Table of Contents
What causes Pinholing in pottery?
The main cause of pinholes in pottery is air bubbles created by gases in the Glaze or Clay body. You can minimize them by using finer particles, adding more flux, applying a second, thinner glaze layer, and using a well-ventilated kiln.
What color is oxidation pottery?
Because oxygen is being leached out of the pottery, the metals in the glaze and clay are reduced further. This accounts for the intense, sometimes dense look of glazes from a reduction fire. Taking the example of copper again, in an oxidizing atmosphere it turns green.
What causes crazing in ceramics?
Crazing is caused by the glaze being under too much tension. This tension occurs when the glaze contracts more than the clay body during cooling. Because glazes are a very thin coating, most will pull apart or craze under very little tension. Crazing can make a food safe glaze unsafe and ruin the look of the piece.
Is crazing in pottery bad?
Technically crazing is considered a defect in the glaze and can weaken the item. It may also harbor bacteria. So if you are buying pieces to use for serving food you should look for uncrazed pieces. It sits between the lines or in the clay under the glaze so cannot be removed by scrubbing the surface.
How do you stop glaze from Pinholing?
In addition, a rough surface exposes pore networks inside the body to larger volume ‘exit vents’ that produce pinholes in glazes. You can prevent this by using a finer body, smoothing the body surface in the leather hard state after trimming, or by applying a fine-grained slip.
How do you fix a Pinholing glaze?
If you notice this to be the case, you can try to increase the glaze melt by adding more flux. It is possible that a firing slower to peak temperature or holding at peak temperature during the glaze firing will help to heal over pinholes. A 15 to 30 minute soak should help. After soaking on peak temp about 15-30 min.
What does oxidation mean in pottery?
The terms oxidation and reduction refer to how much oxygen is in the kiln’s atmosphere while the kiln is firing. An oxidation atmosphere has plenty of oxygen for the fuel to burn. The reduction process, when oxygen is leeched out of your kiln atmosphere and pottery, can change the texture of your clay.
What does oxides mean in ceramics?
Oxide ceramics are defined as a group of ceramics containing not more than 15% silica with little or no glass phase [7]. From: Dental Materials, 2014.
What is an oxide glaze?
OXIDE PAINTING refers to a technique of glazing in which metallic oxide washes are painted on top of an unfired glaze to achieve color changes and create patterns. Usually, an opaque white glaze is used, however, almost any glaze can be successfully employed.
How do you stop ceramics from crazing?
Crazing can often be eliminated simply by applying a thinner glaze coat. With some glazes, a thinner coat is not an option, but often a slight decrease in glaze thickness will stop crazing.
How do you fix ceramic crazing?
In practice, the most effective ways to correct crazing are: increase the silica, in body or glaze. decrease the feldspar, in body or glaze. decrease any other material containing sodium or potassium. increase the boron 5. increase the alumina, i.e. the clay content. increase lead oxide.
How do you stop crazing in pottery?
To reduce crazing: Increase silica and clay by 5% silica and 4% clay. Add 5% talc or zinc oxide. Substitute lithium feldspar for sodium feldspar. Substitute borate frit for high-alkaline frit. Apply glaze thinly. Increase firing temperature.
Does crazing effect value pottery?
Crazing is a very common condition with virtually all glazed art pottery. Normal crazing or crackling that cannot be seen at a few feet does not typically affect the value of most very high quality art pottery pieces. Buyers should expect some crazing on all glazed or hand-painted art pottery.
Is it safe to use a crazed teapot?
Glazed ware can be a safety hazard to end users because it may leach metals into food and drink, it could harbor bacteria and it could flake of in knife-edged pieces. Crazed ceramic glazes have a network of cracks. Understanding the causes is the most practical way to solve it.
Can you use dishes with crazing?
Crazing on dinnerware pieces is never okay You may have heard it called crackling or even, heaven forbid, grazing. Most collectors use pieces as display-only and therefore accept crazed pieces into their collection though as a general rule, crazing isn’t a good thing.
How do you prevent blisters from glazes?
Avoid very heavy reduction followed by periods of oxidation. It is best to start reduction one or two cones higher than the bisque temperature, this period in the glaze kiln can oxidize any remaining potential ‘blister producing’ volatiles that the bisque did not take care of. Avoid flame impingement on the ware.
How do you fix pinholes in ceramics?
Increasing flux content to produce a more fluid melt often works well to combat pinholes and pits. Sometimes very small additions of ZnO, SrO, or Li2O can have a dramatic effect on glaze flow. Sourcing fluxes from frit or using a finer particle size material will improve the melt flow also.
What causes glaze to run?
The most common reason for glaze defects is either through underfiring or overfiring. Underfiring results in a dry, scratchy glaze surface. Pots that have been underfired can be fired again to a higher temperature, which may salvage the glaze. Overfiring results in glazes that begin to run.
