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Glazing pottery can be daunting, and for good reason--it's chemistry, and the deeper you get into glazing, the more complex it becomes. But don't let that stop you from experimenting with making your own glazes! It can actually be very simple, easy, and affordable to mix your own glazes. In this video, I show you several variations on a super easy raku glaze--it's a Paul Soldner recipe.


Clear/Transparent Raku glaze:
Gerstley Borate 80
Custer Feldspar 20
+ Gerstley Borate 1
+ EPK (Kaolin) 1


To which you can add:
*2.5-5 parts Copper Carbonate [turquoise in oxidation; opalescent/copper penny when heavily reduced in pine needles (the material used for reduction does matter, so experiment!); red/pink when reduced lightly in kiln]
*5 parts Manganese Dioxide [brown to black; the darkness of the brown varies with thickness of glaze application]


And, though I don't mention it in this video, some other common colorants and their resulting colors are:
-Tin Oxide [White] (5 parts)
-Cobalt Carbonate [Blue] (0.5 parts; Cobalt is a very strong colorant)
-and so many more...



Mixing different colorants into the same glaze produces yet more variety. You can look up all sorts of glaze recipes on glazy.org. I recommend using recipes as a starting point, as a sort of proof of concept, and then tweaking things to see what happens. It's a great way to learn from a hands-on approach, and you never know what kind of beauty will result from some happy accident. Making your own glazes allows you to find an aesthetic that really speaks to you personally.