Cosmic Gold Dust
PC-69
Cosmic Gold Dust is a satin brush-on glaze from Amaco's Potter's Choice line, fired cone 5 to cone 6. Sparkling, metallic, warm gold.
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Friendly studio tip for this glaze
Shake the jar properly before you start. The sparkle settles to the bottom, and a lazy stir means half your pot gets the good part and half does not.
The quick version of Cosmic Gold Dust
What this glaze does
A gold glaze with sparkle in it, and under direct light the sparkle carries flecks of red and brown rather than being a single flat glitter. It is one of the newer glazes in the line and it reads more like a mineral than a metal.
The sparkle is the whole point of this one, so it wants light on it. In a dim corner it goes quiet.
How much it varies
Steady color. The sparkle density depends on mixing and thickness.
Clays that suit Cosmic Gold Dust
Opaque, so the clay color has little say. Amaco recommends it over their Celadons, Potter's Choice and Satin Matte glazes, which means it is as often used over another glaze as over bare clay.
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
Amaco's instruction is specific: shake well, do not thin, three brush coats onto cone 04 bisque, each coat dry before the next.
How much it moves
Amaco's caution is about company rather than the glaze itself. Layered results may run if it is paired with a runny glaze.
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
Amaco says it layers well over their Celadons, other Potter's Choice glazes and their Satin Mattes, with the warning that pairing it with a runny glaze can make the combination move. Test the pairing on a tile first.
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 Cosmic Gold Dust 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 Cosmic Gold Dust
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. Amaco 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 Cosmic Gold Dust
Why is there no sparkle?
Thin application, or the glaze was not shaken. The sparkle sits in suspension and needs both a good mix and enough material on the pot.
Why did my layered pot run?
Amaco names this directly: the combination runs when this glaze is paired with a runny one.
What to put it on
Forms and surfaces
Forms that will be seen in good light, and accent bands rather than whole pots if you want the sparkle to register as a detail.
Colors beside it
Gold with red and brown flecks belongs beside deep browns, blacks and dark greens, where the sparkle has somewhere dark to shine against.
Food and function
Amaco rates this glaze food safe and dinnerware safe, lead free and AP Non-Toxic.
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 Tiles are numbered around the pot. 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 Cosmic Gold Dust
Saturation Gold gives a solid bronze without the sparkle. Cosmic Tea Dust is the dark brown sibling in the same sparkling family. Golden Honey covers the warm yellow ground.
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.