Have you ever taken the time to notice the frost that forms on your windows on cold winter nights?  Do you recall that sometimes the window is just covered with frost and other times the frost appears in large feathery crystals?  I use a similar process to grow these crystals.

Frost may form on your window when the outside temperature drops below the freezing point of water.  If this happens quickly, the water vapor near the window will deposit into tiny ice crystals or frost.  However, when condensed water or dew cools slowly, the conditions permit crystals to grow much larger and they take on delicate patterns.

 

All matte (non-glossy) glazes are crystalline glazes.  Similar to frost on a window, as these glazes cool, many tiny mineral crystals form producing the matte finish.  The process for growing larger crystals is more complex.  The specially formulated glaze is applied to the porcelain and fired to 2330 degrees Fahrenheit. A high temperature chemical reaction forms the mineral Willemite, which can freeze in the liquid glass around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.  The crystals grow as the glaze is slowly cooled through the mineral's "freezing" point which may take as long as 24 hours.  

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All work in this gallery is for sale.  Items are titled with : inventory #_height in cm_ price US$