well and have been widely tested, they are given to suggest parameters in which these glazes develop, to show some of the variables that control both surface and color. This book aims to make available to the student of ceramics—whether beginner, advanced, or professional—an approach to the study of ceramic glaze and color development which does not rely on the use of published formulas, recipes or the mathematics of ceramic glaze calculation.

Glaze making is a process of creative thought. It goes back to the empirical methods, through intuition and observation of materials and fire, in use for nearly 5,000 years before the understanding of glaze formulation by mathematical equation and molecular weight of chemicals.

The aim of this book is to encourage personal curiosity and exploration of materials for glaze and color, so that anyone can develop their own glazes, without pain or anguish, and with a very exciting learning experience.

Ideal for a Glaze Course

The text is perfect as a course outline for either the individual or the group, where shared experiences tend to enhance and speed up the learning process. It should also be usable as a research tool for the understanding and development of colors, which may have previously seemed beyond reach.

Here is more of what you’ll find in The Ceramic Spectrum

Part One: The Basics

Chapter 1: Glaze: A Brief Technical History

Chapter 2: Pigeonholing: The Classification of Ware Types
    Earthenware
    Stoneware
    Bone China
    Soft Paste Porcelain
    Porcelain

Chapter 3: Kilns, Temperature and Atmosphere
    Electric Kilns
    Kilns Using Fossil Fuels
    Firing, Temperature and Atmosphere
    Reduction of Electric Kilns
    Learning to Live With a Dragon
    Basic Firing Guidelines

Part Two: The Development of Glaze

Chapter 4: Calculation—What It Does and Doesn’t Do
    What Calculation Tells Us
    What Calculation Doesn’t Tell Us
    Selecting Materials for Glazes

Chapter 5: Record Keeping and Testing Procedures
    Recording Glaze Development
    Making Glaze Tests

Chapter 6: Basic Raw Materials in Ceramics
    Geological Beginnings
    Clays
    Other Glaze Materials
    Testing and Using Individual Glaze Ingredients

Chapter 7: Frits
    Fritting Materials for Ceramic Use
    Frits in Bodies and Glazes
    Comparative List of Commonly Used Frits

Chapter 8: Eutectics and Glaze Development with Two Materials

Chapter 9: Triaxial Blends
    The 21-Point Triaxial Grid
    The 66-Point Triaxial Grid

Chapter 10: Quadraxial Blends
    The 36-Point Quadraxial Grid
    The 121-Point Quadraxial Grid
    General Quadraxial Recommendations

Chapter 11: Fluxes, Flux Variations, Flux Variation Triaxial, and Flux Saturations
    Alkaline or Alkaline Earths
    Lead
    Boron
    Magnesia
    Zinc
    Barium
    Strontium
    Flux Variations
    Flux Variations Triaxial
    Flux Saturation Glazes

Chapter 12: Wood Ash and Glazes for Once-Firing
    Making Wood Ash Glazes
    Using Ash as a Glaze Ingredient
    Fake or Simulated Wood Ash Glazes
    Glazes for Once-Firing

Chapter 13: Alterations, Glaze Properties, Faults and Defects
    Glaze Alterations
    Desirable Physical Characteristics of Glazes
    Faults and Defects

Chapter 14: Flashers
    Enamels
    Raku
    Lusters and Luster Glazes
    Aventurine Glazes
    Crystalline Glazes

Chapter 15: Oriental Style Glazes
    Iron-Colored Glazes
    Shino Glazes
    Copper Red Glazes
    Opalescence in Copper Red Glazes

Part Three: The Development of Color

Chapter 16: Materials for Color Development
    Basic Colorant Materials
    Using Soluble Colorants
    Automobile and Household Paints
    Underglaze Colors, Glaze, and Body Stains
    Making Underglaze Colors and Stains
    Making Underglaze Pencils, Pastels, and Watercolors
    Serial Numbers of Glaze Bases and Color Additions Used in this Book

Chapter 17: Color Testing: Mixing and Blending
    Varied Color Progressions—Serial Numbers
    Colored Cross-Blending
    Glaze Cross-Blending

Chapter 18: The Ceramic Spectrum
    Specific Color Development: 46 Colors, 140 Variations
    Using Prepared Colorants—Stains

Chapter 19: Opacification
    The Characteristics of Opacifiers
    Adding Opacifiers to Glaze Recipes

Chapter 20: Textural Variations
    Clay Additives
    Glaze Additives
    Reticulation Glazes—Highly Textured Surfaces Resembling Lichens, Lizards, and Leopards
    Metals

Chapter 21: Color in Clays, Slips and Engobes
    Egyptian Paste
    Color in Regular Clay Types
    Mixing Colored Clays
    Color in Slips and Engobes
    Terra Sigillatas
    Engobes
    Patination