When I was in school, I was a cone 10 girl. It’s traditional, it’s durable, there are oodles and oodles of reliable glazes. The colors are rich, but they’re muted and subtle. Cone 10 glazes are quiet glazes. Understated.
When I went out on my own, the studio that I joined only had electric kilns so I had to learn to use mid-range glazes, and fast. The “triple constraint” of fast-cheap-good says that you can choose two of the three; I chose fast and good - commercial glazes (fast), for reliable and frankly stunning (good) outcomes.
They’re really not cheap. They’re expensive to source and they are super time-consuming to apply.
Still, they’re really appealing to the hand-made pottery consumer.
Particularly blue. “Buy Me” blue. “Cash” blue. Blue is the “Color of Money”. Blue sells.
The special power of mid-range glazes is COLOR. Lots of rich, saturated, appealing colors. Reds and purples and greens - and of course a wide palette of blues. Many potters convert to mid-range glazes just for the color. And of course, the colors are popular with consumers. I started mixing my own mid-range dipping glazes last year, but the results weren’t outstanding, so I kept to the “fast” path. But that’s had it’s own challenges.
I haven’t had much blue pottery available for sale this year due to supply shortages. And there really is no end in sight.
So I picked up the Amazing Glaze books, and now am getting excited about mixing my own glazes again.
Mixing one’s own glazes has a lot of benefits, not the least of which is lower costs both in terms of materials, but also in the time it takes to apply glaze. But there’s time invested in testing and tweaking, and to be honest right now it’s important to produce.
I hope that I can find space to diverge from this “fast” path, because once I get over the hump, I think that it will improve my pottery life. It will be valuable to add “hand-made glazes” to my sales pitch.
The current challenge is deciding which glazes to start with.
Aurora Borealis noodle bowl