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How can ceramic glazes be given different colors?
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traditional ceramics
Stages in the slip casting of a thin-walled whiteware container. Clay powder is mixed in water together with a dispersing agent, which keeps the clay particles suspended evenly throughout the clay-water slurry, or slip. The slip is poured into a plaster mold, where water is drawn out by capillary action and a cast is formed by the deposition of clay particles on the inner surfaces of the mold. The remaining slip is drained, and the cast is allowed to dry partially before the drain hole is plugged and the mold separated. The unfinished ware is given a final drying in an oven before it is fired into a finished product.
Ceramic glazes are primarily colored through the addition of specific transition-metal or rare-earth elements to the glaze glass, or by suspending finely divided ceramic particles within the glaze mixture.1
Historically, these colors were achieved using various metallic oxides, which were either naturally present in the clay or added from external sources. Key oxides used to produce specific colors include:2
- Cobalt: Produces blue, ranging from grayish to deep sapphire.2
- Copper: Cupric oxide yields blues and, in a reducing atmosphere, a bluish red (reduced copper); cuprous oxide produces greens.2
- Iron: Ferric iron creates colors from pale yellow to black, including iron red, while ferrous iron produces green, as seen in celadon wares.2
- Manganese: Provides colors ranging from bright red-purple to dark purplish brown or black.23
- Antimony: Used to produce yellow.2
- Tin: Primarily used to create a white glaze.2
Additionally, lustre effects can be achieved by applying a colloid suspension of metals like gold, silver, platinum, or copper to a fired, glazed surface and subjecting it to a gentle final firing.2