Advancing Glazes
Master your glaze chemistry to make your artist skill meet your artistic vision.
Course Overview
The ceramic artist strives to create glaze surfaces that, as a component of concept and content, enhance form through texture and color. The beauty of ceramic glazes comes from subtle nuances of chemistry. The intermingling of silicate bonds, crystallization, and kiln atmospheres dictate the qualities of the glaze. A fundamental understanding of the principles and properties involved in glaze science is essential if the ceramic artist can exert any control in the successful outcome of the work.
Advancing Glazes will take an intensive approach to the study and analysis of glazes. Students will research the nature of glaze effects, surfaces, and colors. The focus of the course is to provide students with technical and empirical knowledge about the composition, application and fired effects of ceramic glazes and ultimately, to aid them in making better-informed decisions as they strive to realize their vision.
***We require students take the full class of Understanding Glazes Online to establish the foundational information used extensively in Advancing Glazes class. The concepts in Understanding Glazes Online are paramount and are built upon in Advancing Glazes and are key in excelling in our Advancing Glazes class.***
Sample Video
Course Outline
- Hic Sunt Dracones – We have to go backwards to go forward
- Introduction to Special Effect Glazes and Colors
- Review, Renew, Refresh
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 1 – The Subtitles of Glaze Calculation
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 2 – Fluxes and Performance
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 3 – Glaze Durability
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 4 – Temperature and Sculpture Glazes
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 5 – Thermal Expansion
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 6 – Phase Separation
- Subtleties of Stull-Pt 7 – Zinc
- Iron, Man – Iron
- Heavy Metal – Copper
- Color Me Mine – Nature of Color
- Color-ants – Function of Color
- FX – Special Effects
Course Announcements
Now enrolling in October 2023 Session
- ​Class is 6% full​
- Sign up today to reserve your spot!
Enrollment
Lectures Only Vs. Full Course
Lectures Only Option – $400
You can begin right now. Enroll and start learning today!
If you want just the lectures:
- You can start RIGHT NOW!
- $400 for unlimited access to all of the Advancing Glazes lectures
- Over 17 hours of content
- Includes four months of access to course materials
- Upgrade option available to full course for only additional tuition $200 + upgrade fee $100
- Enroll Here!
- Note this options does not include labs or live Q&A discussions


Full Course Option – $600
Now Accepting Enrollment in October 2023 Session!
If you want to experience the full course:
- The next class session begins October 1st and with 4 months of access
- $600 for the full experience
- Full experience course includes:
- 15 total – 1 to 2 hour on-demand lectures
- Live bi-weekly online Q&A discussions on Tuesdays 10am Wednesdays 2pm and Thursdays 8pm EST (NYC time)
- Hands on learning lab experiments and readings
- Copies of our lectures notes
- Registration is open now and is LIMITED! Reserve your spot now!
- Full Class of Understanding Glazes required regardless of experience
- Email us to enroll
We’ve bundled together our 3 best selling Lectures Only courses at a great price! Save $150!
- $1050 for 12 months of unlimited access to Lectures Only Understanding Glazes, Lectures Only Intro to Clay Bodies and Lectures Only Advancing Glazes
- Upgrade option available to each of the full courses for only additional tuition $200 + upgrade fee $100 per course
- Enroll Here!
- Note this option does not include labs or live Q&A discussions
Instructor
Meet Your Instructor Matt Katz


Matt Katz has been teaching for years at world class institutions including The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University.
Course Reviews
What Students are Saying
★★★★★
“You both have totally changed my ceramics, I am having the best year ever! Best thing I have done in my career was to take your courses.”
~
Ellen M. – Student, Advancing Glazes – July 2021
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions
Science? Are you going to make me learn chemistry?
Yes! Glazes are chemical reactions, and to understand them, we have to understand chemistry.
Have no fear, part of how we teach is to craft information to make it relevant and understandable for you.
But I’m an artist. Science doesn’t apply to us. We use materials differently.
Science always applies. Yes, artists have a special approach to how we think about and use materials. We have to be considerate of what it going on in our materials. Ceramics is a scientific process, even if the result is art.
The ceramics community is wonderful, but is also filled with rumors and speculation about how things work. That information is often wrong or misleading, that can lead to work not surviving the making process. We use the best information and research to teach you how your materials REALLY work. All of our teachings are backed up by research and data, no rumors or speculation.
I live in Country X, can I participate?
We’ve taught people on every continent except Antarctica (Still no kilns down there, last we heard). The great thing about glaze chemistry is that it is universal. You may have different materials, than we do, but it makes no difference to how glazes work.
I work at temperature X, is this class relevant to me?
Yes, we talk about glazes as a whole. All firing temperatures are interrelated. We’ll teach you all of the hows and whys of all glazes.