Crystalline glaze

Description

A ceramic glaze that is cooled very slowly allowing crystals to form in the otherwise amorphous glass film. Under the right conditions, silicate zinc silicate and silicate calcium silicate form large crystals in the glaze surface. First developed at Sevrs in France in about 1850, the technique for producing crystalline glazes is complex and difficult to produce. These glazes are different than aventurine or devitrified glazes, which may also appear to contain crystals.

Synonyms and Related Terms

glaure cristallise (Fr.); vidrado cristalino (Port.)

Authority

• Ralph Mayer, Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Henry Hodges, Henry Hodges, Artifacts: An Introduction to Early Materials and Technology, Ronald P. Frye, Kingston, Canada, 1988

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000

• Website address 1, Website address 1 Comment: M.F. Eggleston, 'Crystalline glazes' at http://www.wirth-milyuns.com/mfe/crystal_1.html

• Website address 2 Comment: Jon Price, 'Crystalline Glazes' at http://www.jonpriceceramics.com/TheGlaze/the_glaze.htm