Mid-Fire
38 glazes / Speedball
Thirty eight jars: thirty five of Speedball's thirty six mid-fire colors, plus their three fluxes.
Speedball developed the line with the ceramic artist Nancy Sowder, and the pitch is honest about what it does. One color in the jar, mottled and reduction-like out of the kiln, without layering anything.
Cone 5/6Bisque to Cone 04
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Mid-Fire by the numbers
38glazes on our shelves
35at Black Level
22good on texture
Every Mid-Fire 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
Nothing by that name.
38 to choose from
Order
How the Mid-Fire line works
This is the Black Level shelf, and the reason is on the tiles. Dragon Stone crawls black over green. Variegated Lapis runs white down through navy. Storied Sage brings in a blue that is not in the name.
None of that needs a second glaze. It is one jar doing the work of two.
Coats
Three coats on cone 04 bisque unless a glaze's own page says otherwise. These are built to break and mottle, so an even coat still gives you variation.
Layering
Speedball publish a layering library for this line, and layering two of them is where it gets genuinely unpredictable. Test on a tile before you commit a pot.
Food and safety
Speedball carry the AP seal across the line. Anyone selling functional ware should test their own finished work.
Clays that suit Mid-Fire
Clay body and thickness both move these. On our darker bodies the pale ones go noticeably deeper.
From The Clay Hole University
More info about Mid-Fire 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
GuideOxide and Carbonate Washes
GuideWhen to Use Celadon Glazes
GuideHow to Use Dipping Glazes
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
The Mid-Fire 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 Speedball Mid-Fire 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.