annieb123's Review of Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations

by Gabriel Kline

Get inspired and get glazing! Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations provides a captivating collection of sure-fire glaze recipes and electrifying combinations for low-fire, mid-range, and high-fire potters. Hundreds of photos and technically-edited recipes ensure you'll get the best possible results.

Whether you're searching for excitement at cone 6 or looking for the perfect high-fire shino recipe, you've come to the right place. Join Gabriel Kline, author of Amazing Glaze and founder of Odyssey Clayworks, for page after color-filled page of glazes. Start by learning the keys to success when applying glazes, then choose the temperature range you want to explore first. Gabriel's collection of well-tested recipes draw on his decades of experience as an instructor and leader of a communal arts studio—including current and past student favorites as well as a few timeless gems.

Of course he doesn't stop there! In addition to plentiful tiles showing off two-glaze combinations, Gabriel shares multi-glaze combinations developed through years of trial and error. From waterfall blues to eye-popping bursts of red, there's a rainbow of options. Just as in Amazing Glaze, the recipes have all been technically edited and each one has a photo. By controlling specific gravity and application, the goal is always getting the perfect coat of glaze recipe after recipe.

Special topics like majolica and raku firing provide welcome detours, and a variety of artist features serve as launching points for new explorations. Stunning galleries from today's top artists provide even more glazing ideas.

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations is a studio resource compendium with reproducible recipes for low-/mid-/ and high-fire pottery collected and curated by Gabriel Kline. Due out 31st Aug 2021 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook already available).

This is a well written and structured manual. The effects and glazes presented are gorgeous and colorful. The book's introduction includes a good overview over tools, supplies, ingredients, and safety. The following chapters group the recipes into mid range (cone 6), high fire (cone 10), and low fire (cone 5) glazes. Each section also provides a primer covering when and how to employ the glazes in specific situations along with good problem solving ideas, troubleshooting and tips for use. There are additional tutorials and recipes for specialty firing such as raku, salt & wood, and majolica. Each of the recipes includes general info on firing (cone), atmosphere, surface comments (matte, glossy, semi-gloss, other), ingredient composition (in %), and notes and tips specific to the glaze. Each of the recipes also has a color photograph showing the finished fired glaze by itself. There are also combination photos for glazes showing how they act and react with one another. Firing and finishing are covered in abbreviated form in the last chapter.

Scattered throughout are artist highlights with a gallery of each artist's work. The gallery photos are in color and are beautiful; full of inspiration and goal-worthy aspirations.

Five stars. This really is a classic reference work, full of beautiful glaze recipes, fully illustrated, with suggestions for use. The author has also included an abbreviated resource list with links to suppliers and a bibliography. The book is indexed, with glazes listed in all their appearances in the book, alone and in combination. This is quite useful for the artist, since it allows readers to see what the glazes look like under different applications (without blindly risking a beloved pot).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations

by Gabriel Kline

Reviewed by annieb123 on Aug 6, 2021

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