Ancient Copper
PC-56
Ancient Copper is a gloss brush-on glaze from Amaco's Potter's Choice line, fired cone 5 to cone 6. Earthy, weathered, metallic.
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Friendly studio tip for this glaze
Go thicker than feels right. Nine out of ten disappointing Ancient Copper pots are just a thin coat, and the copper needs enough glaze to float in before it shows up.
The quick version of Ancient Copper
What this glaze does
An iron red with a metallic shimmer over it. The color is deliberately unstable across a single surface, and that is the point: it goes dark brown wherever it thins over a raised edge, and it pools a deep yellow-green wherever it gathers in a recess. Flat open areas hold the copper. The overall read is a metal object that has been buried for a while and dug back up.
Where the piece lands in the firing range changes the finish. At the cool end the surface is a copper satin matte. Hotter, it gains gloss and grows the bright copper blooms the glaze is known for.
How much it varies
Dependable once two variables are controlled: how thick it went on, and where in the cone 5 to cone 6 range the kiln landed. Expect real variation across a single piece, because breaking and pooling are the design rather than a flaw.
One piece of history matters here. Amaco reformulated Ancient Copper in 2023 after a raw material problem took it off the market. The current jar is the reformulated one, and the finish at each end of the firing range changed, so older photos online can show a glaze that no longer exists.
Clays that suit Ancient Copper
Opaque, so it covers the clay rather than tinting it, and it is rated for stoneware and porcelain. Amaco fires its own sample tiles on white stoneware. Potters who fight pinholing with the Potter's Choice line often report it clears up on a smooth, low-grog clay body.
Thirty three of these forty six glazes are opaque, so on most of them the clay underneath is a surface to sit on rather than part of the finished color. The other thirteen see through to some degree, and those are the ones where your clay choice really shows.
Applying this glaze to your work
Three coats, not thinned, each coat dry before the next, brushed onto cone 04 bisque. Thin application is the single most common reason this glaze disappoints. The copper effect needs enough material to float, and where the coat is light the surface goes flat and patchy instead.
Amaco also rates it for spraying, which gives a more even surface than a brush at the cost of the brushed depth.
How much it moves
Amaco rates it stable, and it is by the standards of a reactive glaze. At three full coats it still moves, and it moves further wherever a second glaze is layered on top of it. Leave bare clay at the foot and expect the pooled yellow-green to gather at the lowest point of any recess.
Amaco's instruction for the line is three brush coats, not thinned, each one dry before the next. Their own guidance says most disappointing results come from glaze applied on the light side. Amaco publishes an application guide showing what too thin and too thick actually look like.
Layering
This is one of the most layered glazes in the Potter's Choice line, and Amaco publishes tiles for it. The combinations below are from Amaco's own library and their published favorites.
Amaco's own combination tiles usually show two coats of each glaze, which lands four coats total anywhere the two overlap. Their standing advice is to test a tile before committing a piece, and to re-test when a new batch number arrives, since raw materials shift between production runs. Dipping versions of these glazes behave differently from the brushing jars and are much harder to layer.
From The Clay Hole University
More info about Ancient Copper 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
Firing Ancient Copper
Amaco rates the glaze for cone 5 and cone 6, and publishes those as 2167F for cone 5 and 2232F for cone 6 on a normal speed firing. The two ends genuinely look different: cooler gives a copper satin matte, hotter gives gloss and bright copper blooms.
One instruction from Amaco is worth following exactly: avoid slow-cooling cycles. A slow cool grows crystals across the surface, which mattes it and takes the shine with it.
Amaco also recommends firing a test tile whenever a new batch number arrives, since raw materials vary between production runs.
None of this is yours to manage. We handle everything on the kiln side, and every glaze on our shelves can be fired safely in our studio.
Common problems with Ancient Copper
Why did my Ancient Copper come out flat brown and patchy?
Almost always application that was too thin. The copper only develops where there is enough glaze to float, so a light coat leaves a splotchy, incomplete surface. Three full coats, not thinned.
Why did my glaze run down onto the kiln shelf?
Three thick coats of a reactive glaze move, and layering another glaze over it moves it further. Stop the glaze short of the foot and give it room to travel.
Why is my surface satin instead of glossy with copper blooms?
The piece landed at the cool end of the range, or the kiln cooled slowly. Cone 5 gives a copper satin matte, cone 6 gives gloss and blooms, and a slow cool grows crystals that flatten the shine either way.
Why does my pot look nothing like the photos I found online?
Amaco reformulated this glaze in 2023 after a materials shortage. Photos taken before that show the old formula, which behaved differently at each end of the firing range.
Why did I get pinholes or blistering?
A common report across the whole Potter's Choice line rather than this glaze alone. Potters who chase it down most often trace it to the clay body, and report it clearing up on a smooth, low-grog clay.
What to put it on
Forms and surfaces
Texture first. Carving, stamping, sprigs, faceting, and heavy throwing rings all give this glaze the edges and recesses it needs to break dark and pool green. A smooth cylinder gets a handsome weathered copper; a carved one gets a map.
On functional work it suits mugs, vases, planters, and anything meant to read older than it is. It is a common choice for exteriors with a calmer liner glaze inside.
Colors beside it
Turquoise and teal are the classic foils, which is why the Textured Turquoise pairing gets traded so widely. Creams and oatmeals cool it down and give the copper somewhere to rest. Greens sit comfortably beside it because the pooled recesses are already yellow-green. Against black it reads as metal.
Food and function
Amaco rates Ancient Copper food safe and dinnerware safe, lead free, and AP Non-Toxic. It is one of the safest ratings in the line, which is not true of every glaze in it: Amaco excludes PC-4 Palladium and PC-64 Aventurine from the dinnerware rating.
Amaco's own label carries the standard caution for anyone making tableware, which is to test finished ware, because firing temperature and contamination vary from kiln to kiln.
Every glaze in the line is lead free and, by Amaco's rating, dinnerware safe except PC-4 Palladium and PC-64 Aventurine. Amaco's own label carries the standard caution that anyone producing tableware should test finished ware, because firing temperature and contamination vary between kilns.
What potters report
The praise is consistent: reduction depth out of an ordinary electric kiln, and layering mileage that does not run out. One community glaze-sharing site catalogs 171 posted combinations using it.
The complaint is just as consistent, and it is nearly always the same complaint: it came out brown. In almost every case the glaze went on too thin. Potters firing at the hot end report bright and dull copper patches mixed across one piece, which is the glaze working as intended rather than failing.
Our test tile pots
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.
- 1Find the pot The brand and family name are written on the rim. This glaze lives on the Amaco Potter's Choice pot.
- 2Find the tile This one is tile #11. The numbers match the ones in the Glaze Bible.
- 3Read it properly Look at what the glaze does across all four textures, not just what color it is.
What to look at on the tile
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.
Other glazes close to Ancient Copper
Ancient Jasper is the nearest relative in the line, the same weathered iron story with more brown and green in it. Copper Red chases an oxblood instead of a copper. Albany Slip Brown covers the quiet end of the same palette. None of the three is a substitute, and all three are worth a test tile if this one is unavailable.
Looks great paired with
Put these on the shelf beside it, or on the next pot in the same set.
About the Amaco Potter's Choice Family
Potter's Choice is the line Amaco built so an electric kiln could do what a gas kiln does. Released in 2004, it reaches for the depth of cone 10 reduction glazes at cone 5 and cone 6 in ordinary oxidation. That is the whole premise, and it is why the surfaces break, pool, float and shift instead of sitting flat.
It is one of the most layered brushing lines in American pottery, and Amaco keeps a public library of combination tiles for it. Most of the effects potters chase come from two of these glazes meeting on one pot.
Made by Amaco, a company that has been building glazes and kilns in Indianapolis since 1919. The Potter's Choice line arrived in 2004 and has been a reference point for mid-fire reduction looks since.
More ways to pick a glaze
Membership levels that may use this glaze: Purple & Black
Not sure whether this glaze suits what you are making, or how it works with our system here? Ask an instructor. That is what we are here for, and a two minute conversation at the shelf beats a fired pot you did not want.
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.