A Personalized Approach
Mondays 7-10pm
Instructor: Cassie Weatherford
Course Description: In this course we will demystify the science of glaze mixing for cone 6 oxidation firing. This course is well suited for absolute beginners, or anyone with glaze mixing experience who wants to do further testing to develop a glaze to fit their work. Topics of discussion will include; how to read a glaze recipe, chemicals and their properties, glaze stability, and troubleshooting common glaze faults. Students will learn to make their own test tiles using three different methods as well as how to personalize them to represent their work better. We will then run three different types of testing as a means of developing a glaze and review test tiles after firing.
Course fee includes clay for test tiles and chemicals for glaze tests.
Students will need to supply a digital scale accurate to one tenth of a gram (0.1g), a respirator with NIOSH approved P100 filters (pink ones), and an immersion blender that fits all the way into a SOLO cup. These will be needed for the second class. Some extra scales and blenders may be available for use.
Week 1
Learn how to make test tiles that represent your work. We will go over methods to make test tiles using extruding, wheel throwing, and hand building, and then make some.
Week 2
Learn to read a glaze recipe and choose one to work with. We will go over what makes a stable glaze as well as chemicals and their properties and handling.
Week 3
Do a colorant run using selected base glaze. Learn to weigh chemicals accurately and make different colors of glaze from one base recipe from various oxides and stains.
Week 4
Review tiles and choose one to expand upon. We will talk about common glaze problems, trouble shooting, and glaze application methods.
Week 5
Run a line blend from your selected tile. You will learn how to achieve a desired color by incrementally changing the amount of colorants.
Week 6
Review tiles and choose something to change in recipe (i.e. glossy to matte). We will talk about specific gravity, flocculating, and deflocculating glazes and then run a new test on the adjusted recipe.
Week 7/8
Review tiles and talk about further goals in glaze mixing. We will look at examples of various pottery and talk about alternative methods of glazing and firing. Bring in works in progress!