MoonCrater White Glaze

I generally maintain 2-3 white glazes for my work in the studio at any given time. I have a dependable white liner that I use mostly on rims and interiors of domestic ware. I usually like trying out experimental white glazes for future works, and then there's my MoonCrater White.

This is the recipe for the MoonCrater White cone 6 oxidation glaze that I use in my electric kiln. It's a fairly standard white satin matte glaze that I ran across in a February 2003 Ceramic Monthly. The only change I've made was switching out Tin Oxide for Zircopax as a opacifier to give me a softer white.

Gerstle Borate 31.6%

Talc 14%

Kona F-4 Feldspar 19.8%

EPK 5%

Silica 29.6%

Add:

Tin Oxide 5%

Bentonite 2%

By nearly all accounts, this is a bland unpredictable glaze that I should have stopped mixing up 2 years ago, but... well, I like it.

It's faults are what makes this glaze so interesting . When it's overfired on a cone 5 clay body, the glaze develops a rich creamy semi-translucent white satin matte that's inclined to develop patches of wonderfully textured orange peel effects that often transition into shallow open soft edged craters. This is a pleasantly usable texture glaze.

The main reason this glaze is still made is that it's mixed proportionally with a Nutmeg glaze to create an all purpose wonderfully warm earthtoned glaze that's a customer favorite. In house, I refer to this mix as a NutWhite glaze.

The personal reason I still mix this glaze up is because I love what happens when I use it over paper stencil cobalt slipped designs on a red stoneware clay body.

While I'm still never really sure how this glaze will come out of kiln, I love and live for the anticipation of creating works for this glaze. It's a glaze that provides me some of the highs and lows that make studio life so rewarding.