Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes: Innovative, Lab-Tested Techniques and Recipes

by Gabriel Kline, Bill Collins Ph.D.

Overview

Create stunning, food-safe glazes for functional pottery.

Take your ceramics to the next level with Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes, the essential guide for potters who want to create beautiful, functional pieces designed for everyday use.

A collaboration between noted potter and author Gabriel Kline and chemist Bill Collins, PhD, this unique book explores the science of glaze formulation, explaining essential testing techniques, equipment, and materials, demystifying the science of food-safe ceramics while empowering artists with reliable, studio-friendly methods.

Discover a variety of recipes, techniques, and tips for creating vibrant colors, unique textures, and glossy or matte finishes—all tested for safety and reliability in functional pottery.

• Comprehensive guidance on glaze safety: Learn essential information about toxic materials, leaching, and testing glazes for food use.
• Step-by-step tutorials: From mixing and applying glazes to troubleshooting common issues, this book covers every stage of the process.
• More than 100 beautiful food-safe glaze recipes and combinations: Tested and approved finishes suitable for mid- and high-fire temperatures and clays.
• Inspiration from master ceramists: Explore stunning examples of food-safe pottery to spark your creativity.

Whether you’re a beginner looking to make your first food-safe bowl or an experienced potter wanting to expand your glaze library, Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes will become your go-to resource for creating ceramics that are as functional as they are beautiful.

The Mastering Ceramics series is for artists who never stop learning. With compelling projects, expert insight, step-by-step photos, and galleries of work from today’s top artists, these books are the perfect studio companions. Also available from the series: Amazing Glaze, Mastering Hand Building, Mastering Kilns and Firing, and Mastering the Potter’s Wheel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760392287
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Series:	Mastering Ceramics Series
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gabriel Kline is a professional potter who has taught ceramics classes for nearly two decades. He is the founder and director of Odyssey ClayWorks. Gabriel serves as the resident artist program director, fostering connections with university programs and up-and-coming artists from around the world. He also directs Odyssey’s community volunteer and non-profit work, including partnerships with various substance abuse and recovery programs as well as Creative Forces, a collaboration between the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and state arts agencies. He is the author of Amazing Glaze and Amazing Glaze Recipes and Combinations and is the co-author of Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including The Complete Guide to Mid-Range Glazes and the 500 series. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina. 

The co-author of Amazing Glaze Food-Safe Recipes, Bill Collins, PhD, is a professor of chemistry at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. He joined the college in 2011. With a background in synthetic organic and materials chemistry, his research focuses on developing and analyzing chemically durable glasses for ceramic applications, bringing a rigorous scientific approach to the testing and formulation of food-safe glazes. Before joining Fort Lewis, Dr. Collins was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, studying graphene and carbon nanotube chemistry. He lives in Durango, Colorado.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Introduction

1 | Defining “Food Safe” 
A Term without Legal Definition 
Drinking Water Standards 
Beyond Leaching: Other Considerations 
The Art of Science: Rose and Matt Katz 
Gallery 

2 | Testing For Food Safety 
How We Test Our Glazes 
The Lab Tests 
What We Test For (and Why!) 
The Art of Science: Linda Bloomfield 
Gallery 

3 | Anatomy of a Glaze 
What’s in a Glaze? 
Complex Ingredients Made Simple 
UMF Formula and Stull Charts Made Simple 
The Art of Science: John Britt 
Gallery 

4 | Food-Safe Glaze Recipes and Combinations 
Mixing Glazes Safely 
Liners and the Safe Use of Unstable Glazes 
Cone 6 Recipes 
Cone 10 Recipes 
Ultimate Peace of Mind: Glazes with Nothing to Test For 
Glazes for Mason Stains 
Combinations 
The Art of Science: Joe Thompson
Gallery

5 | Firing for Durability
Heatwork: Cones and TempCheks
Firing Schedules and Best Practices
Reduction Firing
Glaze Defects and Troubleshooting
Finishing and Refiring
Oxidation Versus Reduction
The Art of Science: Alex Thullen
Gallery

Charts, Tables, and Resources
Appendix A: Other Glazes We Tested
Appendix B: Combination Test Results
Appendix C: Oxides and Stains
Appendix D: Cone Chart/TempChek Chart
Appendix E: List of Labs
Appendix F: Online Resources

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index