So far in this project I have been mainly using the same base glaze with all my colour tests. This glaze is my number 16 which consist of 40% Nepheline syenite, 30% flint, 20% whiting and 10% china clay. I fire it to cone 10 – 1300 degree Celsius.

Lately I’ve been thinking whether or not I like it? Do I want such a high gloss glaze? So I thought I would have a sort through and see what glazes I have but also to generally sort through my glazes and get organised. I’ve mixed a lot so far and I’m getting confused as to what I have and what I need to do.

Here are all the tests I’ve done so far. There set in groups, placing them all out flat on the table could take up allot of space…… but that is an idea that I might do at the end of my course!

The above tiles are all my colour tests using the number 16 base glaze. This is the glaze that I’ve use for the majority of my work so far and which I am unsure off. However when I get them all out together and see the range of colours I have I am pleased with them. I still need to mix some summer colours though.

The above glazes are a mixture of my number 9 base glaze, number 10 base glaze, number 2 base glaze and a selection of different individual glazes.

Number 9 and 10 glazes are both fired to 1280 where as glazes 16 and 2 are to 1300 degrees. Ideally moving forward to after my masters I plan to be making at home using my own kiln. Firing to such high temperatures of 1300 will use out the kiln elements more than a lower kiln firing will so realistically I should choose to use the lower temp glazes, However the higher temp glazes are so much nicer!!

Dave had made a suggestion to try further colour tests on the number 9 glaze. This recipe I got from ……………. book that was named ‘crystalline sea green’. A lovely transparent bright glossy glaze. Below are the results of the colour blends.

The above colour tests were for summer and fired to 1260. They are lovely and bright which is what I want for summer however they have a painterly finish, a bit ‘wishy washy’ and not very interesting unlike my other glazes therefore the decision was made to not bother with this base glaze and to concentrate on the other glazes.

So from now on I will concentrate on my number 16 and number 2 base glazes. They will both fire to the same temperature which means that I can use both glazes on the same pot and fire everything together in the one kiln. I think that having a high gloss finish glaze combined with a semi matt/satin glaze will allow me to create a variety of colour and textured finishes leading to create more interesting groupings of each season.