On-line Glaze Course for Studio Potters & Ceramic Artists

Learn how glazes work and how to control your glazes with Lawrence Ewing author of Matrix Glaze Software

A course for international potters and ceramic artists residing outside New Zealand.

There is no deadline for joining the course. It is a self-paced program that you can start at any time.

Your rate of progress through the course is up to you.

Matrix Glaze Technology Course Consists of 30 Lessons

It is designed to provide a basic understanding of ceramic glaze fundamentals for studio potters approaching the subject from an analytical point of view focusing on the chemistry of glaze.

There are 30 lessons each of which delivers on-line content and activities that potters or ceramic artists can complete in their own workshops or studios in their own time.

Matrix V6

If you own Matrix V6 you can enrol in the Glaze Technology course now.

The cost of the course is US$ 52.00

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Select Course Introduction Course Overview Course Lessons Email for Information Matrix Website

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Join at Any Time

There is no deadline for joining the course. You can enrol at any time.

The course is a self-paced program. You can progress through it at your own speed taking as long as you like.

As you complete each lesson another becomes available to you until you have reached the conclusion of the course.

Matrix V6

If you would like to know more about Matrix Glaze Software click here.

If you do not own Matrix V6 and would like to enrol in the Glaze Technology course then click here to go to the Matrix V6 purchase page.

If you need more information or would like to contact the course author and tutor - Lawrence Ewing lawrenceewing8@gmail.com

The course assumes at the beginning that you know nothing about the creation of glazes using raw materials. It also assumes that you have very little if any knowledge of chemistry.

By the end of the course:

• you will be capable of working with the basic chemistry of glazes.
• you will have a basic knowledge of glaze raw materials and the transformations that occur when those materials are heated in a pottery kiln.
• you will be capable of using the glaze computer programme Matrix to manipulate and control glazes.
• you will have been introduced to techniques and strategies for solving many of the fundamental problems which professional and amateur potters and ceramic artists face in working with glazes

Note: The course does not undertake to provide a collection of proven successful glazes for any given temperature. Glazes given in this course are designed to provide examples for investigating and practising manipulation and testing techniques.

Click here for more detail about the course content and the schedule of lessons..

GlazeTeach is an html package designed to introduce basic principles of glaze theory. It comes FREE as part of the Matrix software installation.

The Matrix Glaze Technology course being offered here is much more extensive than GlazeTeach. GlazeTeach is used in the technology course as a backup and revision medium for the main course.

If you are a Matrix owner you may have found GlazeTeach useful in which case you will be ready for the more extensive information and techniques offered in the glaze technology course.

This depends on the time you have available and your commitment to the course. You may easily complete one lesson per week if you can devote a few hours to the work and have the necessary equipment to fire glaze tests on a reasonably regular basis.

This course is perfect for those who need to progress at their own pace. There is no requirement to complete the course in any given time.

The cost of the full 30 tutored lessons is as follows:

Click here for more detailed information about course costs

The course content and activities are delivered through a website on the internet. Each lesson follows on from the previous one. Each lesson becomes available at the completion of the previous one.

In addition to the lesson content the website will initially provide:

• a forum for discussion between students and between myself and students.
• special sections enabling students to display the results of their work e.g. recipe grids.
• forms for the submission of questions to be answered by myself. The questions can be accessed by other students so that they may benefit from the information provided in the answer.
• a private feedback form.
• additional pages of resource information.

Each lesson delivers via the website a body of knowledge followed by a section of suggested activities which will allow you to practice the techniques introduced in the lesson.

An essential part of the course is the use of the glaze software Matrix. Where necessary tutorials for using Matrix are included in the knowledge section of each lesson.

If you wish at the completion of each lesson you may send to me via email and email attachments a record of what you are doing. I will check your work and return individual, personal comments to you via email.

In order to do this you will need to be able to write up your results in a Word doc and may need to take good quality images of your fired tests.

In addition I am preparing a multiple choice test of 10 questions to go with each lesson. At the completion of a lesson you may do this test to see how well you have comprehended the lesson concepts and content.

These processes are optional.

The following resources are absolutely necessary.

• firing facilities - a kiln in which you can fire glaze tests on a reasonably frequent basis.
• a computer for
  • receiving the course and conducting research via the internet,
  • running the glaze software package called Matrix and
  • for communicating with your tutor via email.
• In using your computer you will need to be able to:
  • send and receive emails with attachments such as Word docs and digital images.
  • use the internet
  • capture screen or window images from your computers for including in your documentation.
  • Note: The glaze software Matrix is designed for the Windows 0perating system. If you are using a Macintosh computer you will need to ensure that it will run Windows programmes.
    
• raw materials for making glazes and test tiles.
• access to a library for recommended reading material
• scales for weighing glaze recipes - these scales need to be sensitive down to 1 gram.
• sieves for mixing glazes.
• a standard or preferably a digital camera.

Yes the course can be taken by Macintosh users provided that they have the capacity to run Matrix Glaze Software which is used throughout the online course.

To use Matrix your Mac would need to be an "Intel" Mac i.e. one that will run Windows software using software such as Fusion 1.1 or Parallels Desktop

The course itself is, of course, delivered via a website which would be no problem no matter what Mac you are using.

If you have any further

If you have any further questions please email Lawrence Ewing lawrenceewing8@gmail.com