Mt Vision Granite: Inspiration
Becoming a potter requires developing a diverse set of skills over a long time period of time.
One skill, formulating one's own glazes using locally sourced materials is not commonly undertaken, though it is gaining in popularity. Presumably most potters do not attempt it because it's a lot of work, or they don't have the time or space, or they just don't realize they can do it.
This said, great satisfaction can be had from formulating a glaze using local resources because, after all, it will be beautiful and unique!
A glaze derived from local sources will be beautiful and unique!
As luck would have it, there is an abundance of granite readily available on the property, waiting to be used for glazes.
What's so special about granite you might ask?
As anyone who has spent any time in the Sierra Nevada mountains can appreciate, it is composed almost entirely of igneous granite. On a large scale, it appears as a vast and majestic continuum. On a small scale, it exhibits heterogeneity in its composition. It's beautiful. When moving to Inverness, even before establishing the ceramic workshop, I was delighted to know that I was going to be surrounded by Sierra Nevada granite and Bishop Pines.
All materials used in making a glaze ultimately come from minerals contained in rocks. If there were a rock type other than granite nearby that was suitable for glaze making, it would be attractive, but there is granite, which fortunately possesses key oxides in abundance that make it an excellent material candidate for a ceramic glaze.
Granite is an excellent material candidate for a ceramic glaze.
Formulating a glaze requires extensive experimentation, patience and knowledge. But the journey can be fun and rewarding and offers opportunity to deepen ones knowledge about glaze chemistry.
Formulating a glaze provides a rewarding opportunity to deepen ones knowledge about glaze chemistry!
An important activity associated with glaze formulation is documenting ones processes, tests and results. For this purpose, a set of Mt Vision Granite blog posts, grouped below, has been created, this article being the first in the series.
The first group is informative and provides background on place, geology and processing of the local granite. The second group records experimentation details.
Geology, Chemistry, Identification and Processing of the Granite
- Mt Vision Granite: Geological Setting
- Mt Vision Granite: Chemical Composition and Identification of Local Samples
- Mt Vision Granite: Processing
Granite Glaze Experiments
