The Fascinating World of Pottery Glazes

Understanding Glaze Composition

Pottery glazes are essentially a form of glass fused onto a ceramic body at high temperatures. Their primary components are:

• Fluxes: Lower the melting point of the silica (e.g., feldspar, whiting, zinc oxide).
• Stabilizers: Make the glaze more durable and less prone to crazing (e.g., alumina from kaolin or feldspar).
• Glass Formers: Create the glassy matrix (primarily silica from quartz or flint).

The interplay of these elements, along with metallic oxides for color and opacity, creates the vast spectrum of glazes we see today.