Copper Red
PC-70
🟪 Purple Level
Copper Red is a satin brush-on glaze from Amaco's Potter's Choice line, fired cone 5 to cone 6. Deep, classical, oxblood.
SatinOpaqueTexture-friendlyCone 5/6
Available at The Clay HoleYes
Find it on the glazes shelves
Shelf 3, Row 2Tile #33 on the Potter's Choice pot
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Friendly studio tip for this glaze
Do not thin this glaze and do not go light. Three full coats is not a suggestion here; it is the difference between oxblood and a washed out pot.
The quick version of Copper Red
CoatsThree, never thinned
BreaksClear on edges
TypeBrush-on glaze
FinishSatin
OpacityOpaque
Shows textureYes, good on carving
Glaze fire toCone 5/6
Bisque toCone 04
DifficultyBeginner-friendly if you go thick
What this glaze does
An oxblood red, a color that is hard to get out of an electric kiln at all. Traditionally it takes a gas kiln and a reduction atmosphere. This gets the same result in ordinary oxidation.
It breaks clear on edges and anywhere it thins, so rims and raised lines come back to the clay while the body of the pot holds deep red.
How much it varies
Dependable if the application is right, and unforgiving if it is not. This is the glaze where thickness matters most.
Clays that suit Copper Red
Opaque at a full three-coat application, so the clay underneath has little influence. Where it breaks clear on edges the clay does show, which is worth thinking about on a dark 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.
Rated forStoneware and porcelain at cone 5 and cone 6, which covers every body on our shelf.
Light bodies#16 Porcelain, B-Mix and Half & Half show these glazes closest to the test tile. Start here if you want the color on the label.
Buff bodies52 Buff and Speckled Buff run warmer and let iron specks come up where the glaze thins. On the see-through glazes that speckle is often what makes the pot.
Berlin GrayOur dark body, and the one that changes these glazes most. Anything see-through goes deeper and quieter on it.
Chasing pinholesAmaco reports this line clearing up on a smooth, low-grog body more often than not. Worth trying before you blame the glaze.
Applying this glaze to your work
Amaco is explicit: three coats, and do not thin the glaze. This is not a suggestion on this one. Copper reds are thickness-dependent, and a thin coat gives you a washed-out surface rather than a pale red.
How much it moves
Standard clearance. The bigger risk is not enough glaze rather than too much.
Across the Potter's Choice line
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
It has a strong identity, so it is usually the finish rather than the base. Test any pairing, since a top coat can bleach the red out.
Before you commit a pot
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 Copper Red 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 Copper Red
Amaco rates the line for cone 5 and cone 6, published as 2167F and 2232F on a medium speed firing, over bisque fired to cone 04. The point of this glaze is that it does not need reduction, so a normal oxidation firing is exactly right.
If you are a member here
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 Copper Red
Why did mine fire clear or washed out?
Almost always thin application or thinned glaze. Amaco says three coats, undiluted, for this reason.
Why are my edges bare?
That is the designed behavior. It breaks clear where thin, which includes rims and raised lines.
What to put it on
Forms and surfaces
Smooth to lightly textured forms where the red can hold across a broad surface. Strong on vases and bottles where the edge break outlines the shape.
Colors beside it
A deep red is loud enough on its own. Black, cream and unglazed clay all frame it well. Greens beside it read as complementary and intense.
Food and function
Amaco rates this glaze food safe and dinnerware safe, lead free and AP Non-Toxic. A classic red on functional ware, provided the application is thick enough to develop properly.
Across the Potter's Choice line
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.
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 #33. 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
Broad vertical textureA broad open surface. Shows the color at full strength, and whether the glaze travels down it.
Shallow textureA shallow swirl stamp. Shows whether light carving still reads once the glaze is on, or fills in and vanishes.
Deep textureCut lines. A deeply rough texture stripe. Shows where the glaze pools, how it breaks, and how dark it goes in the recesses.
Wipe-away textureGlaze wiped back to bare clay. Shows what the edge does where the coat runs thin. Find this wiped away on the tile's number.
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.
Other glazes close to Copper Red
Flambe is the same family with purple and blue in it. Fire & Ice adds an icy blue break to the red. Chun Plum is the softer, translucent pink-red.
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.