Gill Roy - Ceramic Glazing for Beginners: What Every Ceramic Artist Should Know to Get Better Glazes

Ceramic Glazing for Beginners

What Every Ceramic Artist Should Know to Get Better Glazes

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Introduction

M aking ceramics is a diverse art form that goes back thousands of years and has long played a big role in several cultures around the world. Even when you take a quick look back in history, you will see ancient people producing or trading them. Some items also have an area in museums dedicated to them.

The thing is, working with clay is a time-consuming process that requires many steps. You need to know what type of clay to use, what shape it should hold, how hot the fire should be and where it needs to come from, etc. After all of that, you have to deal with the final and most critical step: glazing.

Glazing is a process that a lot of beginners tend to have a lot of issues with. When you are not used to it, you may end up coating your ceramic with too little or too much of it. Some ingredients may not always be available either, thus making a few recipes impossible to follow. The level of cleanliness that it requires is no joke as well, considering no one wants to see bubbles or bumps on their ceramics. Thus, it is safe to say that glaze can either bring your artwork to a new level of beauty or ruin your project completely and waste weeks of hard work.

The silver lining is that this book focuses on this final step. You do not have to try glazing blindly for the first time and hope that the recipes will work. This book will help you improve your glazing skills and judgment so that you can attain better glazes for your ceramic projects in the future

Chapter 1: The Basics

A s mentioned above , the glaze can either make or break your ceramic work. It is important to put time and effort into planning your glaze before applying it, especially how you want the glaze to look and what its purpose is.

This chapter holds some basic information that will help you understand how glazes work and what they do.

What Is a Glaze?

A ceramic glaze is a strong, usually transparent, coating applied to the ceramic work as the final layer. This layer is baked directly into the clay used for ceramics. A glaze has various purposes and qualities depending on the type, which needs to be chosen carefully in connection with what you want out of your final product.

The main purpose of a glaze is to strengthen and waterproof your ceramic. Furthermore, a glaze will give it a rounded look, seal in paints, and even create interesting effects. In most cases, a clear glaze is used, but glazes are available in a myriad of colors. They can also range from extremely reflective to nearly or completely matte.

Glaze Chemistry

T he glaze is in liquid form, but long exposure to oxygen and low heat will eventually dry the glaze. To gain a strong, glass-like protective glaze, much higher temperatures are required. The ingredients in different recipes provide a specific combination of oxides and minerals that set off a chemical reaction when exposed to intense temperatures to harden and crystallize. The specific combination of oxides within a glaze will determine the reaction and its final properties, such as strength, color, thickness, and ability to reflect or refract light. The oxides will also ascertain the ideal temperature at which the glaze should be fired and the amount of time it should be exposed to the heat, as well as the resulting color once the glaze is dry. This is an important element when it comes to mixing your own glaze or altering a recipe as a change in the chemical balance can produce unexpected pigments. A basic understanding of which types of minerals make which colors can help you substitute rare or expensive ingredients or change the glaze color.