Post #40106 by Saint-Thomas on Thu, Jun 19, 2003 8:19 PM

Kokomo-
Not trying to be an ass here, but I want to clear up the crazing issue. I have mugs I made yesterday that are crazed all to hell. During my last visit to the Freer gallery in D.C. I viewed some Korean pottery which was 700 years old which showed no crazing.

The point is that it is the ratio of clay expansion vs. the ratio of glaze expansion determines crazing. there is a point at which the glaze will almost be under compression and appear to be fine, but crazing will appear over time. This could take days or years.

the only way to solve this is by understanding and adjusting the base formulae. I, for one, think crazing is attractive and am not too worried about the so-called tendency to be a breeding ground for bacteria. However, crazing is not an accurate guage of a piece's age. In fact, older pieces probably won't craze because of the lead content. The ceramics industry has been scratching their heads for decades about how to eliminate crazing without the use of lead.

Nice looking mug!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1164&forum=5

[ Edited by: Saint-Thomas on 2003-06-19 20:31 ]