The free glaze guide
Twelve glazes we use every week
A demonstration site. This guide is an example, made to show what bernard can do. Test any glaze yourself before you use it on pots for food.
These are the glazes on our studio shelf. All of them fire to cone 6 (about 1220°C) on stoneware, in an electric kiln. For each one: what it looks like, how we mix it, and one thing we learned the hard way.
- 01
Celadon
Glossy, pale sea green that pools darker in carved lines.
Mix: Our clear base with 1% red iron oxide.
Tip: Carve or stamp under it. The green gathers in every line.
- 02
Tenmoku
Deep black-brown that breaks to rust on rims and edges.
Mix: Clear base with 10% red iron oxide.
Tip: Apply it thick. Thin tenmoku goes a dull treacle brown.
- 03
Shino style
Creamy white to orange, with soft fire marks where it is thin.
Mix: A high-soda base, with a little iron from the clay.
Tip: It looks best over our toasty buff stoneware, not white clay.
- 04
Wood ash
Runny greens and ambers with drips that run down the pot.
Mix: Washed ash and feldspar, half and half.
Tip: Keep it off the bottom 2cm. Ash glazes run, and kiln shelves are dear.
- 05
Oatmeal
Warm, satin, speckled cream.
Mix: Satin base with 2% rutile and a pinch of granular manganese.
Tip: Our everyday mug glaze. It hides finger marks and tea stains.
- 06
Floating blue
Blue and brown that float over each other.
Mix: Gloss base with cobalt, iron and rutile.
Tip: Two dips give the float. One dip gives a plain blue-brown.
- 07
Rutile blue
Streaky blue with gold and cream veins.
Mix: Gloss base with 5% rutile and 1% cobalt carbonate.
Tip: Slow cooling brings out the streaks. Our kiln cools slowly with the bungs in.
- 08
Copper green
Fresh grass green, glossy.
Mix: Clear base with 2% copper carbonate.
Tip: Not for the inside of food pots unless you test it for leaching.
- 09
Honey amber
Clear golden brown, like dark honey.
Mix: Clear base with 4% red iron oxide.
Tip: Lovely over white slip trailing. The slip shows through as cream.
- 10
Satin white
Soft, buttery white with a low sheen.
Mix: A satin base, opacified with zircopax.
Tip: Our liner for bowls. It is food safe and wipes clean.
- 11
Iron saturate
Deep red-brown with a metallic sheen.
Mix: Gloss base with 12% red iron oxide and a little bone ash.
Tip: Fussy. It changes with every firing. Keep notes.
- 12
Clear liner
Glass-clear and glossy.
Mix: Our cone 6 clear base on its own.
Tip: The one we use most. It shows the clay and every throwing line.
Want to go further?
Learn to mix and test your own
Glaze Explorers is our online course on glazes. You learn to read a recipe, mix a test batch and keep a tile record, so you can change a glaze with confidence.
See Glaze ExplorersNew to clay? Start with Clay Taster, our free course. You can also read the studio journal.