A Plethora of Purple: Glaze Recipes for Earthenware, Stoneware and Porcelain

1. lynn stephenson March 22, 2013 at 7:12 am -

   I’m having fun with the recipes in the book but would love to know the recipes used by Richard Baxter for the purple porcelain bowl on page 72. Is there any chance of getting hold of these? Thanks.
2. bd kibbey October 23, 2012 at 9:31 am -

   Could anyone please help me a achieve a warm purple flo glaze..could flo blue be adapted by adding more RIO?…I am currently low on manganese which might have worked, but is there any other choice in place of manganese? THANKS!
3. Genevieve Halse May 9, 2012 at 7:19 pm -

   Could you please give the recipe for the beautiful dark purple matt glaze show on the example photo ? It does not seem to appear in the test pieces shown afterwards. The one on the close up photo, layered above what looks like a floating blue ?
4. ruth December 20, 2011 at 8:04 pm -

   While I am at it, I am looking for a good plum glaze with runny streaks (maybe from rutile) at cone 10 oxidation. The reds from spectrum produce corals to orange rather than red. It has been a while since I have tested for a glaze and maybe other coloring agent-combinations have come about in the last 15 years that I don’t know about.
5. ruth December 20, 2011 at 8:00 pm -

   I also get a pretty good purple at stoneware temp by using the purple mason stain at about 8% in a simple white base using zircopax as the opacifier. I get a lavender using another Mason which is supposed to be blue. If anyone is interested I can get those stain numbers for you as I am out at work at a job at the moment. Both of these glazes are nice with red brush or dots and with sprinkles of glass frit on flat areas so that the glass pools.
6. Brandon December 14, 2011 at 9:22 am -

   I see, Thanks so much!
7. Linda November 30, 2011 at 10:03 am -

   The ingredients after the + are very important as they add the color. Without them the glaze would be transparent or translucent and colorless. The other ingredients add up to 100 and make up a shiny or matt glaze, known as a ‘base glaze’. When a potter finds a base glaze they like, then they can start adding colors. Many potters use just one or two base glazes which they vary by adding different coloring oxides (these are the oxides of cobalt, copper, chromium, iron, manganese, nickel and vanadium).
8. Brandon November 29, 2011 at 11:31 am -

   Quick question for you all: What is the purpose of the ingredients after the + ? Why is it not just added into the total calculation? Also, does this make it optional or still necessary? Thanks, looking forward to finding this out.
9. Jan November 25, 2011 at 12:54 am -

   Thanks for the very interesting an informative article.
10. Linda November 24, 2011 at 3:51 am -

    The runny porcelain glazes might work at cone 5 -or you could try adding the same colouring oxides to your own cone 5 glaze recipes
11. Robbin November 23, 2011 at 8:45 pm -

    I am excited about the purple glazes, will they work for cone 5 in and electric kiln.
12. Linda November 23, 2011 at 3:33 am -

    The image is Louisa Taylor’s work. She uses two glazes, a purple made with red stain and a little cobalt carbonate overlapped with a rutile-based chun glaze (also known as floating blue) and fired to cone 8 in oxidation. Her recipes were published in Ceramic Review magazine issue 237 May/June 2009
13. Teresita November 22, 2011 at 5:18 pm -

    Hello I love the glaze in the image number 2.Is it one of the recepies. Is it in oxidation? Your work is great!
14. Linda November 22, 2011 at 10:56 am -

    It is the same as silica. In England it is usual to distinguish between quartz and flint, both of which are forms of silica and don’t affect the colour of the glaze.
15. Karen B November 22, 2011 at 10:48 am -

    I see that Quartz is common to all these recipes. What is it about the Quartz that makes it essential for purple? Thanks so much for posting this.
16. Linda November 22, 2011 at 10:41 am -

    Do you mean chun blue glazes with added copper fired in reduction? No these test tiles are mostly fired in oxidation.
17. Laurie November 22, 2011 at 9:24 am -

    Are any of these Cone 6 oxidation glazes at all similar to the Chinese glazes that have the flow of blue/purple? It didn’t look that way in the test tiles…
18. Clifford November 21, 2011 at 8:28 pm -

    Connie- click on the body of the page , not the printing ‘click here’.
19. Connie November 21, 2011 at 7:40 pm -

    This wont”CLICK TO ENLARGE” so I cant read it.
20. Pamela November 21, 2011 at 4:30 pm -

    Thank you for the response.
21. Linda November 21, 2011 at 1:18 pm -

    Most of the porcelain glazes will work on white stoneware at cone 6 in oxidation
22. Emily November 21, 2011 at 12:52 pm -

    What about glaze recipes for stoneware fired to cone 6 oxidation? That’s a pretty common temperature, yet your oxidation glazes are all either low fire or cone 8 or above. I have no desire to change my clay body (cone 6) nor my other recipes just so I can get a purple.
23. Linda November 21, 2011 at 12:33 pm -

    English calcium borate frit is very similar to colemanite. The frit formula is CaO 1.0 B2O3 1.5 SiO2 0.6 Linda Bloomfield
24. Geoffrey November 21, 2011 at 12:28 pm -

    If you want a shiny glaze, try Ferro 3134. You may need to adjust the soda spar and clay since 3134 has no alumina and a lot of sodium in it. If you want a more matte glaze, 3124 or 3195 will work well since they have a significant amount of alumina in them (3195 having the most).
25. Linda November 21, 2011 at 12:17 pm -

    Try Ferro 3124, 3134, 3195 or colemanite. I used a standard English calcium borate frit.
26. Pamela November 21, 2011 at 10:33 am -

    Which calcium borate frit for the earthenware formula? Thanks.

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