lors by Linda Bloomfield

The first instance of a green glaze was by the Egyptians around 4000
BCE. They mixed sand with natron, a naturally occurring mixture of
soluble sodium salts, which formed a substance called Egyptian paste.
As the paste dried, the salts migrated to the surface. Upon firing, the
salts melted to form a glaze. Copper oxide was thefirstcolorant added,
and it produced a brilliant turquoise, now called Egyptian faience.
The Egyptians were followed by Mesopotamian potters who
molded bricks glazed with a bright copper alkaline glaze to decorate
friezes in Babylon during the first millennium BCE. These green
alkaline glazes were shortly replaced by lead glazes appearing in
China and in the eastern Roman Empire. Lead glazes were less li-
able to craze and disintegrate than alkaline glazes and they spread
to the Middle East and Europe.
In China, multi-chambered wood kilns were used to fire pots
to a higher temperature. The Chinese potters noticed that the
wood ash settled on the pots and melted to form a glassy deposit.
They combined the wood ash with clay and limestone to make
a runny green ash glaze. During the Tang dynasty, the southern
Yueh potters added China stone, a feldspar that melted to form
green celadon glazes resembling jade. Song dynasty (960—1279 CE)
potters developed many beautiful glazes for the newly discovered
porcelain including the thick, unctuous Lung Chuan celadons.

Above: Lucy Burley's Apple, Olive, Pistachio, Jade, and Cornflower Bottles, thrown earthenware,
sprayed matte glazes with oxides and stains, fired to 1940°F (1060°C). Photo: Lucy Burley,

www.ceramicsmonthlyorg february 2012 55

 In Renaissance Italy, majolica ware was highly decorated using
many colors including green. The earthenware was glazed with
an opaque white tin glaze, then painted using cobalt, copper, and
iron oxides.
In the late 18th century in Sèvres, France, chromium oxide
was used to make variations of yellow and green glazes, while in
Bristol, England, zinc oxide was used as a flux to replaee poisonous
lead oxide in glazes. Zine oxide enhanees eolors like eopper, but
destroys other eolors sueh as ehrome green or ehrome-tin pink,
whieh turn brown.
Green and Turquoise Glazes
Today of course we still use eopper oxide to make green glazes. We
now are more acutely aware that the color is affected by the kiln
atmosphere and the flux used in the glaze. In reduction, copper
reds can be achieved in alkaline glazes containing tin oxide. Cop-
per is volatile, oecasionally causing pink flashing on surrounding
pots. In oxidation, alkaline glazes with low alumina will give bright
turquoise glazes with copper. Other oxides can be added to change
the color: iron for yellow-green, nickel for olive green, or ilmenite
for blue-green. Turquoise ean also be obtained using vanadium
zireon stains, whieh are opaque.
Chromium oxide gives a reliable green, unaffeeted by kiln
atmosphere, although it is volatile at high temperatures. Cobalt
and ehrome combine to make teal blue-greens. In alkaline glazes,
a bright chartreuse green may be obtained using a small amount
(0.2%) of chromium oxide. Zinc should be avoided in chrome
glazes, as it turns the chromium brown. Cobalt and titanium or
rutile can produce a pale green in high-alumina glazes and slips.
Nickel and titanium will give green in magnesium matte and zinc
crystalline glazes.
Ash glazes are often green, when fired in reducing conditions,
the color coming from iron oxide present in the ash. Ash from
different trees contains varying proportions of minerals, which
result in a range of colors in the glaze, from olive to apple green.
Iron oxide is also used in celadon glazes, which ate gray-green,
or blue if there is no titanium present in the glaze or clay body.
Low alumina and the addition of boron or barium carbonate also
promote blue celadon colors.
Oxides
Copper oxide (CuO) and carbonate (CUCO3) are used to give
green in oxidation and oxblood red in reduction. Copper oxide
is volatile, and will cause a pink blush on surrounding pots in
reduction. In alkaline glazes with low alumina, a bright turquoise
may be obtained in oxidation from 1—2% eopper oxide. If a glaze
becomes oversaturated with copper oxide (more than 5%), it turns
a matte, metallic black.
56 february 2012 www.ceramicsnnonthly.org
Chromium oxide (Cr2O3) also known as ehrome oxide, gives a
reliable green and is used, together with varying amounts of cobalt,
in commercial green stains. Chromium oxide is not very soluble in
glazes, except in high alkaline glazes, where it turns bright yellow-
green. In the presence of tin oxide in calcium glazes, chromium
turns pink. Only a very small amount of chromium is needed for
this (0.1-0.5% with 5% tin). In glazes containing zine, chromium
forms brown zinc chromate. Chromium oxide is refractory and
toxic. It is volatile at high temperatures.
Stains
Stains are made by fritting eoloring oxides together with siliea,
alumina, and opacifiers in a kiln. They are heated, then cooled and
ground to a powder, which can be dispersed in a glaze and remain
suspended in the glaze during firing. Some stains have the spinel
structure and are very stable and highly refractory, so they do not
dissolve in the glaze. Spinel (MgAl2O4) is a mineral with a cubic,
close-packed crystal structure in which the atoms are packed as
densely as possible. The magnesium and aluminium can be replaced
by cobalt, zinc, iron, or chromium to make colored spinels—cobalt
zinc alumina chromite is a blue-green spinel. This color also can be
obtained by adding the same oxides directly to a suitable base glaze.
Other stains are based on the zireon (ZrSiO4) strueture, with
some ofthe zireonium replaeed by eoloring oxides. These inelude a
vanadium turquoise stain, among others. The oxides in these stains
need to be heated together to produee the stain before adding to a
glaze (often termed zirconium inclusion pigments). Stains based
on the same system are compatible and can be blended together
to produce secondary colors; for example turquoise and yellow
combine to make green.
Chrome and tin are combined with calcium and silica to
make a chrome-tin pink stain widely used in glazes, although
this is not as stable as zircon-based stains. Commercial stains are
often stabilized with opacifiers such as tin or zireonium, and are
refraetory. They opacify glazes and increase viscosity, so glazes
sometime appear under-fired. If this occurs, the silica content in
the glaze can be reduced. It is not necessary for studio potters to
use stains to make greens, as they ean easily be obtained using
eobalt, eopper, and ehromium, whieh dissolve in the glaze, giving
transpareney and depth. However, stains have some advantages
over oxides, ineluding stability and consisteney, but they often
look flat and opaque.
See supporting recipes on pages 57—59.
Excerpted and adapted ftom Colour in Glazes by Linda Bloom-
field. Co-published by A&C Black, London, England and The
American Ceramic Society, Westerville, Ohio. To order, go to
www. ceramicartsdaily. org/bookstore.
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