Glazing

Glaze is a mixture that turns to glass when melted in the kiln, then becomes solid on a pot's surface.

All glazes have silica, alumina, and a chemical flux, which makes the glaze melt into glass at a lower temperature. The flux can be boron, sodium, lead, or potassium.

Other chemicals in the glaze determine the color and texture of the glaze. For instance, adding cobalt oxide will turn the glaze blue, chromium oxide will make green glaze, vanadium will produce yellow glaze.

Add warm water to these powdered chemicals to make the glaze. Until it is fired, the liquid glaze may be a very different color than the one you want for your vessel.

Strain the glaze by pouring it through a screen. Glaze should be a smooth liquid.

Apply glaze to the surface of the object by painting it on, or by dipping the object in a bucket of glaze.

Examples of glazed clay

Incising

Make a pot out of clay.

Let the pot dry a little.

With a sharp tool*, incise, or cut, designs and patterns into the surface of the clay without cutting all the way through the clay. (*Some potters use their fingernails to make a design.)

The designs can be left this way, or filled with colored slip, a liquid clay.

Examples of incised clay

Sgraffito

Make a pot out of clay.

Let the pot dry until it is almost hard.

Cover the pot with colored liquid clay or slip.

Let the slip dry a little.

With a sharp tool, scrape a design or pattern through the slip. The bare clay underneath will show through.

Example of the sgraffito process

Painting

Make a pot out of clay.

Fire the pot.

Paint designs or patterns onto the pot. Some Native American potters paint with slip and then fire the object. Others paint the object after it has been fired, but these designs are not waterproof and will wear off.

Examples of painting