Pottery Making: How Does Glaze Firing Work?

Pottery Making: How Does Glaze Firing Work? - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. In the glaze firing we will finish the transformation of soft clay back into stone because, you know, clay comes from stone originally. And so, here we have the pot with the glaze on it. The glaze layer is now dry enough to touch and we can do some more decorating by adding color on top of the unfired glaze layer. This decorating can be anything you imagine. It can be quite simple: a few stripes with a few colors, or more elaborate, you know, with some flowers and many colors. It is all up to you. You can use a brush, you can use a sponge, you can even use your fingers to apply the colors to the glaze. After you carefully wash the glaze off the footring, you can load your pots into the kiln and close the lid, turn on the heat. Generally the glaze firing is a hotter temperature than the bisque firing. And in that hotter temperature, all of the materials will be transformed from this matte, dusty surface into a shiny, colorful, and really quite usable surface for the pots that you make to take home and enjoy.