Ceramic Glazes Archives – Sue McLeod Ceramics

Understanding Cone 6 – NCECA presentation 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, moderated by Matt Katz. My co-presenters Kiara Matos and Peter Berg gave talks about “Copper as...

Glazy Demo – Adding Recipes and More

Ceramic Glazes, Glazy.org

Do you use Glazy.org to store/share your glaze recipes? If you’re just hearing about Glazy for the first time, you should definitely go check it out. It’s a ceramics recipe website that allows you to store recipes with photos, share them with the community and analyze the chemistry/UMF of your glazes, all in one place.

What Glazes Can You Make with Limited Materials?

Ceramic Glazes, Glazy.org

When you start looking for glaze recipes and have a limited number of materials on hand, you may find that you have almost (but not quite) all the materials for a million glaze recipes, but you can’t find a recipe that only uses the materials you currently have.

15 Tips to Get Started with Glaze Testing

Ceramic Glazes

I find ceramic glazes to be absolutely fascinating. I had no idea when I started working with clay that glazes would become the main focus of my life. Glazing was always an afterthought and I basically ruined most of my pieces by glazing them…

How to Add Bentonite to a Wet Glaze

Ceramic Glazes

When I was in school and learning to mix my own glazes, I was warned: “Make sure you add bentonite to the DRY materials and mix them together BEFORE you add any water.” It was good advice. The reason for the warning is when bentonite gets wet it swells and gels and…

Different Styles of Test Tiles You Can Make for Glaze Testing

Ceramic Glazes

The word “test tile” can refer to any shape of clay that’s used to test glazes, slips, underglazes, engobes etc. Test tiles can be any shape you wish and can be made in a variety of ways. In this post, I’ll share lots of different examples of ways you can…

What to Keep Track of in Your Glaze Journal

Ceramic Glazes

How Magic Becomes Science. Have you ever unloaded a BEAUTIFUL piece from the kiln and thought, “Gee, I wish I could remember how I did that”? A big part of glaze testing and advancing your understanding of glazes is record keeping. Whether you’re dipping test tiles or…

How to Convert Kaolin to Calcined Kaolin

Ceramic Glazes, Studio Tips

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.

Why Specific Gravity Isn’t Listed on Glaze Recipes

Ceramic Glazes, Specific Gravity

If you’ve been glazing for any length of time, you may have heard about the importance of measuring the specific gravity of your glazes and you may have found yourself wondering: “If it’s so important to measure specific gravity, why aren’t specific gravity values published on glaze recipes?”