Various Families

67 glazes / Mayco

Sixty seven Mayco stoneware glazes that sit together on one shelf rather than in one Mayco line. Classics, crystals, mattes, the two clears and the texture glazes are all in here.

Various is our grouping, not Mayco's. Every page here names the Mayco line that glaze actually belongs to, and carries its real Mayco code so you can find it in its book.

Cone 5/10Bisque to Cone 049 studio favorites

Various Families by the numbers

67glazes on our shelves
67at Purple Level
10good on texture
9studio favorites

Every Various Families glaze we have in house

Hover any tile to see a pot fired in it, or tap once on a phone.

Jump straight to one

67 to choose from

Order
Mayco Amaryllis glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Amaryllis at The Clay Hole
Amaryllis

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A coral pink that breaks into orange and yellow with dark speckle floating through it. One of the most active surfaces on this shelf.

Mayco Antique Brass glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Antique Brass at The Clay Hole
Antique Brass

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #1

Studio favorite

A dark olive brown with a metallic sheen. Reads like tarnished hardware rather than like a glaze.

Mayco Aurora Green glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Aurora Green at The Clay Hole
Aurora Green

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #20

A soft sage green over a warm ground, with the green pulling back to amber where the glaze thins over the relief.

Mayco Birch glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Birch at The Clay Hole
Birch

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A creamy off-white that breaks brown on every edge. Mayco notes the thinner it goes the more amber it reads, and the thicker it goes the more white floats.

Mayco Black Timber glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Black Timber at The Clay Hole
Black Timber

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A near-black brown with olive and amber breaking through in streaks. Looks like charred wood, which is the point.

Mayco Blue Splatterware glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Blue Splatterware at The Clay Hole
Blue Splatterware

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #22

A white semi-matte base carrying blue crystal blooms. Mayco builds it on White Matte and says the crystals melt into small blue blooms, which is exactly what our tile shows.

Mayco Celadon Bloom glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Celadon Bloom at The Clay Hole
Celadon Bloom

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

Good on texture

A pale turquoise green that pools deeper in the recesses and pulls almost white on the high points.

Mayco Cenote glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Cenote at The Clay Hole
Cenote

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

Studio favorite

A pale blue with rust and brown speckle breaking through it, like mineral staining on limestone.

Mayco Copper Float glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Copper Float at The Clay Hole
Copper Float

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A dark brown ground with a copper green float sitting on top of it. Two colors in one glaze, and where they separate is up to the thickness.

Mayco Dark Magma glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Dark Magma at The Clay Hole
Dark Magma

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #4

A textured black that fires to a raised, cratered surface. This is a texture glaze, not a color one, and the thicker it goes the rougher it gets.

Mayco Galaxy glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Galaxy at The Clay Hole
Galaxy

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #26

A black ground with blue and brown crystal blooms spreading across it. One of the most dramatic surfaces we carry.

Mayco Glossy Crackle White glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Glossy Crackle White at The Clay Hole
Glossy Crackle White

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #11

A bright white gloss with a fine crackle pattern all through it. Mayco recommends rubbing ink into the cracks after firing to bring the pattern out.

Mayco Gray Opal glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Gray Opal at The Clay Hole
Gray Opal

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A soft blue-gray with an opal shimmer where it pools. Subtle, and it changes with the angle you look at it.

Mayco Ivy glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Ivy at The Clay Hole
Ivy

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A soft green with darker green pooling in the recesses and gold breaking on the high points.

Mayco Light Magma glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Light Magma at The Clay Hole
Light Magma

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #3

A gray textured glaze that fires to a raised, cratered surface. Same family as Dark Magma, lighter ground, and again thickness controls the texture.

Mayco Matte Clear glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Matte Clear at The Clay Hole
Matte Clear

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #35

A satin matte clear. Mayco says it fires to a satin matte at cone 5 and 6 and goes more satin at cone 10. This one is off the shelf and needs asking for.

Mayco Matte Crackle Clear glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Matte Crackle Clear at The Clay Hole
Matte Crackle Clear

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #34

A matte clear with a fine crackle pattern. Mayco's own name for it is Crackle Matte Clear. Rub ink into the cracks after firing to show the pattern.

Mayco Micro Ash glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Micro Ash at The Clay Hole
Micro Ash

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #44

A dark brown ground with fine gold micro-crystals scattered through it, closer to a metallic than to a color.

Mayco Micro Jade glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Micro Jade at The Clay Hole
Micro Jade

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #49

Good on texture

An olive green ground with fine gold and green micro-crystals, and a warm break on the edges.

Mayco Midnight Rain glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Midnight Rain at The Clay Hole
Midnight Rain

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #25

A deep navy with lighter blue and gold breaking across the relief. Dark, wet-looking and one of the strongest blues we carry.

Mayco Mood Ring glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Mood Ring at The Clay Hole
Mood Ring

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A dark olive ground with gold breaking hard on every raised edge. The contrast is where this one earns its name.

Mayco Mudcrack glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Mudcrack at The Clay Hole
Mudcrack

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #10

A white textured glaze that cracks as it dries and stays cracked through the firing. Mayco is direct that if it does not crack before the firing it will not crack after, and that the texture makes it decorative only.

Mayco Root Beer glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Root Beer at The Clay Hole
Root Beer

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #31

Good on texture

A deep glossy brown with amber breaking on the raised edges. Wet-looking and dark.

Mayco Shipwreck glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Shipwreck at The Clay Hole
Shipwreck

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #6

Good on texture Studio favorite

A dark teal green with heavy rust and brown mottling over it, like something pulled out of the water.

Mayco Tidal Wave glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Tidal Wave at The Clay Hole
Tidal Wave

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

No Tile

A white ground with blue crystal blooms scattered across the surface, heavier toward the bottom where they ran.

Mayco Winter Wood glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Winter Wood at The Clay Hole
Winter Wood

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #2

Studio favorite

A warm white with brown speckle gathering unevenly across the surface, like bark on snow.

Mayco Wrought Iron glaze test tile, fired at The Clay HoleA pot fired in Mayco Wrought Iron at The Clay Hole
Wrought Iron

MaycoVarious Families

🟪 Purple Level

Tile #45

A near-black brown with an intermittent metallic break. Mayco describes it as producing an intermittent effect rather than a flat color.

Pots decorated with Mayco Various Families glazes at The Clay Hole pottery studio

How the Various Families line works

A flat opaque gloss sits on this shelf next to a glaze that cracks on purpose and a glaze that grows crystals. Nothing else in the Bible mixes that much behavior into one row.

Mayco intends the stoneware range for cone 5 to 6 and says it stays stable at cone 10. Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, so every tile here is ours at our cone.

Coats

Two to three even coats on cone 04 bisque unless a glaze's own page says otherwise. Let each coat dry before the next.

The texture glazes are the exception. Magma and Mudcrack build their surface from thickness, so thin coats give you nothing.

Layering

Mayco designs this range to layer, and many of these break over texture to reveal a second color underneath.

The crystal and float glazes are their own effect. Covering one defeats the point of buying it.

Food and safety

Mayco lists its stoneware glazes as dinnerware safe when used as directed, except where it marks otherwise.

The texture glazes are the ones to watch. Mayco recommends Mudcrack and Magma for decorative surfaces only, because of the surface they create.

Clays that suit Various Families

Clay body moves these more than most lines. A darker body pulls the pale glazes down and a speckled body reads straight through the translucent ones.

Common questions about Various Families

Why is this one family instead of several?

These are grouped by our shelf rather than by Mayco's line names. Every glaze page here lists its real Mayco code so you can look it up in its catalog.

How many coats?

Two to three even coats, except the texture glazes, which need thickness to work at all.

Which of these run?

The floats and the crystals move most. Check the individual page and leave clearance at the foot.

Which are not dinnerware safe?

Mayco recommends Mudcrack and the Magma texture glazes for decorative work only.

What cone do you fire these to?

Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, inside Mayco's intended cone 5 to 6 range.

Is there a test tile pot?

Yes, this shelf has its own numbered pot, and the tile numbers on these pages match it.

Test tile pots lined up on the glaze shelves at The Clay Hole

The Various Families 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 Mayco Various Families 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.

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