If Sèvres found of chromium oxide was used to create 76 references of corresponding pigments for glazes I don’t believe this was done at random.
According to Richard Slade (1996) every practicing ceramic artist will face difficulties when dealing with the accessibility of glaze color tones, and in his article, in the conference publication Networks in Ceramics, he shows us a picture of glazes achieved with the triaxial blend.
According to Richard Slade (1996) every practicing ceramic artist will face difficulties when dealing with the accessibility of glaze color tones, and in his article, in the conference publication Networks in Ceramics, he shows us a picture of glazes achieved with the triaxial blend.
Canadian blog en français Le Blog Céramique (Groupe de recherche sur les matériaux céramique de la Maison des métiers d’art de Québec) shares their collection of charts to reach glaze color tones, méthodes 50/50, triaxial, quadraxiale and line blend.
Lindsay Scypta has used this systematic chart of 50/50 when discovering her glazes to her studio practice and in her teaching, however, nobody ever before her got that the glaze colors can be found from inspirational color reference material. I started to use that immediately after her, channeling the wanted hues.
When reaching glaze colors, it’s beneficial to use both color metal oxides and pigments/stains to create the 50/50 selection of systematic chart of starter glazes. I have been benefited by the charts in my personal studio practice, when my goal has been to achieve precise selection of glaze color tones, since base glaze toning with both pigments/stains and color metal oxides will reach quickly several color options. (You can actually skip the base glaze from 50/50, but study the intensity with the linear blend. Or of course the blendage of two colors of your choice.)
It’s notable how the charts can be used side by side: 50/50 chart will bring new coloured starter glazes, and you can pick three, and join them into a triaxial blend, where colorants can possibly be both pigments/stains and color metal oxides. Then, by using triaxial blend chart, you can reach a scale of glazes where the amount of colorants will reach maximum of 6 different colouring agents, following chart’s strict systematic nature and the percentage/amounts of different colourants. For more, you can try even quadraxial (AB 50%/CD 50%), when you’ll reach maximum of 8 colourants. My love affair with iron oxide brings beautiful iron specles in the stain dyed glazes, especially with the hues of blues. And it would not matter if the starter glazes contain similar color agents, systemacy will work for you. (AD, CD)
The milliliter specific, systematic glaze color therapy is, with it’s work load, a labourful process at the glaze lab. As an addition to, and to side of, the happier shiny glossy glazes, you may want to choose an textured glaze to make it more interesting to work at the lab. Make tiny tiney test tiles for your archive and make sure to include as many colourants as possible, vaster in miniature.
It will need days at the lab, but when done well in the beginning, it will be an infinite updateable glaze archive, the existing base glaze (litre by volume) and archived test tiles (50/50) will benefit the research work done at the studio also in the future. The charts will be an ever expandable glaze tile archive/palette when the recipe of the base glaze will stay the same and the colourants are the only variation, triaxial being the chart of addition.
With the systematic nature of the charts, it’s more simple to reach several glaze color tones at once, comparing this to randomly laid material tests, and the haphazard percentages of the colourants. A test tile gives more information as a part of the chart already. From the main points of R. Slade’s quote, on the archievability of the glazes, the glaze charts will bring the solution of the glaze color tones also for the documentation, because of their strict systematic nature, archieve is forever in order.