Kiln & Glaze

Throw it, glaze it, fire it, then open the kiln

A small pottery studio. You center clay on the wheel and pull the walls into a bowl, a vase or a bottle. You mix a glaze from a base and a handful of oxides, then load the kiln and decide how hot it goes, whether to starve it of air, and how fast it cools. Raw glaze looks like grey chalk, so you only find out what you made when you open the door.

Play now Runs in your browser · no install · works on phones

How to play

1Put some clay on the wheel, press and hold until it runs true, then drag the handles to pull the walls.
2Glaze it: pick a base, add oxides one pass at a time, and choose how thick to dip.
3Load the kiln, pick a cone and a cooling, and fire. In the gas kiln, close the damper while the glazes melt and see what changes.

What's in it

36 named glazes drawn from real ceramics: celadon, tenmoku, hare's fur, oil spot, copper red, Jun blue, shino and more
Seven oxides, four glaze bases and three dip thicknesses to combine
Firing that matters: cone 04, 6 or 10, oxidation or reduction, slow cooling or a crash cool
Electric, gas and wood kilns, each with its own tricks
Stoneware, red earthenware, porcelain and speckled clay, each fired differently
Orders from people in town who want a certain form in a certain colour

The meta layer

Every new glaze goes onto a pegboard of test tiles with its recipe and firing written down. Sell pots or fill orders for coins and reputation, buy notes that hint at the glazes you have not found, and work up to the gas kiln, porcelain, chrome and manganese, shino, and finally the wood kiln.

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