Which should you use: glaze or underglaze? Cheryl Hann-Woodlock explains the differences between glaze and underglaze giving helpful hints about why each is useful.
This was great. You make the point about color movement, that I have not seen anywhere else. Another important distinction is that glaze tends to seal the surface and be food safe, while under-glaze is not food safe unless you coat it with clear GLAZE. FROM an engineer's point of view, in my opinion, we should call underglaze "ceramic paint", and glaze "powered glass." That thought might help some others.
Hi and thank you for your feedback. Good point about underglaze not protecting the clay body. however would like to mention that porcelain fired to vitrification will be food safe!! Lovely to see people are watching Cheers and happy potting
Thank you SO MUCH for your explanation! The way that you talked about the differences and using those examples let me really understand the differences between them!!
It does depend on the artist and the fragility of the pieces. I have been known to apply underglaze on work BEFORE bisque firing so that there are less firings reducing the cost of making,,,but with very fragile pieces, I apply underglaze AFTER bisque. There is not right or wrong way, but what works for the pieces you are making.GLAZES are generally applied after bisque firing, but I know an artist here in Victoria who applies glaze to green ware and only does the one firing,,a glaze firing.
