Shinos
12 glazes / Amaco
Amaco built the Shino line to give an electric kiln the heavy iron reduction look of a wood or gas firing. Amaco points to the earthiness of tea ceremony bowls as the influence.
The line comes in six colors, each in a gloss and a matte, and all twelve are fully mixable with each other.
Cone 5/6Bisque to Cone 04
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Shinos by the numbers
12glazes on our shelves
12at Purple Level
9good on texture
Friendly studio tip for this glaze family
The gloss and the matte of the same color are not two shades of the same thing. They are two different surfaces.
Thickness decides everything else. Brush it thin and you get the warm rust underneath showing through. Brush it thick and you get the color. Amaco says so outright, and it is the single most useful thing to know about this line.
They also mix with each other completely, so a half-and-half blend of a gloss and a matte is a legitimate move rather than a mistake.
Every Shinos glaze we have in house
Hover any tile to see a pot fired in it, or tap once on a phone.
How the Shinos line works
Twelve glazes, six colors doubled into gloss and matte. Amaco rates the line for cone 5 and cone 6 over cone 04 bisque, on stoneware or porcelain, red clay or white.
The colors are opaque and iron rich, and thickness decides which way they read. Amaco is direct about it: a thin coat favors the warm rust base underneath, a thick coat favors the color itself.
Coats
Amaco rates the line for cone 5 and cone 6 over cone 04 bisque. Thickness is doing most of the work here.
Thin gives you the rust base showing through, thick gives you the opaque color. Neither is wrong, but they are different pots, so decide which one you want before you start brushing.
Layering
These are 100 percent mixable with each other, so a gloss and a matte of the same color can be blended to land anywhere between the two surfaces.
Amaco also recommends layering Shinos with the Potter's Choice line, which we carry in full.
Food and safety
Amaco rates the Shino line food safe at cone 5.
As with any glaze, anyone producing tableware for sale should test their own finished ware on their own clay and firing schedule.
Clays that suit Shinos
Amaco formulates this line for stoneware and porcelain and says it suits red or white clay, so every body on our shelf is in range.
Rated forStoneware and porcelain at cone 5 and cone 6, red clay or white.
How thickness readsAmaco is specific that a thin coat favors the warm rust base and a thick coat favors the opaque color. The clay matters less here than your brushing does.
Buff and dark bodies52 Buff, Speckled Buff and Berlin Gray lean into the high-iron look this line is imitating.
Light bodies#16 Porcelain, B-Mix and Half & Half give the cleanest read of the color itself.
On textureAmaco calls the line good on textured and smooth bodies alike, which is unusual and worth using.
From The Clay Hole University
More info about Shinos below, but first... Everything we teach about glazing, written down and taught properly. These are the glaze lessons, and they are a small corner of a library that runs from centering your first pot to selling your work.
GuideGlaze Brushing Techniques, Coat by Coat
GuideGlazing Big and Intricate Pottery Faster
GuideGetting the Most Out of the Mega Glaze Tool
GuideMaking, Logging and Dialing in Test Tiles
GuideGlaze Problems, Causes and Fixes
GuideGlazing on the Wheel for Even Coats and Clean Bands
GuideBubble Glaze with Dish Soap
GuideMixing Your Own Glazes: What It Actually Involves
GuideMaking a Glaze Catcher
GuideGetting Great Results with Crystalline Glazes
GuideOxide and Carbonate Washes
GuideWhen to Use Celadon Glazes
GuideHow to Use Dipping Glazes
RakuRaku Firing: Techniques, Tips and How It Works
UnderglazeHow to Use Underglaze: Techniques, Rules and Firing
UnderglazeMishima: How to Inlay Slip and Underglaze into Carved Lines
UnderglazeWipe-Away Texture: Underglaze and Oxide Washes on Bisque
Common questions about Shinos
How many Amaco Shino glazes does The Clay Hole carry?
All twelve, which is six colors in both a gloss and a matte.
What cone do Amaco Shino glazes fire to?
Cone 5 to cone 6, published by Amaco as 2167F and 2232F on a medium speed firing, over bisque fired to cone 04.
Are Amaco Shino glazes food safe?
Amaco rates the line food safe at cone 5. Anyone producing tableware should test their own finished ware.
What is a shino glaze?
Shino is a Japanese glaze tradition associated with tea ceremony ware. Amaco built this line to give the heavy iron reduction look in an ordinary electric kiln.
Can I mix Amaco Shino glazes together?
Yes. Amaco describes them as 100 percent mixable with each other, and mixing a gloss with a matte is how you land between the two surfaces.
Which membership level covers Amaco Shinos?
All twelve are Purple Level.
The Shinos test tile pot
Every glaze family on our shelves has its own test tile pot, and it is the fastest way to decide what to put on a piece. It is a fired pot wearing the whole family, one numbered tile per glaze, on a surface built to show you what that glaze actually does rather than just what color it is.
Look for Amaco Shinos written on the rim. Each glaze on this page carries its tile number, and the numbers run around the pot.
One trick worth knowing
Some glazes tell you loudly that they run. Others hide it. Look at how the brushed lines fired: crisp edges mean a stable glaze, and edges that went soft and fluid mean it moved, and it will move on your pot too.
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.