Shrinkage & glaze tools for your pieces
Choose a target color to find the nearest broad colorant or proven-glaze family worth testing at cone 5-6. Screen color cannot predict fired glaze color: the base glaze, clay body, application, atmosphere, heatwork, and cooling can dominate. Most shared-studio electric kilns are operated in oxidation; confirm the actual firing with the kiln owner.
Screen samples identify broad test families. Consult the exact stain or glaze’s current instructions: Mason compatibility guide, matte-glaze mechanisms. Material-specific notes are in the Oxide Guide. External references need a connection.
Experimental chemistry comparison. Enter a recipe to compare its oxide chemistry - the same silica, alumina, and flux idea from your course, applied to your own numbers. This covers a small, sourced set of materials, not every material in the industry. It does not determine maturity, surface, durability, food-contact suitability, or fit.
Records the dry recipe of a glaze your studio already uses, separately from how it looks. A Surface Plan is a picture; this is the ingredient list. Recording a recipe here does not check, approve, or certify it - it stores what your studio told you, so Test Tile Blends can work from an exact recipe instead of one retyped from memory.
Use several words to narrow the list, such as blue cone 6.
Scale only the exact recipe and batch size approved by your studio. These are dry weights; water, wet glaze, and proprietary bottled glazes need separate instructions. Scaling does not establish firing suitability or food safety.
1–10,000g of base, before additions. Base parts are normalized; each addition stays a percentage of that base. For example, a 100g base plus a 1% addition totals 101g dry powder.
Checkmarks are temporary and reset when you change the batch. Use your studio’s verified balance and record actual weights in the piece or test-tile notes. Recipe scaling reference.
Glaze Calculator reports a recipe as oxides. This explains what each of those oxides contributes and what more or less of it tends to do. These are tendencies, not rules: the whole recipe, the exact material, thickness, atmosphere, and the firing all change the result.
A "cone" is how potters measure firing heat. It accounts for both temperature and how long the kiln holds that heat, not just a thermometer reading - the same peak temperature reached slowly or quickly can bend a different cone.
Numbering: in the leading-zero series, smaller numbers are hotter: cone 04 is hotter than cone 06. After cone 01 comes cone 1; from there, higher numbers are hotter (cone 10 is hotter than cone 6).
These are Orton regular self-supporting cone equivalents at 108°F / 60°C per hour over the last 180°F / 100°C of heating. Cone size, mounting height, atmosphere, heating rate, and holds affect bending. These are reference values, not kiln controller setpoints. Record witness cones in the load. Orton charts and instructions.
| Cone | °F | °C |
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Tap a problem below to see likely causes and what to try next. These are general starting points, not guaranteed fixes - test on a small batch first.
Reviewed September 11, 2026. Defect reference · Crawling investigation. External references need a connection.
Tap a colorant to see material-form differences and firing notes.
Release and functional performance depend on the complete glaze and body, raw-material analyses, application, heatwork, and cooling. Crazing, shivering, roughness, marking, or poor cleanability are separate reasons not to use a surface for food or drink.
HSE glaze preparation controls · FDA lead guidance · FDA cadmium guidance. Follow current local requirements and product SDSs. External references need a connection.
Choose pieces that were in this firing. Each receives its own copy of these conditions; later load edits do not rewrite it. Pieces already attached are skipped.
Searches the selected record type. Every search word must appear somewhere in a record.
Your pieces, photos, clay bodies, recipes, surface plans, and studio records are saved in this browser on this device. Download a backup after important changes and before moving devices or clearing site data. Keep that file somewhere you can recover it.
After validation and a count preview, each dataset included in the file replaces that dataset in the app. Datasets omitted from an older partial backup are left unchanged.
The earlier copy was retained during the protected upgrade. Changes made in an older open tab stay in that separate copy. Export it here if you need to recover those edits; restoring a file replaces the datasets in it.
Plan where colors and glazes go on a piece. The colors and finishes here are for organizing your plan, not a prediction of the fired result - real color and gloss depend on your base glaze, application, and the kiln.
Two fixed illustrations (front-on and from above), not a real 3D spin - swap between them with the button above.
Color-placement illustration only. Shape, color, sheen, and speckles are schematic; the complete glaze, clay, application, heatwork, atmosphere, and cooling determine fired results.
Record your intended coat for the plan. The illustration stays neutral because thickness does not shift every real glaze in the same direction.
Even at the same requested cone, heatwork can vary by shelf and schedule. This planner does not simulate that change: real glazes may shift color, melt, crystals, or defects in either direction. Use witness cones and fired tests.
These are color/shape layout plans, not actual glaze recipes.
Some photos could not be read from this browser’s storage. This photo check has not changed or deleted your records. Try reloading the app; if it keeps happening, back up your data before making other changes.
Plan a bounded addition series or a two-glaze blend from documented dry recipes with recorded fired results. Save five linked tiles, then record actual weights, application, photos, and observations. Glaze Calculator can check whether flux, alumina, and silica are represented, but it cannot prove that a recipe melts, is durable, or is suitable at a particular cone.
Keeps the exact recipes and planned amounts. Each tile gets a permanent label, its own photo, actual weights, and firing log. Mark the labels on your physical tiles.