Written By Ed Trost
Sometimes a glaze or firing does not produce the desired result - the colour is either too bland, the texture is not found, or there are too many errors. Pottery can be re-glazed and re-fired up to another 2 times. After the 3rdor 4th time, the pottery starts to become brittle and weak, but that’s because of the firing, not the glaze.
Following are 5 ways to prepare your glaze fired pottery to be re-glazed and re-fired.
Sand – You can sand a glazed piece but REMEMBER always wear a dust mask. You don’t have to sand all the glaze off. Just enough for the new glaze to adhere to the old glaze.
Heat – Heat up your piece with a heat gun, or microwave for 30 seconds, or even in the oven. Then apply your glaze.
Glue – Brush on glue, like Elmer’s glue - a PVA glue available at Officeworks or Bunnings. Let dry and then apply your glaze.
See AlsoUnderstanding Pottery GlazesStarch – Spray on starch, let dry and then apply your glaze.
Hair Spray – apply a coat of hair spray and let dry for at least an hour, then apply your glaze.
Note: Don’t apply too much hair spray, glue, or starch. It may do the opposite and prevent the glaze from sticking.
Applying ‘Touch Up’ Glaze
Did your pottery come out of the kiln with the glaze not covered the way you thought it should? Don’t worry, you can glaze again to touch up. But before you do that, look at the problem you have to determine the strategy required:
If little pores have formed in the glaze, means you have applied your glaze too thick, or you’ve fired the pottery for too short amount of time. Sand your pottery before re-glazing.
If you have crawling, means that your glaze was either too thin or wasn’t adhesive enough. Use heat, glue, starch or hairspray to add more glaze on top of the existing glaze.
If you have patchy glaze, means your glaze was applied too thin or you missed an area. Use heat, glue, starch or hairspray to add more glaze to the pottery.
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Courtesy www.potterycrafters.com
