Glazing Insights

Glazing is tough to learn in this class. So far, this semester there were two glaze firings, with one more to go. How can I learn about glaze properties when there are this few glaze firings? I do have lots of glazes I will be testing for the next firing. I just have to keep good notes and plan for more massive testing, based on these results, next semester.

I am learning a few things about glazes. What oxides give what colors and how the ingredients and clay body affect the outcomes.

The most important Aha! was when I realized that you should not blindly follow recipe's. You should take the time to understand what ingredient does what and carefully analyze (with Hirotashima's help) what you thought would happen with what actual happened. Then build from there for the next round of glaze experiments. Following a glaze recipe with no understanding will not produce any significant.

I also realized a good way to approach glazes is to start off with a basic glaze recipe, working with it until you get what you want. Understanding will come as you experiment.