Ceramic Glaze Color Run
These diagrams visualize a color run to test out various colorants in a base glaze.
A set of 112 test tiles were systematically glazed to show a range of color effects. The test tiles were fired in three batches: all 112 were bisque fired to ^04, all 112 were glaze fired a second time to ^6, and half of the tiles were fired a third time at ^04 for the addition of decals. The resulting tiles are a useful reference in my ceramic studio when choosing glaze colors, and show the range of color changes that can occur in the same glaze recipe between the glaze firing and the decal firing.
Dealing with 112 ceramic tiles can be cumbersome. They are fragile and heavy, and they get mixed up easily. To make this information more accessible for myself, I photographed all 112 tiles and designed a pair of posters that coordinates the glaze recipe information with the resulting color swatches. Posters 1 and 2 are essentially poster-size recipe cards for my glazes.
Posters 3–12 are studies in rearranging the tile swatches – paying increasingly less attention to the functionality and legibility of the recipes, and more attention to form, color, and pattern. In posters 11 and 12, the paper surface is folded in response to the two-dimensional grid, moving into three dimensions.
The overall series of posters moves from obvious to abstract, from flat to three-dimensional, from functional to formal. They allow for both useful reference and visual appreciation of my glaze test tiles.
