Customer Reviews

The Ceramic Glaze Handbook: Materials * Techniques * Formulas(A Lark Ceramics Book)

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2 star:		(1)
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When I ordered the book, there was no reader's reviews. All three reviews appeared the next day after I ordered the book. I would not have purchased it if I had read those reviews. However, when the book arrived, I checked it against the corrections [website] and found that all but one error have been corrected (foot note for middle picture on page 118). There is no indication that the book in my hands is a second printing.

This book is well illustrated and extremely well organized for easy comprehension. The pictures of the test tiles for major colorants laid out in a modified 2 x Y factorial design is extremely informative. The format of having one illustration by each formula is the most inspiring and useful way of presenting the formulae. Get this book and Hopper's the Ceramic Spectrum if you want to start formulating your own glazes.

This is a decent book, but...there are a number of errors in it. Be sure and get the corrections from the publisher at:

http://mercury.larkbooks.com/glaze/correct.pdf
http://mercury.larkbooks.com/glaze/index.pdf

Other than that, it is a good book on glaze materials, mixing, and application. Includes a variety of recipies for use at various cone temps.

Updated info...the second printing has corrected the errors that I mentioned above.

Our ceramics instructor and I (perennial student) found this book in a local library and our class loves it. We participate in a potter's guild situation, not an academic fine arts class, so the clear explanations in this book by Burleson help cut through the haze of what glazes are made of, how to take care of them, and how to experiment with them. We can't wait to get started.

The BEST book a beginner can get on glazing. Explains alot of the chemicals used in glazes and breaks it down for you (what they do etc). I would get this book before you get other glaze books.

As a potter, I really enjoy the complete line of books but out by Lark. They tend to be very easy to understand, and contain wonderful, inspiring photos of work by a wide variety of potters.

This book, however, is filled with errors. Not just typos, but actual errors. For example, three of the recipes losted in the back all have the same formula. There are places where the wrong chemical is listed (manganese instead of magnesium, for example).

Lark has posted a correction compendium on their web site, and the thing is 4 pages long!

As good as this book is for information, my advice would be to wait for a reprint which corrects the errors.

Upholding the tradition of great pictures, this Lark book introduces a great concept of including pictures with every glaze recipe featured. Included as a teaching aid are pictures of raw materials at various temperatures- great idea! However, this book is an *editing fiasco*. The publishers have issued pages of corrections that amount to one mistake every other page. Many mistakes have occurred in the amounts of glaze ingredients, the ingredients themselves, misspellings, and lack of hazardous materials warnings on half of the recipes. If you are new to glaze formulation, skip this book and wait for the reprint. If you still want to purchase this, make sure to contact Lark Press through their web site for corrections.

Very informative for beginner even. Well explained and pleasant to read. Like it very much.

I've been in pottery about 1 1/2 yrs and was ready to start learning about glazes - how they work, which ingredients have which function, how to make glazes, which work best for what purpose, etc. This book has it all.