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Glaze Chemistry
Remember, in high school chemistry class when you found yourself thinking, “when will I ever use this stuff in my life?” (unless, of course, you always dreamed of becoming a chemist). Well, once you have become hooked on pottery and ceramics, you will probably find yourself delving into glaze chemistry. Learning how different materials contribute to glazes and clay bodies is very important in expanding your abilities as a ceramic artist. So here we’ve gathered a bunch of articles and information on glaze chemistry to help you understand this incredibly complex and fascinating subject. 33 Tried and True Glaze Recipes, a perfect resource for potters and ceramic artists who are ready to experiment with custom glazes, or for those who have grown tired of their own tried and true glazes.
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November 17, 2009
Beautiful, soft, muted-color brushstrokes and washes of water-soluble metal salts decorate Gary Holt's translucent porcelain bowls and plates. The simplicity and quiet presence of his works belie the years that Holt spent experimenting and perfecting his technique. Using water-soluble metals salts (WSMS) demands excellent technical skills and careful attention to details.
November 17, 2009
Leaving Bariumville: Replacing Barium Carbonate in Cone 10 Glazes
Barium carbonate has long been used as an ingredient in high-fire glazes, sometimes conferring unique properties upon glazes. One of the alkaline earth carbonates, it has also been used as rat poison (large doses can be toxic to humans as well). Glazes containing it ought to be checked for barium leaching if they are intended to hold food or drink, or reserved for surfaces that do not come into contact with food. It is not my intent to present the research on barium toxicity here, but to present a course of action for replacing it in glazes.
November 16, 2009
Phases are specific forms of materials. The most familiar phases are solid, liquid and vapor. Any phase of a material is identical in composition and structure in all parts of that phase. For instance, a glass of water is the liquid phase of H2O, top to bottom; if it weren't, we'd call it something else, like ice if it were solid (structural change), or lemonade if it had lemon and sugar dissolved in it (compositional change).
November 16, 2009
One of the more fascinating, sometimes frustrating parts of ceramics is learning to balance the innumerable factors that affect the outcome of a firing. Glaze ingredients, the clay body used, firing cycles, atmospheres, kiln-stacking techniques and geography (to name a few variables) can all affect firing results.November 5, 2009
How many times have you copied a glaze formula, only to find that it didn't work as expected? It is not unheard of for glazes with the same formula to produce different results. While this may seem like a dead end, it does not have to be.
October 26, 2009
Kristina Bogdanov, who teaches at Ohio Wesleyan College in Delaware, Ohio, was intrigued when she realized that one of the class glazes seemed to fire well at cone 10 reduction in a gas kiln, cone 6 in an electric kiln, and cone 9 reduction in a soda kiln without any change in the recipe. So she ran the glaze through a battery of tests to see just how versatile it was. Today, in an excerpt from the 2010 Buyers Guide for Ceramic Arts, Kristina explains her testing process and the results.
July 22, 2009
In today's post, Robin Hopper gives some expert pointers on how to solve five of the most common pottery glaze problems.
July 10, 2009
Mini Pottery Workshop Video: Three Nuggets of Wisdom from an Expert Potter
A couple of years ago, master potter Tom Turner hosted a two-day workshop. Fortunately, for those who were not lucky enough to attend the workshop, he had the whole thing filmed and turned it into a DVD. The DVD is chock full of little nuggets of wisdom that come from Turner's many years of making pottery. I picked out three of those little nuggets to share with you today.
May 13, 2009
Mid-Range Reduction Firing: It’s Not Just Cooler, It’s Cool!
As John Britt points out in today's post, firing to cone 6 reduction is cheaper, faster, and the results can be almost indistinguishable from high fire.
February 19, 2009
Lichens and Lizards and Leopards, Oh My! Reticulated Glaze Recipes For Wild Ceramic Surfaces
Glazes are sometimes formulated to intentionally crawl and create reticulated surfaces resembling lichens, leopard coats, or lizard skin. Today, Robin Hopper presents a slip recipe and a base glaze recipes for such an effect, and gives examples of this slip and glaze combination with various ceramic colorants added.
February 2, 2009
No Scale? No Problem. Using a Volumetric Glaze Recipe for Ceramic Glaze Testing
Mixing ceramic glazes from scratch can be intimidating to those just getting started. And sometimes it just isn’t practical or possible to purchase or have access to an accurate gram scale. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that mixing glazes is out of the question. As Sumi Von Dassow explains in today’s post, mixing ceramic glazes with a volumetric recipe can be a great way to get your feet wet and learn more about ceramic glaze materials in the process. - Jennifer Harnetty, editor.
October 15, 2008
On Monday, we presented a couple of ways that you can expand your glaze palette without purchasing new materials or experimenting with new glaze recipes. If you missed that tip, you can see it in the online archives (along with every other feature we've published---just click on "Features Archive"). As promised, today, Lou Roess shares another handy tip for getting a lot more information out of the glazes you already have. You may discover something new and interesting right in your own studio!
October 13, 2008
f you’d like a bigger selection of glaze colors, but don’t have the time or money it takes to mix and test new ones, don’t fret. Working with what you have on hand can yield some interesting results. Today, we’ll show you a couple of simple ways to get more from your studio glazes. Whether you mix your own glazes, use commercial glazes or both, it's easy to get comfortable using the same glazes the same way on the same pieces. That's not necessarily bad, because being comfortable with your methods builds confidence and consistency. However, it's also wise to experiment and stretch a little bit to discover new territory. The methods below show that new territory might not be that ...
