Olive Float
SW-151
Olive Float is a satin brush-on glaze from Mayco's Various Families line, fired cone 5 to cone 10.
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Friendly studio tip for this glaze
Various is our own shelf grouping for the Glaze Bible, not one of Mayco's line names. Mayco put this one in their Stoneware Crystal line.
The quick version of Olive Float
What this glaze does
A black ground with an olive green float sitting on top. The float gathers where the glaze pools.
Clays that suit Olive Float
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.
Applying this glaze to your work
Two to three even coats on cone 04 bisque, drying between 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
Built to layer with the rest of the Mayco stoneware range, and many of these break over texture to show a second color underneath.
Mayco design 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.
From The Clay Hole University
More info about Olive Float 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
Firing Olive Float
Mayco intend the stoneware range for cone 5 to 6 and say it stays stable at cone 10. Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, so the tile here is ours at our cone.
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 Olive Float
Why is my surface uneven?
Coat thickness. Two to three even coats.
Why does it look different from the pot photo?
Clay body and thickness both move these more than most lines.
Food and function
Mayco list their stoneware glazes as dinnerware safe when used as directed, except where they mark otherwise. Test your own finished work if you sell functional ware.
Mayco list their stoneware glazes as dinnerware safe when used as directed, except where they mark otherwise.
The texture glazes are the ones to watch. Mayco recommend Mudcrack and Magma for decorative surfaces only, because of the surface they create.
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 Mayco Various Families 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.
About the Mayco Various Families Family
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 their book.
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 intend the stoneware range for cone 5 to 6 and say it stays stable at cone 10. Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, so every tile here is ours at our cone.
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.