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Colouring oxides and their raw minerals

copper oxide glazes and chrysocolla

Colouring oxides are added to glazes to produce colour. They dissolve in the glaze to produce transparent glazes with more depth than those made using commercial stains. I prefer to add only small amounts of colouring oxides to give pale, watery transparent glazes.

 

Copper oxide and chrysocolla (copper silicate mineral)
Cobalt oxide and skutterudite (cobalt arsenide)
Iron oxide and haematite.
Chromium oxide and chrome diopside (silicate pyroxene mineral)
Rutile in pink and yellow glazes and rutile crystals.
Monazite sand containing the rare earth oxides neodymium, praseodymium and erbium.
Nickel oxide and annabergite (nickel arsenate mineral). Pot by Avril Farley.
Vanadium pentoxide and vanadinite (lead vanadate chloride crystals)
Manganese dioxide and rhodonite (manganese silicate mineral)

The glaze recipes are in my book The Handbook of Glaze Recipes. The book shows how to make a wide range of subtly coloured glazes predominantly using the colouring oxide rather than commercial stains.

My next book Science for Potters is coming out later this year.