Post 20 Cone 6 Glazes

As I continue to put myself through glaze school it feels more like I'm taking one step forward and ending up two back. Without doubt with each new small understanding you also see just how much further away is the destination. Fortunately in this day and age we can all buy vast amounts of knowledge and experience of anything.
If cone 6 glazes are going to be a point of focus then it was time to invest in Hasselberth and Roy's book. Trial and error just wasn't going to cut it.

This is not a light weight glossy read. It's a pretty technical manual. I've talked about the issue of formulating glazes from ingredients which may have a different chemical basis in different locations. A recipe isn't repeatable unless the molecular composition is repeated. Now John Hesselberth is a retired Chemical Engineer so I'd say he know's what he's talking about. It is very clear after reading the book that blind recipe tryouts have a very low prospect of success and the only way to get close is to understand the composition of the ingredients available to you and then to work out an answer using the Seger glaze analysis conventions. I had a feeling when I set off on this path of formulating my own glazes that it was going to get harder before it got easier. For anyone setting off on the same path, aiming to get a particular result, I'd say you really need to get your head around Seger and the basic chemistry.