Frited vs Felspathic Glaze
Several glaze companies will Frit their glazes. This is the act of melting the glaze into glass and grinding the glass back into a powder.
This is done for several reasons: to make manufacturing and production easier and more consistent. However, Potters have been using the natural flocculation of un-frited, or felspathic, materials for ten thousand years to ensure good quality and consistent results.
Frited materials need extra gums and suspension agents to ensure the glaze does not settle quickly and can be applied to the pottery in a way that is familiar. This leads to an artificial feel in application and inconsistent results when pottery is dipped in a fritted glaze.
Opulence Glaze is a felspathic glaze.
Over the course of 30 years, we have been making our glazes just like our ancestors did all those years ago. We have spent time perfecting the blending process to ensure a consistent result without having to compromise on the natural quality of our glaze materials.
This is not to say that we don’t add gums and suspension agents to our glazes, but we add to the natural flocculation of the glaze leading to consistent results that feel like you made the glaze yourself. As artists, we want to make a glaze that feels like we made it in our studio, not manufactured.
This is why Opulence Glaze has been and will always be manufactured to be the top-rated dipping glaze line with brushable options.
About the author:
By Joseph McDaniel
Glaze Tech for Mid-South Ceramics on The Clay Lady’s Campus