Glazing at The Clay Hole

Brush glazing, done properly.

You spent weeks getting that piece to the glaze shelf. The next hour decides how it looks forever. This is the exact method we teach in the studio: which brushes, how many coats, how to know each coat is dry, and how to keep your best work off the mistake list.

You spent weeks getting that piece to the glaze shelf. The next hour decides how it looks forever. Three coats, alternating directions, each one dry before the next, and nothing on the bottom.

650+ glazes 150+ underglazes x3 coats, almost always

Required for membersGlazing Your Pottery at The Clay Hole

Our own required glazing video, filmed at the glaze wall and the wash pit. Members watch it fully before touching any glaze, then initial and sign the Glaze Checklist & Agreement. The player loads straight from YouTube’s no-cookie server, and only when you press play.

The whole thing: every brush, every judgment call, and what to do when it comes out wrong.

Step zero

First, know what’s in your hand

Not all glaze wants a brush. Brushing glazes are mixed with gum and clay binders that keep them suspended, slow their drying, and help them grip a vertical wall one coat at a time. Dipping glazes are the opposite: thin, fast, and built to bond in seconds of full immersion.

Brushing glazes (the jars)

Every jar on our open shelves is a brushing glaze. They are all commercial, tested, and ready to go the moment you pick them up. No mixing, no guesswork, no chemistry homework.

They dry slowly enough to level themselves out between strokes, which is exactly what makes the three-coat method below work.

Dipping glazes (the buckets)

The buckets are a separate program with their own rules and their own required training. Brushed on, a dipping glaze streaks, flakes, and wastes a very expensive bucket.

Simple rule: jars get brushed, buckets get dipped, and neither one covers for the other.

If a jar ever seems off (too thick, too dry, something floating in it that shouldn’t be), hand it to an instructor in pink instead of fixing it yourself. Rescuing a glaze is a quick job for us and a costly mistake when it goes wrong.

Before you start

Before you load a brush

Most glaze disasters are decided before the brush ever touches the pot. Grab your brushes, a spoon, a cup for each glaze, a clean damp rag, a banding wheel, and a glaze card. Then run this list every single time:

All seven? You’re ready. Go make something glorious.

The core skill

The x3 coat method

The default here is three coats, each laid in a different direction. Alternating directions is what erases streaks and thin spots. Three coats is what gives the glaze enough material to become glass in the fire. (The thirsty fan and hake brushes are the exception: fully loaded, they often cover in two. Every other brush, count on three.)

Three coats, each laid in a different direction, each one fully dry before the next. (Fan and hake brushes are the exception: fully loaded, they often cover in two.)

Side to side. Load the brush fully and flow the glaze on in long horizontal strokes. Let the brush release glaze onto the piece; don’t scrub it in. The first coat dries fast because the thirsty bisque pulls the water straight out of it.

Flow, don’t scrub

Use the biggest, softest brush the piece allows and keep it loaded. Long strokes, one pass per area. Going back over a half-dry patch is how streaks are born.

Chalky means ready

Wet glaze looks glossy. When the sheen drops to a dry, chalky matte, the next coat can go on. The sheen tells you, not the clock. Usually just a few minutes, though each coat dries a little slower than the last.

About a postcard thick

All three coats together should sit roughly as thick as a postcard. Too thin fires rough and sad. Too thick crawls, cracks, and runs. Three honest coats lands you right in the middle.

Order matters too: inside first, then outside, rim last. Glaze the surfaces you’d smudge with your fingers at the end, not the beginning. And glaze doesn’t have to cover everything: unglazed clay is called naked, leaving areas naked is a real look, and plenty of the pottery we love most around here keeps whole sections bare. Your piece, your call. Wipe any smears off the naked parts with a clean rag and it’ll fire clean.

Order matters: inside first, then outside, rim last. And glaze doesn’t have to cover everything; bare clay is called naked, and leaving areas naked is a real look. Wipe smears off the naked parts with a clean rag.

Tools

The right brush for the job

A good glaze brushed with the wrong brush still fires like a mistake. Five brushes cover essentially everything you’ll ever want to do:

Fan & hake brushes

Wide, soft, and built to sop up a flood of glaze. The default for walls, bowls, and broad curves, with the fewest marks. So thirsty they often cover in two coats where any other brush needs three. The studio’s fan and hake brushes are a Purple and Black Level perk; at Green Level, bring your own; at Yellow Level, ask which studio brush comes closest.

Round mop

A fat, soft reservoir with a point. Carries glaze into texture, around handles, and along curves without pooling.

Flat shader

Crisp edges and straight lines. The one you want near rims, feet, and anywhere two colors meet.

Liner & detail

Thin lines, dots, lettering, and underglaze accents. Small brush, small loads, patient hands.

Sea sponge

Dab, don’t drag. Soft fades, speckle, and organic texture that a brush simply can’t make.

The sixth option

Your finger, for smoothing one tiny drip you catch early. We’ve all done it. Wash your hands after.

Whose brushes are whose

Green Level

You bring your own brushes and sponge. A basic set is a great habit at any level: your brushes, your care, your consistency.

Yellow Level

Most studio brushes are included. Heat guns and wax stations aren’t yet; the chalky wait happens at natural speed.

Purple & Black Level

The full wall: the hake and fan collection, heat guns to speed drying between coats, wax stations, and every glaze that opens at your Level (a dollar sticker still carries its up-charge, per glaze and per piece).

The same ladder applies to the glazes themselves: Green Level uses Green glazes, Yellow adds Yellow, Purple adds Purple, and Black Level Members use all four. An orange sticker means that glaze is the owner’s alone, not on the ladder at all, though anyone can order their own bottle to use. Gold stickers are the raku and low-fire glazes, which live in their own world. The complete breakdown is on the membership levels page.

When you’re done: cups go in the trash, and brushes get washed by hand until no glaze hides between the bristles, squeezed back into shape, and returned to the exact bin they came from. Any glaze left in a brush ends up on the next member’s pot.

Judgment calls

How many coats, really?

Three is the rule. Here’s when it bends, depending on what’s in your hand:

x3 generous coats, flowed on

Reactive and floating glazes (Potter’s Choice lives here) are the ones that shift, break, and pour color over texture in the fire. That movement needs material to move. Brushed thin, the same jar fires flat, brown, and muddy, and everyone blames the glaze.

Keep the heaviest glaze on the upper two thirds of the piece and go a touch lighter near the foot, so all that gorgeous movement has somewhere safe to stop.

Layering two glazes? Gorgeous, and unpredictable. Brush the combo on a test tile first, fire it, and write down exactly what you did. Future you, standing at the shelf with a mug you love, will be very grateful.

Troubleshooting

When it goes wrong

It will, eventually, for everyone. That’s not failure, that’s tuition. Here’s what the kiln is trying to tell you:

Streaks

What happened: the glaze was under-stirred, the brush was under-loaded, or a half-dry area got brushed over again.

Next time: stir until smooth, load the brush fully, alternate directions, and one pass per area. Full coats, full drying.

This piece: often savable. Ask an instructor in pink whether another coat and a refire will even it out. It frequently does.

Caught a mistake before firing? Even better. Wet glaze wipes off with a damp sponge, over a bucket and never the sink; let the piece dry completely overnight and start fresh tomorrow. Ten minutes of washing beats a permanent regret.

Troubleshooting

When it goes wrong

Nearly every glaze fail is one of three things:

Not enough glaze

Thin, dry, dull, or a reactive glaze that fired flat and brown. Three real coats, postcard thick.

Not dry between coats

Streaks, torn glaze, pinholes. Wait for the wet sheen to go chalky every single time, and never brush back over a half-dry patch.

Too much, too low, or on dust

Runs onto the cookie, or crawls into bare patches. Lighter near the foot, flash rinse first, fingers off the clean bisque.

Before you write a piece off: hand it to an instructor in pink. Many glaze fails are savable, and a few turn out to be the best thing you made all month.

Shared with 100s of members

The rules that keep the glaze wall alive

There is roughly $100,000 of glaze on these shelves, shared by hundreds of members, and it only works because everyone treats it like their own. The whole system runs on integrity, and it genuinely works.

Stir, never shake

Shaking mixes badly and creeps glaze up into the lid threads, where it dries into razor-thin shards waiting for the next person’s hand. Stroke & Coat bottles are the one exception; every other glaze gets the spoon.

Cups, not jars

A brush never dips into a jar, no matter how clean it looks; traces of old glaze hide in every brush. Spoon into a small cup instead. A cross-contaminated glaze never works the same again, and whoever caused it covers the replacement.

Leftovers have one rule

Used only one glaze? Pour the extra back in its bottle. If your cup touched more than one glaze, the whole cup goes in the trash. Then wipe the threads with a rinsed cloth so the next member gets a clean, easy-opening jar.

No water, no doctoring

Every glaze is water soluble and chemically balanced, and aAdding water without an instructor supervising can wreck the whole jar. Too thick, dried out, looks wrong? Hand it to an instructor in pink and we’ll fix it.

Back where it lives

Close lids while you work, and return every jar to its labeled spot so the next member can find it. If there’s an open jar in front of a sealed backup, the open one gets used first.

The dollar sticker

A dollar sticker on a jar means that glaze carries a per-glaze, per-piece up-charge, paid the day you glaze. It’s what keeps those glazes on the wall at all.

And the formality that covers all of it: watch the video at the top of this page once, all the way through, then initial every line of the Glaze Checklist & Agreement and sign the bottom. That’s how we know every member holding a jar of glaze understands every rule, and it’s what lets us keep handing the whole collection to everyone.

Three more, quickly: stir rather than shake (Stroke & Coat is the one exception), never dip a brush straight into a jar, and a dollar sticker means a per-glaze, per-piece up-charge. Then watch the video at the top, initial every line of the Glaze Checklist & Agreement, and sign it.

The finish line

Three essentials before the kiln shelf

Your piece is glazed, gorgeous, and one step from the fire. Every piece needs all three of these, every single time:

1

Kiln cookie

You make it yourself from scrap clay: rolled thin like a chubby tortilla, at least ¾″ wider than whatever touches the shelf. If your glaze travels in the fire, the cookie takes the hit instead of a kiln shelf that costs hundreds of dollars.

2

Kiln ticket

One per piece: your name, the date, your clay, and every glaze you used. (It matters for how we load the kiln.) Then measure your piece and pay through the QR code’s firing calculator, then write your order number on the ticket. No ticket, no fire.

3

Naked bottom

Zero glaze on the bottom, stopping ⅛″ to ¼″ above the table: a quarter inch for runners, an eighth is enough for the most stable glazes. Melted glaze is glass, and glass welds pottery to whatever it touches.

All three, every piece, every time. The kiln techs, the shelf, and the pieces firing next to yours all thank you.

Then come back for it within two weeks. Every piece that comes out of the kiln gets a deadline card, and anything still on the pickup tables after two weeks gets tossed. Heading out of town? Hold your piece off the firing shelf until you’re back, so the clock starts when you can beat it.

Then come back for it within two weeks. Fired pieces get a deadline card, and anything still on the pickup tables after two weeks gets tossed.

Quick answers

Questions we hear at the glaze wall

How long do I wait between coats?

Until the sheen goes from wet-glossy to dry and chalky, usually just minutes, though each coat dries slower than the one before. Watch the surface, not the clock. Purple and Black Level Members can speed the wait with the heat guns: high setting, and always on the heat table, never on the mats (heat warps them).

Can I brush glaze from the dipping buckets?

No. Dipping glazes are chemically built for immersion, and brushed on they streak and flake. The buckets also have their own required training. The jars are the brushing program, and they’re not exactly a consolation prize.

Can I layer two different glazes?

Yes, and some of the best pieces in this studio are layered. Test the combo on a tile first, expect movement in the fire, keep the layers off the bottom third, and write down what you did so you can repeat it.

It looked amazing before firing. Why is it boring now?

Almost always thickness. Unfired glaze color lies; the fired test tile pots tell the truth. Three real coats, postcard thick, and check the tile before you pick the jar so the surprise is a good one. Remember the clay matters too: the same glaze reads differently on every clay body, which is why the clay display by the information center shows one glaze across all of them. Sometimes glazing is simply a leap of faith, and that’s half the fun.

Is my fired piece food safe?

We fire our glaze kilns to cone 5½, which vitrifies stoneware and porcelain right through, and our glazes are commercial and tested rather than homemade. The clay is the easy half; the glaze is the half that varies, jar by jar. Some glazes are rated by their maker for food, some are not, and a few should never touch food at all. If a piece will hold food or drink, check the glaze on our Food Safe Lookup and ask an instructor before you commit.

Will glaze wash out of my clothes?

Almost always, yes. The exception worth respecting is the iron-based glazes, the deep brick reds; those sometimes win the fight. No guarantees either way, but outside the iron reds we’ve had very good luck with clothes and shoes. An apron still beats luck.

Do I really have to watch the video?

Yes, fully, before you’re allowed to touch any glaze, and then initial every line of the Glaze Checklist & Agreement and sign it. It’s also our own walk through glazing, on our actual equipment. Watch it on the couch and walk in ready.

The fun part

Now go glaze something.

If you found this from far away, steal the method with our blessing; it works anywhere. And if you’re anywhere near Draper, Utah: there’s a nearly 10,000 square foot studio here with hundreds of brushing glazes on open shelves, kilns firing constantly, and instructors in bright pink shirts who will stand next to you while you do everything this page just described.

That’s the method: three coats, dry between each, nothing on the bottom, cookie and ticket. Want every brush, every judgment call, and the full troubleshooting list? Switch to the Comprehensive Version at the top.

Explore membership See every glaze we carry

Members: the video is at the top of this page, the agreement is short, and the glaze wall is waiting.