Ceramic Glazes Part 1 and 2

"Ceramic Glazes" - the Polish language version of the German two-volume handbook on ceramic glazes from 1985 (Volume 1) and 2012 (Volume 2). The book is a collection of information on glazes, raw materials for their creation, types of glazes, and additionally contains over 1,100 old (including historical) and newer recipes, as well as a large number of topics related to chemistry and physics. For several decades, this handbook has been the most detailed German-language publication on the market on the subject of glazes. It is a source of information primarily for advanced and inquisitive ceramists who explore the chemical aspects of this subject and prepare their own glazes.

The first part of the book consists of three extensive chapters, the first of which describes in detail such topics as: the properties of glass and crystals, ceramic raw materials, methods of preparing glazes, their properties at every stage of production, application, opacification, and coloring of glazes, glazing errors, as well as ceramic paints and mirrors, frits, oxides, pigments, and precious metals. It also includes information on the Seger formula, border patterns, and the history of glazes. The second chapter of the first volume is divided into individual glaze types, each with several or a dozen recipes (1156 in total). The third part contains tables and summaries, valuable for the ceramist, containing extensive and highly detailed information on chemical compounds, the composition and types of frits, oxides, ashes, raw materials, auxiliary substances, eutectic mixtures, cones, melting points, and so on.

The second part of the book was written in 2012 (first edition) as a supplement to the first volume. In it, the author explores in more depth certain specific glaze types (e.g., shino , raku , red copper glazes, matte white glazes, ash glazes, celadon glazes, and salt glazes).

Wolf Matthes – ceramist, ceramics engineer in a building ceramics production plant, for over 25 years a lecturer in ceramic technology, the creation of glazes and ceramic masses, research and control processes, and vessel design at the State School of Ceramics and Ceramic Technology in Höhr-Grenzhausen.

ISBN number: 978-83-958000-0-9

Number of pages: 631

From the author:

" I originally prepared this book for my own use, to gather all the essential information that's useful to have at hand when working with ceramic glazes. This manual is intended to be a guide for every practitioner, to facilitate comparisons, and above all, to be a collection of as much data as possible, which is usually scattered across numerous publications. If it provides a stimulus for a beginning ceramicist and a solid foundation for their own experiments, and helps someone experienced in this field organize and deepen their knowledge and solve certain problems related to working with glazes, then my efforts in preparing this book will have been worthwhile ."

" (…) The appearance of fired and solidified glaze is often the result of many processes and factors, some of which are not fully understood and most of which cannot be controlled. The examples and combinations of glazes I have presented should therefore not be treated as a definitive recipe, but rather as inspiration and a starting point for creating your own versions of glazes. The composition of the body and the temperature of the biscuit firing, the thickness of the applied glaze layer and the type of the body surface before glazing, the precise course of the firing curve (temperature increase and time), the type of atmosphere in the kiln, the properties of the molten glaze and the way it reacts with the body, the possible flow rate of vapors or evaporation of glaze components, the deposition of blooms or the precipitation of single or multiple crystalline phases during cooling, the time and sequence of crystallization processes – all of this, interacting with each other, determines the appearance of the solidified glaze layer. (…) Working with glazes will never be a boring task for a ceramist, and even Experienced individuals are constantly faced with surprising, even shocking, surprises. Extensive practice, the exchange of experiences, and intensive exploration of this topic help avoid frustration in this work. This is precisely what this book aims to do."