Glaze Chemistry Workshop

Step into the colour lab and discover the science and artistry behind ceramic glazes. This hands-on workshop is designed for potters who want to better understand what goes into a glaze — and how to apply it with confidence and intention.
In a small, supportive group, we’ll break down glaze chemistry into approachable concepts while working directly with raw materials. You’ll mix your own test glazes from base recipes and learn how different ingredients affect colour, surface, and melting.
Together, we’ll explore:
• The basic components of a glaze (silica, alumina, fluxes)
• How glaze materials work and why they matter
• Measuring and mixing glazes safely and accurately
• Sieving, labelling, and storing your mixtures
• Testing methods and how to read results: Specific Gravity
The workshop also focuses on proper glaze application to bisque, including:
• Dipping, pouring, and brushing techniques
• Achieving even coverage and consistent thickness
• Layering and combining glazes
• Preventing common issues like drips, crawling, and pinholes
All materials are included, and students will prepare test tiles and glaze samples for firing.

With a small class size, the atmosphere is intimate, curious, and collaborative — part lab, part studio conversation.

Whether you’re new to glaze chemistry or looking to deepen your understanding, this workshop will give you the tools to move beyond commercial glazes and develop your own surfaces with confidence.
Perfect for beginner to intermediate potters who want to bring more knowledge, control, and creative intention to their glazing practice.
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2027, 11am-1pm
Location: Kate Metten Ceramics, 416 East Broadway, Vancouver

Find out more at www.katemetten.com

Kate Metten works at the intersection of painting and ceramics, blurring material hierarchies with formal abstraction. Her practice moves fluidly between the studio and the exhibition space, balancing a body of contemporary artwork with a line of hand-thrown tableware that redefines the rituals of everyday use.

​Rooted in West Coast Modernism and informed by years of material research, Metten’s ceramics are both functional and sculptural — vessels that embody precision, rhythm, and touch. Each piece reflects her commitment to the handmade as a form of quiet resistance to mass production and disposability.

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Kate's distinctive creations have been featured in shops at Vancouver Art Gallery, Polygon Gallery, and the Museum of Vancouver, at Wil Aballe Art Projects and Kasko Gallery, as well as internationally through Simons Fabrique 1840, NCECA, and British Vogue.

​Recipient of the 2023 Judson Beaumont BC Achievement Award in Applied Art and Design, Kate continues to explore the threshold between utility and art — where a mug becomes a conversation, and a vessel becomes a field of light, colour, and meaning.

​Kate Metten's studio operates on a zero-waste model, cultivating recycled clay and using locally sourced raw materials. Adapting historical ceramic traditions to an urban context, Kate harvests clay from Vancouver’s construction sites, transforming industrial by-products into vessels of renewal. Acknowledging the site specificity of the material and inspired by the natural world, her wheel-thrown forms are defined by a personal language of colour and glaze. Through years of material research, she has developed a palette of rare-earth neodymium glazes that explore light, perception, and optical depth — a dialogue between science and craft.

Function lies at the heart of Kate Metten’s ceramics — a quiet critique of modern disposable culture. Each piece is meticulously handcrafted to endure, inviting touch, use, and the intimacy of daily ritual.

​Each piece reflects a deep study of clay’s tactile intelligence and its conversation with contemporary abstraction. Working intuitively, Kate allows her process to reveal the balance between hand and mind in motion — objects emerging as both evidence and expression of human presence.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Kate Metten Ceramics