Lili Krakowski on sun 3 dec 06
Beth asks: Is there an ultimate book on studio glazes, oxides, frits,
firings with
>electric, gas, wood, pit firings, raku - >I have an electric kiln and use
>ready-made glazes ( which gets expensive) and
>feel I am ready to take a step into the world of chemicals and heat
>reactions, but I don't want to blow up my kiln nor house. I search through
masses of pottery books and end up getting confused.
Well, Beth, it's like this.
There is no ultimate book, because it would be over ten million pages of
very small print.
Donna is right. You need, and it should be your first book, Monona Rossol's
THE ARTIST'S COMPLETE HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDE. You want the latest edition,
which is. I think the second. And the place "we" buy our new pottery books
is The Potters Shop. in Needham Ma., 782-449-7687, PottersShop@AOL.COM.
Harry Fraser's GLAZES FOR THE CRAFT POTTER, and CERAMIC FAULTS AND THEIR
REMEDIES are excellent basic books. The first discusses materials in
detail, and is very good about what materials do, how they work, and so on.
Ceramics Monthly's GLAZES: MATERIALS, RECIPES AND TECHNIQUES is a valuable
compendium, that covers different techniques, firing temps and so on. Lots
of recipes as well.
[Qualifier: there are some articles in it by me]
I find Emmanuel Cooper's ELECTRIC KILN POTTERY: the Complete Guide an
invaluable book. It is for electric firers, as the title says, but
much of the information is generally useful. Cooper's THE COMPLETE POTTER,
GLAZES also is a wonderful book.
If you are serious about electric firing at c. 6 the two books you want are
MASTERING C. 6 GLAZES by Hesselberth and Roy, which Donna recommended, and
Michael Bailey's GLAZES C.6.
Then of course there are many books, about which I know nothing which cover
raku
woodfire, single fire, porcelain and so on. There The Potters Shop will help
you.
And remember the public library can and will get you books...you do NOT need
to own every single one...though that is nice.
Once you ahve seriously studied the basic books such as Fraser's and
Cooper's you will have a better idea of what is involved in glaze, and you
will be less confused.
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
Graham Mercer on mon 4 dec 06
For an excellent introduction to the basics and background of glazes it
would be hard to go passed Ian Currie's book 'Stoneware Glazes - A
Systematic Approach'.(ISBN 0 9589275 3 7)
This book is available through Steven Branfman at the Potters Shop in the
USA (http://thepottersshop.blogspot.com/) as well as through many outlets
around the world, including Ian Currie's website at http://ian.currie.to
where there is a wealth of other information and glaze calculation
assistance available.
Hope that helps.
Graham
Melbourne, Australia
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