Understanding Glazes

In French: January 12th to February 2d, 2027, 6pm-9pm (4 Tuesdays).

In English: April 20th to May 11th, 2027, 6pm-9pm (4 Tuesdays)

Creating your own glazes has many advantages: originality and uniqueness of creation, control over the result, reduction of costs, etc. This 4-session course aims to give you important tools in your first approach to glaze creation. This universe is immensely vast and intimidating for the uninitiated as we talk about chemistry… yet with certain simple landmarks, it is possible to begin its exploration and avoid several errors or fruitless trials.

Unlike our other courses, this series is highly theoretical. To your pencils and notebook! You will also experiment with making samples as well as a glaze with some modifications.

In this course you will discover:
- The essential components of a glaze.
- Some basic instructions for playing with the components of a glaze to modify a recipe according to your needs.
- How to choose the sample model to make your tests.
- The different stages of making a glaze.
- What the Stull chart is and how to use it according to your needs.
- How to use the Glazy platform to do your research but also to create/modify your recipes.
- How to identify a true matte glaze from an underfired glaze by looking at its ingredients.
- How to target a stable and durable glaze recipe (food safe) versus a decorative piece glaze.
- What specific gravity and viscosity are and how to play with these parameters according to your needs.

This course is for those who are advancing in their pottery journey and would like to leave behind commercial glazes to create their own glazes. It will also benefit those who are blindly navigating the creation of glazes, encountering unsatisfactory results without having any clues for a solution. This course does not cover the creation of more advanced level glazes with specific effects such as crystalline glazes.

Maximum of 8 students per group. 

Teacher: Véronique Caron-Bossé

Classes are given at 95 chemin Colbert, Wakefield (Edelweiss), Québec.