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10 tried & true

low fire glaze recipes

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recipe cards for our

favorite low fire pottery glazes

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 Contents

Good news for those of you who use earthenware and low-fire glazes in your studio! We’ve
gathered some of our favorite earthenware glaze recipes in a convenient recipe-card format,
perfect for printing and taking to the pottery studio. If you are interested in building a collec-
tion of beautiful low-fire ceramic glazes, or adding variety to the one you already have, you’ve
found the perfect resource. If you’ve been looking for a new low fire glaze recipe to use as
a base glaze for functional work or for some different surfaces in the low fire temperature
range, here’s a great assortment of low fire glazes to start with, from textured to matt, and
from majolica to glossy transparent glazes. If you already have a repertoire of glazes and
want to mix it up a bit, try out a few of these. Adding different colorants to the glaze bases
extends the possibilities for new discoveries even further.

And remember, as with all things ceramic: results may vary! Use the various images here as
a guide to the surfaces you’ll get, but be sure to always start out with small batches and have
fun testing and tweaking! Now get out there and mix up some new pottery glazes!

10 Tried & True Low Fire Glaze Recipes

Linda Arbuckle’s Majolica Glaze Recipe
Cone 04 oxidation

Matt Glaze
Cone 06-04 oxidation

Majolica Overglaze
Cone 06-04 oxidation "
Crater Underglaze
Cone 08-04 oxidation

Top Crater Glaze

Cone 08-04 oxidation

White Crackle Glaze

Cone 06 oxidation

Red Green Glaze

Cone 06 oxidation

Hirsh Satin Matt Base

Cone 04-02 oxidation

Kari’s Best Transparent

Cone 04-02 oxidation

HK Dry Lithium Base 1

Cone 010

Bonus glaze:
MNO Lichen Glaze
Cone 06 oxidation

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Linda Arbuckle’s
Majolica Glaze
(Cone 04)
Frit 3124 (Ferro). . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.72 %
Kona F-4 Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . 17.23
Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.24
Edgar Plastic Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . 10.81
100.00 %

Add: Tin Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 %

Zircopax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 %
Bentonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00 %

From Steve Davis-Rosenbaum,

Ceramics Monthly, January 1998.
This recipe is for the stiff base glaze,
over which stains are applied.

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"

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Matt Glaze Majolica Overglaze

(Cone 06) (Cone 06–04)
Gerstley Borate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 % Frit 3124 (Ferro). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 %
Lithium Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Wollastonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Glaze Stain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Grolleg Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 100 %
Flint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Can be used over a similarly colored Matt
100 %
Glaze (above) to intensify the color while
Add 15% glaze stain for bright pinks and retaining the matt surface.
reds; for other bright colors, add 10% glaze
stain. Greens require low chrome stains, or From Sandra Luehrsen,
bubbling may occur. To get opaque pastels, Ceramics Monthly, June 2002.
add 0.5%–2% glaze stain and 8–9.5%
Zircopax to total 10%.
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Crater Underglaze Top Crater Glaze

(Cone 08–04) (Cone 08–04)
Borax (powder) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 % Frit 3134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.1 %
Talc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 EPK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1
Frit 3269 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Silica (Flint). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.8
EPK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 100.0 %
Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4). . . . . . . . . . 15
Add: Silicon Carbide (100 mesh). . . . . . . 1 %
Silica (Flint). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
100 % From James Haggerty,
Ceramics Monthly, November 2005.
Add: Silicon Carbide (100 mesh). . . . . . 2 %

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"

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White Crackle Glaze Red Green Glaze

(Cone 06) (Cone 06)
Frit 3134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 % Frit 3134 (Ferro). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.0 %
Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Custer Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.0
100 % 100.0 %

Add: Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . 3.2 %

From Ramon Camarillo,

Ceramics Monthly, April 2002.
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Hirsh Satin Matt Base

(Cone 04–02)
Gerstley Borate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 %
Lithium Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Whiting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
EPK Kaolin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Silica (Flint). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
100 %
Add: Bentonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 %

Green:
Chrome Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 %
Yellow:
Yellow Stain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 %
Light Blue:
Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 %

From Joe Pintz,

Ceramics Monthly.

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Kari’s Best Transparent

(Cone 04–02)
Gerstley Borate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.0 % Blue
Talc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.0 Cobalt Carbonate . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 %
Frit 626 (Pemco). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.0 Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . 2.0 %
Frit 3124 (Ferro). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.0
Spodumene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.0 Grape
EPK Kaolin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.0 Manganese Dioxide. . . . . . . . . . 7.0 %
100 % Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . 0.5 %

Add: Wollastonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0 %

Emerald Green
Veegum T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0 %
Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . 6.0 %
CMC Gum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.4 %

From Kari Radasch,

Celadon
Pottery Making Illustrated, May/June 2004.
Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 %
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HK Dry Lithium Base 1 Woody Brown:

Black Copper Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 %
(Cone 010) Black Iron Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 %
Lithium Carbonate . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.55 % Chrome Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.50 %
Bentonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.06
Tile 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.31 Manganese Dioxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 %
Silica/Flint (Vansil W-20) . . . . . . . . 54.08 Red Iron Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 %
100.00
Bronze:
Salmon Pink: Manganese Dioxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00 %
Manganese Dioxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 % Copper Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 %
Chrome Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 %
Burnt Salmon Red:
Black Copper Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.50 % These dry lithium glazes are applied to earth-
Manganese Dioxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 % enware and fired up to cone 04. To retain
application texture and dry surface quality,
Granite Gray: fire only to cone 010. Multiple firings may be
Nickel Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 % necessary for color intensity and depth. Shiver-
ing may occur if the glaze firing is prolonged.
Oyster Shell White: The recommended firing schedule is to turn
up the kiln (electric) one third every two hours,

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Black Iron Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 %
Vanadium Stain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00 % so that the kiln is on high in four hours.

Limestone Green: From Exploring Electric Kiln Techniques, Pub-

Black Copper Oxide. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 % lished by the American Ceramic Society, “A
Rutile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.50 % Personal Aesthetic”, by Howard Koerth, p. 50.

"

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MNO Lichen
(Cone 06)
Borax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.7 %
Lithium Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3
Magnesium Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . . 39.2
Frit 3134 (Ferro). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1
Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.7
100.0 %

Add: Copper Carbonate. . . . . . . . . . 5.2 %

Bentonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 %

From Darren Emenau,

Ceramics Monthly, March 2007.
This recipe was inspired by low-fire recipes by Lana Wilson. It
can be brushed on in various thicknesses. Some of the glaze
can flake off during firings. After firing, scrape or sand blast the
surface to remove any loose glaze. You can rub beeswax into
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some areas and then torch it to remove most of the wax. Forms
often look best if fired multiple times. A nepheline syenite wash
will prevent flaking during firings. If your clay contains a high
percentage of iron oxide and salt crystals, these act as strong
fluxes and will prevent some flaking as well.

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