Food Safe and Stable Glazes

Description

What is the course about?

If you mix up your own glazes, whether just picking recipes from books and web sites or running your own R&D program, this course will help you by showing you what makes glazes leach, or not be food safe, or craze, and what you can do about it.

Much of the content of this course was in the previous version of the Product Safety course, but I have now taken it out into a separate course as many on the Product Safety course do not mix their own glazes. This also allows me to go into the glaze chemistry in a bit more depth. 

Six weekly sessions, 19:00 – 20:30
Also recorded and put onto the course web page so you can view them at other times

The course begins with a quick recap of glaze chemistry and structure. It then looks at how glazes can be attacked in acidic (food) and alkaline (dishwasher) environments, and how you can make your glazes more stable. This includes using tools like Stull and limit formulae, as well as testing glazes in the studio and in the laboratory. 

To consider the food safety of glazes, we look at which components may be toxic and at what levels, and combine this with our work on glaze stability. We also look at food safety legislation .

We also consider crazing, to determine in which circumstances it may or may not be acceptable, what causes it, and methods by which you can avoid it.

What will I achieve?

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Understand what is meant by glaze stability
• Know how to use like the UMF, limit formulae, Stull chart and other guidelines to assess potential problems
• Understand the mechanisms of glaze leaching in both alkaline (dishwasher) and acidic (food) environments
• Understand which materials in glazes are potentially toxic, and how likely it is that a glaze will be toxic
• Know how to test glazes in the studio, and sending glazes to a laboratory for testing
• Take a glaze formula and improve its stability
• Understand the causes of crazing
• Take a glaze formula and increase or decrease its tendency to craze
• Understand the legislation and standards covering food safety and testing (UK, EU and USA)

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

Intermediate to advanced. Some basic knowledge of glaze chemistry and glaze formulation is required.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

The course is primarily run through the weekly online sessions, which are a live lecture where you can also ask questions or get a discussion going. These are recorded and put on the course web page for those who cannot make the course times due to time zones or other commitments, or for those who want to replay them.

Additional material that you may wish to explore is on the course website. This will help you go deeper into the subject matter, should you wish to do so.

There will also be a discussion period towards the end of the course, where we can discuss any of the course material or any more general questions you may have. The date and time will be set up at the start of the course, so as many people as possible can participate even if unable to attend the live sessions.

In addition, the course has an online forum that you can use at any time.

There will be suggestions for you to test some of your pieces and glazes between sessions.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

No advance preparation is needed.

You may want to test some of your work or test tiles (which will probably get damaged in the process). 
This mostly uses standard studio and kitchen equipment, though the following are useful if available:

• A pressure cooker
• Methylene blue or a similar dark stain (5ml is plenty)
• pH paper or a pH meter
• 50g of soda ash
• Vinegar or acetic acid
• Lemon juice or citric acid

You may also want to have some glaze recipes that you can examine during the course.

What do I get?

• Four live lectures with questions and discussions, lasting about 90 minutes each week
• Recordings of all lectures for later viewing
• Additional optional online course material, giving background info and greater depth
• A discussion period, set up at a date/time for most students to attend even if not able to attend the live sessions
• Dedicated online forum for discussion by all students on the course
• Downloadable PDFs of all presentations
• Premium level access to the Tech part of my web site, containing much more information, references etc.
• Course completion certificate