Alisa Liskin Clausen Ceramics

07/07/2026

07/07/2026

With ceramic materials changing or disappearing, being replaced with similar ones, not available in all countries, etc. I have been experimenting with replacing one oxide from different sources.

This is a glaze I like a lot, use a lot and wanted to make it with the Magnesium sourced not by Dolomite, but by both Talc or Magnesium Carb. light.

Using Glazy to look at the Stull map, while adjusting the UMF analysis to be similar to the original recipe with Dolomite, it is totally possible to make the same glaze with two different Magnesium sources. So fear not, if a material you need is not on the shelf, you may be able to reformulate the recipe with an differentt source, but same oxide.

Obviously, there are few oxides that are just those oxides, so they are not easily or entirely replaceable.

12/06/2026

Some more tests for Folk Art Guild White, page 76. Base only with additions. The opacifier used impacts the color a lot. All of the tiles have 1.5% Copper Carb. added to base with the additions of from left to right
6% Tin, 4.5% Titanium Diox., 4.5% Zircon.

08/06/2026

Kohiki Slip.

35 Kaolin
30 Goldart (used CF2 Begitteler)
25 Nepheline Syenite
10 Wollastonite

Mix to the thickness of yogurt and let slake over night. Apply with a stiff brush to make a design pattern that will determine the patterns of the cracking when stretching the slab.

Some very nice surfaces for sculptural work. It is a fairly easy technique. After applying the slip to the clay, use a hair dryer to stiffen the slip, but not dry it out. The shine will disappear but it is still moist.

Stretch the slab and the slip will crack into designs, all depending how it was applied. Best to use a broad brush which will leave brush marks. The slip will crack in those patterns created by the brush.

More contrast if used on a dark clay body or colored with oxides or stains.

10/05/2026

A great reunion at the MET, of glaze nerds with Amaco’s glaze designer and experimental ceramic designer Cory Brown and Glazy’s author Derek Au. Ceramic artist Nuokan Huang.

28/04/2026

A lot of nice green variations with the same base I have been testing. See all the variations here https://glazy.org/recipes/125021 and here https://www.flickr.com/photos/glazes/
The original recipe had Gerstley Borate and I revised the recipe with boron frit JM169. Try Frit 3134 if you have that.

03/04/2026

One base that fits my clay and has a surface I like. Color it!
See all of the additives on glazy here https://glazy.org/recipes/125021.

The top row are all with Cobalt Carb. additions. The bottom row are all with Copper Carb. additions. Using one base, and making increment additions, can yield a lot of tests using minimal materials. 100g. of wet glaze, with increments, can make between 2-5 test tiles. I build them up.

For example starting with one cup, add 0.5% Cobalt Carb., 1.0% Cobalt Carb. (adding just 0.5% more of Cobalt Carb. to get to 1.0%), 2% Tin, 5% Tin (adding 3% Tin to get to 5% Tin), 2% Titanium Diox., 0.5% RIO.
6 tests. Not 100% accurate because each dip takes a little of the 100% base, but good enough to see what I want to further test.

Keep notes, document photos, compare test tiles. Make more tests.

11/03/2026

There are some glaze bases which I work on a lot because they show some really nice results with colorants, opacifiers and modifyers. One of them is Folk Art Guild White, popular for cone 6 for it's dependability.

I have made many color tests, yet repeating them have given me some different results. The first set showed a milky base and all of the subsequent tests, showed a clear gloss base.

I continued to test and retest the same colorants. I make increment tests to cut down an the amount of test glaze base used.

Here is one example of the varied fired surfaces I got for the same colorants. Three tests from 3 different mixes of the same base glaze. Maybe my scale was not fine calibrated, or I was just not being accurate enough.

I am still retesting some of the colorant mixtures to omit which ones are way off and which ones I can repeat accurately.

My base is a revision of the original recipe with Danish materials. Pretty sure the colorants will behave similarly in the original recipe as the analyses are very similar.

https://glazy.org/recipes/125021

13/02/2026

I make a lot of glaze tests. One way to save some time and glaze ingredients is to get the most out of 100g. test batch of glaze. Although the results may not be 100% accurate for a bigger batch, because each dip takes out some of the 100 grams, it is close enough to decide to continue with the glaze or not.

Here is how I make a list prior to testing a base I am going to color. I make increments of coloring oxides. opacifiers and crystallizer, which are based on previous combinations which I liked in other bases. It is also a good practice to make notes, so that you can match your test tiles to your notes, in case you labeled a test tile wrong. It can happen when you are making lots of tiles and lose concentration for a moment. I make mistakes, but can correct them by looking at the tile and thinking "that makes no sense" and then my notes tell me what the colorants really are.

I go by oxide. Here, first is the Cobalt list. Incremental additions to 7 x 100g. batches, yielding 17 test tiles.

The Copper tests have 6 x 100g. yielding 19 tests.