Glaze and materials 

Pumice has become a central component in my glaze experiments, and I plan to keep exploring it as a base material. Even with the limit of locally sourced and recycled materials, there is still a wide range of behaviours to test. having a process-driven approach gives me the direction in my practice.

Much of my glaze understanding has come from researching recipes on glazy.com, breaking down chemical makeup of ingredients, and how substitutes can be make using local resources. for example, pumice is made up of both silica and alumina providing both a glass former and a stabiliser in a base recipe, wollastonite (calcium silicate) can be used and a glass former and a flux, and local clays can provide different colourants and stability to a recipe.

These three ingredients i have familiarised myslef with and use as a base recipe for different colourants. When i come across a recipe that i like i also try to substitute using these ingredients where i can.

Pumice has become a central component in my glaze experiments, and I plan to keep exploring it as a base material. Even with the limit of locally sourced and recycled materials, there is still a wide range of behaviours to test. having a process-driven approach gives me a direction in my practice.

Much of my glaze understanding has come from researching recipes on glazy.com, breaking down chemical makeup of ingredients, and experimenting with how substitutes can be make using local resources. for example, pumice is made up of both silica and alumina, providing both a glass former and a stabiliser in a base recipe, wollastonite (calcium silicate) can be used as a glass former and a flux, and local clays can provide different colourants and stability to a recipe.

These are three ingredients i have familiarised myslef with and use as a base recipe for different colourants. When i come across a recipe that i like, i also try to substitute using these ingredients where i can.

When it comes to colourants, many oxides can be trickier to source within new zealand and i am yet to investigate rocks and other materials that can produce blues and vibrant greens. Intead i have been using a variety of different iron oxides and manganese both in clay and donated materials to create the glazes below.

i also experiment with layering these materials separately over a simple engobe to create different patterns and textures. in doing so it helps me learn more about the materials and how they interact with each other, adding to my knowledge for future recipes.