The Blues
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The Blues is a glossy brush-on glaze from Mayco's Stroke & Coat line, fired cone 06 to cone 6.
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The quick version of The Blues
What this glaze does
A denim slate blue, softened with gray. Reads like worn indigo rather than a bright blue.
Clays that suit The Blues
Works on any of our bodies. On a speckled body the specks read through, which some colors benefit from and some fight.
Mayco note that some colors go more transparent at mid-range, so a light color over a dark body will not cover the way the tile suggests.
Applying this glaze to your work
One coat reads translucent and lets the clay show. Two to three coats gives solid color. Let each coat dry before the next, and remember it fires glossy without any clear over the top.
Apply to cone 04 bisque, or straight onto greenware or wet clay. Let each coat dry before the next.
One coat reads translucent and shows the clay. Two to three coats gives flat opaque color. Mayco recommend two to three for full coverage.
It fires glossy on its own. You do not need clear over it.
Layering
Does not move or blend into a neighboring color, so hard edges and lettering stay where you put them. Intermixable with the rest of the line if you want to mix your own shade.
Stroke & Coat colors do not move or blend into each other. You can butt two colors together or layer them without losing the edge, which is the whole reason the line exists.
The colors are intermixable, so you can mix your own shades from what is on the shelf.
Two of ours, Grapel and Orkid, are made with chrome-tin pigments. Mayco warn those can haze under a zinc-bearing clear glaze.
From The Clay Hole University
More info about The Blues 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 The Blues
Mayco rate Stroke & Coat from cone 06 to cone 6, with most colors holding to cone 10. Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, so the tile on this page shows what the color does 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 The Blues
Why is mine patchy or see-through?
Coats. One coat is meant to be translucent. Two to three is where the color goes solid.
Do I need clear glaze over it?
No. It fires glossy on its own.
Food and function
Mayco list Stroke & Coat as food safe and dinnerware safe when used as directed. If you are selling functional ware, test your own finished work on your own clay.
Mayco list Stroke & Coat as food safe and dinnerware safe when used as directed.
As with anything on our shelf, if you are selling functional ware, test your own finished work on your own clay.
Our test tile pots
This family does not have a test tile pot. The colors and results come out close enough to what the book shows that a pot would not tell you much more, so work from the printed Glaze Bible and the tile above.
About the Mayco Stroke & Coat Family
Sixty colors, and the line most members reach for first. Mayco call Stroke & Coat their Wonderglaze and it earns the name: it goes on wet clay, greenware or bisque, and it fires to a gloss with no clear glaze over the top.
It is heavily pigmented and it does not move. Two colors brushed up against each other stay where you put them, which is why it is the line for drawing, lettering and hard edges.
One coat is translucent. Two to three coats is opaque. That single fact decides most of what a Stroke & Coat pot looks like. Mayco rate the line from cone 06 all the way to cone 6, with most colors holding to cone 10. Our glaze kilns run cone 5½, near the top of that window, so every tile on this page shows the color at our cone rather than at the cone 06 chip in Mayco's book.
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.