The Art of Glaze Chemistry - waitlist

This free glaze class and registration for AGC are now over. They will both be offered again in the Spring 2024.

Next registration opens Spring 2024

This page is for info only and is subject to change prior to registration opening again.

Have you been wondering …?

❓ What are glazes made of?

❓ What do all the glaze materials do?

❓ How can I prevent my glaze from running onto my kiln shelves?

❓ How can I adjust my glaze from high temperature to a lower temperature (and vice versa)?

❓ What makes glazes durable and suitable for food surfaces?

❓ How can I prevent my glaze from crazing?

❓ How can I create my own unique glazes?

❓ How do I achieve a certain colour?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to learn the Art of Glaze Chemistry!

Learn How Glazes are Formulated

The Art of Glaze Chemistry will teach you about:

🤓 The chemistry of glazes.

🤓 How and why they melt at different temperatures.

🤓 What gives them different types of surfaces like matte/glossy.

🤓 How you can adjust your glazes to solve common issues like runny or underfired glazes.

🤓 How to fix thermal expansion issues like crazing, shivering and dunting.

Understanding and using glaze chemistry to create and adjust glazes is definitely not an exact science. There are subtleties and nuances and various factors that affect how a glaze will turn out.

This is why I called this class The Art of Glaze Chemistry.

It’s as much art as it is science.

But don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of science involved. The art is in how you use the science.

And I want to teach you all of it!

Test tiles by AGC student Jean Paull

What if you knew how to solve any glaze problem?

If you’ve been glazing pots for any length of time, then you probably already know that glazes can be finicky and unpredictable.

😖 Sometimes they run.

😖 Sometimes they craze.

😖 Sometimes they just look awful.

What do you do when you’re having glaze problems?

How much time do you spend trying to fix a glaze that’s not working for you?

Do you want a quick fix or a foundation of knowledge?

Glazes are complicated and rely on chemistry whether you understand it or not.

When you have challenges, you can rely on advice from other “glaze gurus”, or you can learn how to fix them through glaze testing.

It’s just like that old saying:

Give someone a fish and you’ll feed them for a day. Teach them to fish and you’ll feed them for a lifetime.

When you “learn how to fish” by learning glaze chemistry instead of relying on advice from others, you can create your own unique glazes and solve your own problems.

You’ll be able to look at a glaze recipe, understand what factors are likely causing your glaze problem and what you could test to start solving it.

Glaze troubleshooting will always require testing.

There’s no magic solution to any glaze issue that will negate the need for testing.

Join me in The Art of Glaze Chemistry and build your foundation of knowledge!

Test tiles by AGC student Sandra Lee

Join The Art of Glaze Chemistry

Registration will open Sept 21, 2023 and registration buttons will be added at that time.

Here’s everything included in The Art of Glaze Chemistry

Lifetime access to The Art of Glaze Chemistry program – 8 Video Modules that can be watched on your own schedule.
Glaze testing assignments that will give you a tangible understanding of how glaze chemistry works
Worksheets, action plans, presentation slides, video transcripts
8 weekly Q&A sessions with Sue on Zoom (see schedule) and access to Zoom recordings
Private, students only community for asking questions 24/7
Resource library full of supplementary articles and videos to watch
Glazy Bonus – 2 months free Glazy Patron status to unlock features
Glaze Materials Workshop Bonus – instant access to my “What Do the Glaze Materials Do?” masterclass

2 Payment Options

1 x $597 USD

Pay in Full – $597 USD total

3 x $215 USD

Pay Monthly – $215 today

plus 2x monthly payments of $215 USD

= $645 USD total

Pay by credit card.

Join the Waitlist

Jump to section

Click icon to go straight to that section of the page.

h

Course Details

Pre-requisite:

The one thing you need to know before taking this class is how to mix your own glazes from scratch. It will be assumed that all Art of Glaze Chemistry students already know how to do this and instructions won't be provided. If you'd like to learn how to mix your own glazes from scratch, consider taking my Glaze Mixing Essentials program.

Start Date:

The course officially starts on Sun, Oct 1, 2023 with the release of Module 1. Registration opens Sep 21 and you can get started with course prep as soon as you register.

Module Release:

Every Sunday you'll get access to a new Module. There are 8 Modules in total and we'll have 2 "Implementation weeks" throughout the course so you can get caught up on the lessons and glaze testing assignments if needed.

Lifetime Access:

Once modules are released, you have lifetime access so you can go back and review them as much as you like.

Weekly Zoom Q&A Sessions:

We'll have a 2-hour, live Q&A session over Zoom every Thursday at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK time. The Zooms will be recorded and uploaded to your student dashboard.

Student Community:

There's a private, student community on Facebook for discussions and sharing glaze results. (There's a non-Facebook community option as well, but most students will be using the Facebook group.)

Glazy BONUS:

All students will be given 2 months of free "Patron status" on Glazy.org. We'll be using the glaze calculation software on Glazy.org throughout this course. Patron status unlocks special features on the site like:

Target & Solve
Blends
Dark Mode
Calculated Thermal Expansion
Decimal Places
Limits

After your 2 free months are up, you can continue your Patron status by donating $2/month to Glazy developer, Derek Au.

What Do the Glaze Materials Do? Masterclass BONUS:

When you register, you'll also get access to my intro to glaze materials class so you can start learning the basics of chemistry right away!

Course Schedule

Here's the schedule for the Fall 2023 session.

Jump to section

Click icon to go straight to that section of the page.

h

Course Details

View course details



Schedule

View course schedule



Course Curriculum

View curriculum of the course

u

FAQs

View frequently asked questions

|

Testimonials

Love from my students

Curriculum:

Here’s a list of the Modules that are released each week. Click on each one to read the topics covered in that Module.

Module 1: What is a Glaze?

Intro to the periodic table and the main 11 elements we use in glaze chemistry
Glass formers and fluxes and the purpose of each material in a glaze formula
The issue with soluble materials in glazes
Identifying why each material was added to a glaze recipe

Module 2: Chemistry and the UMF

Why we need to learn glaze chemistry
Atoms, molecules, and moles
Chemical analyses of materials
How to calculate the UMF of a glaze recipe

Module 3: The UMF and Durability

The basics of temperature
Comparing UMFs
The importance of glaze durability for functional wares
The difference between “Food Safety” and “Durability”
Flux ratio and durability
The role of B2O3 for durability at temps below cone 10
The “Bristol” reaction – Zinc + Calcium = lower melting temp

Module 4: Silica, Alumina and the Stull Chart

The Stull Chart – matte, glossy, underfired, crazing regions
SiO2:Al2O3 ratio
Properly formed matte glazes – “Stull” matte glazes
Understanding low alumina levels
Sue’s Stull research at cone 6, 2 different flux ratios
Adding Silica to a glaze
The 5:1 matte line
Stull shows you which direction to take to alter and fix glazes

Module 5: Glaze Formulation and Material Substitutions

Analyzing the UMF of glaze recipes – what to look for
Comparing to the UMF of known glazes
Intro to glaze improvements
What to pay attention to when substitution materials or formulating glazes from scratch
The issues with soluble materials
Oxide sourcing tips
Theoretical formulas for materials
Material substitution “Order of Operations”
Which materials to avoid if possible

Module 6: Colourants and Opacifiers

Where the colourants and opacifiers fall on the periodic table of elements
Examples of how colourants and opacifiers turn out differently depending on the base glaze they’re added to
How colour response is affected by different variables like RO flux choice and silica/alumina levels
Behind the scenes of colourant testing
The difference between the 3 opacifiers – titanium, zirconium and tin
How titanium is affected by cooling cycle
How to convert from Copper oxide to Copper carbonate in a glaze recipe

Module 7: Adjusting and Improving Glazes

Strategies for adjusting and improving your existing glaze recipes
How to change from matte to glossy and vice versa
How to change melting temp to fix runny or under-fired glazes
Thermal expansion and how to fix crazing, shivering and dunting
How to improve durability of your glazes
Using volumetric blending to test multiple variations between 2 recipes with different colourants and/or different base glaze chemistry

Module 8: The Glaze Journey Continues

Congratulations!! You made it to the end of this course, but this is not where the learning ends!
Full course review of the main, important topics covered in each module
A few bonus lessons added about:
- “Limits” – their significance and how to see them on the Glazy Stull chart
- Colourants as fluxes and the Extended UMF in Glazy
- Calculated expansion numbers in Glazy
Words of encouragement from Sue about continuing on your Glaze Journey, learning at your own pace, embracing failures and sharing knowledge.

You Can Have an Advanced Understanding of Glazes

Don’t be scared! The topics are more advanced, but I promise to take you from wherever you’re currently at, all the way to having an advanced understanding with easy to follow lessons and explanations.

This course comes with lifetime access to the class recordings, so you can learn at a pace that you’re comfortable with and review as much as you like.

I hope you’re excited to take control and fully understand your glazes.

Who This Class is For:

This class is for potters/ceramic artists who have experience with glazing and already know how to mix their own glazes, but don’t yet have a clue about the chemistry.

You’d be perfect for this class if you’re familiar with the names of glaze materials but don’t understand their function. Perhaps you’ve heard of feldspar but not sure what it’s used for.

Maybe you’ve tested glazes with different colourants, but have never adapted the base recipe.

Maybe you’ve dabbled with some chemistry or material substitutions and you like to look at the UMF of your glazes but you’re not quite sure what it all means.

You do need to know how to mix a glaze from a recipe, but you don’t need any more knowledge than that.

If you want to learn how to mix glazes from scratch, consider taking my Glaze Mixing Essentials course first. Then you’ll be ready for The Art of Glaze Chemistry.

Watch the video below to learn about all 3 of my glaze courses and figure out which one will suit you where you’re at on the glaze journey.

Which Glaze Course Should I Take?

I teach 3 different glaze courses on 3 different glaze topics. This video will help you figure out where you are on the glaze journey and the next best step for you to take.

Originally recorded live in Jan 2023.

“Sue McLeod’s “The Art of Glaze Chemistry”, takes a complicated subject and breaks it down into simple steps. Having specific experiments for key ideas really gave me a visual understanding of how various components of a glaze work together. Make sure you have at lease 50 test tiles ready when the class starts, and 150 if your curiosity can get the better part of your glaze experiments!”

Barbara N.