What Are Crystalline Glazes?
Crystalline glazes are specialty glazes that show visible and distinct crystal growth in the matrix of the fired glaze. Although most crystals are not this large, some can grow up to four or five inches across within the glaze matrix.Crystals in GlazesImage Courtesy of Mara Cammi Orsi Invisible crystals inhabit many if not most glazes. Many matte glaze textures and opaque glazes are the result of multitudes of micro-crystals, or crystals that are so small that they are invisible to the naked eye. The macro-crystalline glazes, or more commonly known simply as crystalline glazes, have crystals that grow large enough to see. The glaze on a fired pot is generally an amorphous super-cooled liquid. As the glaze is melted and cooled in the kiln, glass molecules bond together in random strings. Crystals occur if the glaze is fluid enough to allow molecules to move more and hot enough l
