Useful Ceramic Glaze Test Tiles

Making a test tile.

Useful ceramic glaze test tiles.

Every potter wants to be certain that the products they are selling are safe and will stand up to the rigors of use in the kitchen. Test tile in 30 degree position. The word test tile can refer to any shape of clay that s used to test glazes slips underglazes engobes etc. Watercolor underglazes work best on bisque fired pieces since a great deal of water is needed to apply them.

In this video an excerpt from his dvd understanding glazes. Chances are you ll find one that makes sense with what you are making. Test tile in upright 60 degree position. Here are examples of the test tiles i use regularly.

Test tiles can be any shape you wish and can be made in a variety of ways. This provides a more direct transfer of information effort from the testing to. Captions on the images describe each step in the making process. In this post i ll share lots of different examples of ways you can make your own test tiles.

Otherwise if you re like me you forget very quickly. It allows you to test combinations of glazes easily and inexpensively and serves as a permanent reminder of what a glaze looked like on a certain clay. Once your ceramics have gone through their glaze firing they ll be vitrified and the process will be irreversible. But because there are so many variables involved in ceramic glazes clay body and glaze fit variability in chemical content temperature variability in kilns organic materials etc it can be challenging to know whether the food safe ceramic glaze recipe you.

On the test tile above you can see the difference one coat of clear glaze makes to the watercolor surface. Using this type of underglaze can achieve painterly effects. Test glazing can be a laborious but necessary process. All the test tiles made in the glaze gallery are made in the fashion pictured below.

I stamp the back of the tile with a code for the type of clay and there is ample space to write information about the test using an underglaze pencil. Given all the different ways different clays can react with different glazes it s important to know what you re getting. The colors blend seamlessly providing more dimension in pieces. The hole in the base allows the tile to be hung on a glaze bucket or on a display.

Glaze tests and test tiles there are many benefits to having test tiles for glazes. How to test tweak and perfect your glazes john britt shows several different ways to make test tiles. Some helpful hints make your test tiles using the same process you use to make your work with. Celadons on speckled stoneware.

And to improve your results it helps to have test tiles that mimic the kind of work you make. C 20 cobalt over sm 11 white at cone 6.