Exploring the art and science of ceramics
Upcoming Glaze Workshops in Victoria, BC
Understanding Glazes: How Glazes Work – workshop Aug 11, 2018
Register for workshop Understanding Glazes – How Glazes Work – Level 1 This is a Level 1 class for ceramic... read more
Understanding Glazes: Glaze Colours and Consistency – workshop June 30, 2018
Examine in detail how colourants are affected by flux choice.
Use glaze calculation software to make flux and other material substitutions.
How to measure specific gravity and viscosity so your glazes are always consistent.
Learn how and when to flocculate and deflocculate your glazes.
Understanding Glazes: How Glazes Work – workshop May 13, 2018
When we understand our materials and how they interact with each other, we can alter our glazes to make them better. Spend less time troubleshooting and more time making!
read moreUnderstanding Cone 6
My First NCECA Presentation – Pittsburgh 2018
Understanding Cone 6 – NCECA presentation 2018
On Mar 15, 2018 I gave my first ever NCECA talk. I was part of a panel discussion called Glazes Without Borders,... read more
Did you miss NCECA Pittsburgh 2018? Didn’t get a chance to see my presentation?
Good news!
My entire presentation “Understanding Cone 6”
is now available as a free download!
The Art of Ceramics
Exploring the teapot form
Over the years, I have used the teapot form as a canvas to challenge myself artistically.
A teapot needs 4 distinct parts to technically be considered a teapot: body, spout, handle and lid.
The size and shapes of those parts can be left up to interpretation and are limited only by imagination.
Each teapot asks to be interacted with. It has its own unique personality.
My Teapot was featured in
500 Teapots – Volume 2
500 Teapots – Volume 2 front cover
O la Fuente page 257
Juried by Jim Lawton back cover
Translucent porcelain and soy wax glow candles
- Entirely handmade, wheel thrown translucent porcelain vessels are filled with unscented soy wax.
- The translucency of the porcelain allows the light to shine through as the candle burns down, creating an elegant glow.
- Vessels are glazed in ways that enhance the glowing effect, creating patterns of shadows and light.
- Empty candle containers can be refilled locally.
View image galleries of my past and current work
Mugs and Cups
Bowls and Plates
And many other forms and surfaces
Sign up for my mailing list
The Science of Ceramics
A Journey to Understanding Ceramic Glaze Chemistry
- Are you a ceramic artist?
- Have you ever wanted to learn how to understand glazes on a deeper level?
- Do you want to create recipes from scratch or improve your existing recipes?
- Do you wish you understood your materials well enough to confidently fix issues with your glazes?
- Join me as I dig deep, experimenting with glazes, learning about their chemistry, and sharing what I learned with you.
How to Convert Kaolin to Calcined Kaolin
If you have too much clay in a glaze recipe, you might have issues with your glaze crawling during the firing. Crawling is where the glaze pulls away from the clay body due to a combination of shrinkage, poor adhesion and high surface tension.
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Understanding Cone 6 – NCECA presentation 2018
On Mar 15, 2018 I gave my first ever NCECA talk. I was part of a panel discussion called Glazes Without Borders,... read more
What You Need to Start Mixing Your Own Ceramic Glazes
Are you ready to start mixing your own glazes? Perhaps you’ve reached the point in your ceramics journey that you want to start understanding the materials you’re working with and what is actually happening when you put your pottery into the kiln.
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Don’t Skimp on Safety in the Glaze Lab
Most of our glaze materials come to us in their very basic, unprocessed form. They are dug out of the ground, impurities may or may not be removed, they are ground into a fine powder, bagged and shipped to our suppliers. Working with these minerals in their raw state poses some health risks.
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How to Normalize a Glaze Recipe
When a recipe adds up to 100%, we can easily compare it to other recipes. This is particularly useful when we have additions like colourants and opacifiers. The base recipe remains constant while the additions are always relative to 100%. It also allows us to look at 2 recipes side by side and compare the amounts of individual materials. But what do we do if our recipe doesn’t add up to 100%?
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