Glaze Course - Lesson Summaries
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Raw Materials and How They Work in a Glaze.
Lesson Number 2
Glazes are made by bringing raw materials together in a recipe. This lesson looks more closely at those raw materials. We will start by defining a glaze in simple terms and having a look at the essential components. Then we will look at various raw materials to see how they contribute to the final glaze melt.

In this week's lecture we are going to dip our toe into the realm of chemistry. There is no need to switch off or throw up your arms in horror! All we need is a few very basic, very simple concepts about the structure of the material world around us. Armed with this simple knowledge we can develop a very simple 'model' or way of viewing our glazes which will enable us to understand what happens to our recipes when we heat and cool them.

The chemistry knowledge involved can be as little or as great as you wish i.e. at the little end we only need concepts introduced normally in New Zealand's school system at year 7 or 8 (intermediate school). If you wish you can dig much deeper into the chemistry of glass and glazes using resources from the library or on the internet.

Full lessons contain content and activities not listed above. More lessons will be added to this list as they are completed.
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Contact: Lawrence Ewing - 1015 Ellis Rd, Five Rivers, RD3, Lumsden, Northern Southland,
New Zealand
Email: lawrenceewing8@gmail.com