Blue Hydrangea over Eggplant. Mayco Various Families under Mayco Various Families.
Layering Glazes
One glaze over another, and a surface neither jar could make alone. Twenty five pairings worth firing, and the craft that makes them work.
- Pairings
- 25
- Jars involved
- 50
Layering is how a shelf of single colors becomes a shelf of surfaces. One glaze goes on the pot, a second goes over it, and what comes out of the kiln is a thing neither jar could make on its own: two colors in one skin, separating where the pot rises and pooling where it falls.
It works because glazes are not paint. A reactive or floating glaze moves as it melts, thinning over every raised edge and gathering in every hollow, and wherever it thins the glaze beneath it shows through. That is the whole mechanism. You are not mixing two colors, you are letting one open up over the other.
Which is why order is not a detail. The glaze built to move has to be the one on top. Swap the pair and the moving glaze has nothing to move across, and you get a flat, muddled version of both. Every pairing below is written in the order it should be applied, and the tile on the left is the one that goes on the pot first.
What follows is twenty five pairings we know are worth firing, with the craft that makes them work spaced between them. Read the tips even if you only came for the pictures. They are the difference between a layer that looks intentional and one that looks like an accident.
25 pairings worth knowing
Two glazes, one over the other. The tile on the left goes on first, the tile in the middle goes over it, and the square on the right is what comes out. Let the first coat dry completely before the second goes on.
Sunrise over Kimchi. Spectrum Floating under Spectrum Floating. Spectrum's Floating series is made to float over another glaze, which is exactly what it is doing here.
Himalayan Salt over Tidal Wave. One of 2 pairings built on Tidal Wave, so you can see how one base changes under different tops.
Really Red over Archie’s Base. Coyote Archie's under Coyote Gloss.
Lustrous Jade over Blue Rutile. One of 2 pairings that put Lustrous Jade over a different ground.
Green Tea over Leather. One of 2 pairings that put Green Tea over a different ground. Leather is Yellow Level and Green Tea is Purple Level, so check both are open to you.
Blue Rutile over Bougainvillea. Spectrum under Amaco, which is worth knowing works.
Autumn Purple over Shallot. Spectrum Floating under Spectrum Floating. Spectrum's Floating series is made to float over another glaze, which is exactly what it is doing here.
Palladium over Blue Rutile. One of 2 pairings built on Blue Rutile, so you can see how one base changes under different tops.
Dragon Stone over Black. One of 2 pairings built on Black, so you can see how one base changes under different tops. Black is Green Level and Dragon Stone is Black Level, so check both are open to you.
Celadon Bloom over Winter Wood. Mayco Various Families under Mayco Various Families.
Smokey Merlot over Iron Lustre. Amaco Potter's Choice under Amaco Potter's Choice.
Enchanted Forest over Jade. Amaco under Mayco, which is worth knowing works. Jade is Black Level and Enchanted Forest is Purple Level, so check both are open to you.
Tiger’s Eye over Blue Tigers Eye. Speedball under Spectrum, which is worth knowing works. Spectrum's Floating series is made to float over another glaze, which is exactly what it is doing here.
Green Tea over Tidal Wave. One of 2 pairings that put Green Tea over a different ground.
Blue Shino over Black. One of 2 pairings built on Black, so you can see how one base changes under different tops. Coyote build their shinos to sit over a gloss, so this is the pairing the family was designed for.
Snow over Rainforest. Amaco Celadon under Amaco Celadon. Rainforest is Black Level and Snow is Purple Level, so check both are open to you.
Variegated Lapis over Storm. Amaco under Speedball, which is worth knowing works.
Vert Lustre over Dark Green. Amaco Potter's Choice under Amaco Potter's Choice.
Passion Flower over Pearl White. Spectrum under Mayco, which is worth knowing works.
Lustrous Jade over Aqua. One of 2 pairings that put Lustrous Jade over a different ground. Aqua is Black Level and Lustrous Jade is Purple Level, so check both are open to you.
Stoned Denim over Black Walnut. Mayco Matte under Mayco Various Families.
Rose Quartz over Lavender Mist. Mayco Various Families under Mayco Various Families.
Kimchi over Sangria. Spectrum Floating under Spectrum Floating. Spectrum's Floating series is made to float over another glaze, which is exactly what it is doing here.
Muddy Waters over Birch. Mayco Various Families under Mayco Various Families.
Common questions
Which glaze goes on first?
The one that stays put. The glaze built to move, a float, a reactive or a shino, goes on top, because it needs something underneath to open up over.
How many coats?
Two underneath and three over is the usual starting point. Change one variable at a time from there and keep a note of what you did.
How long between coats?
Until the first glaze has gone chalky all over and lost its sheen. Rushing this lifts the first coat off the pot.
Will a layered pot run?
More than either glaze alone, because there is more glaze on it. Keep a quarter inch of bare clay above the foot and use a cookie.
Can I layer any two glazes?
You can try, and most results are dull rather than disastrous. The pairings here are the ones worth the firing.
Are layered glazes food safe?
Treat the combination as unproven even when both glazes are rated separately, and use a liner on any surface that touches food.
Why does mine look nothing like the example?
Thickness, almost every time. Compare your coats to the tip above rather than blaming the pairing.
Do I need to test first?
On anything you care about, yes. A stepped vertical test tile answers the question in one firing.
Layering is the part of glazing where a decision you make in ten seconds, where to stop the second glaze, shows up permanently in the finished pot. That is worth practising on a tile first and worth getting right.
Also worth a look
About these images and what your pot will actually look like
We have done our best to represent every glaze here accurately, and you should still expect your pot to look different from what is on this screen.
Our glaze tile images are digitally created. They are built to show the character of a glaze, not to be a color match.
A screen is not a printout, a printout is not a test tile, and a test tile is not a finished pot. Each step in that chain shifts what a glaze looks like, sometimes a lot.
On top of that, the pottery itself changes the result: the clay body, how thick the glaze went on, whether it was brushed, dipped or sprayed, what was layered under or over it, where the piece sat in the kiln, how hot that spot ran, how fast it cooled, what was fired next to it, and how much texture the surface had. Two pots glazed from the same jar on the same day can come out different.
Treat every image here as a starting point, and treat a test tile fired on your own clay as the real answer.