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If you are starting out with BOTZ, the best place to begin is the earthenware range between 1020 and 1060 °C: the glazes are ready to use, need no special equipment and are more forgiving than a high firing. For your first projects, five jars are enough - a transparent base glaze and four opaque colours that give a clean result even if your application is a little uneven. More important than the choice of colour are two pieces of information on the jar: whether the glaze tends to run and whether it is recommended for tableware. Both appear as pictograms on the label - and we explain both here with concrete examples.
BOTZ offers glazes for very different temperature ranges, from engobes from 900 °C up to stoneware glazes at 1280 °C. For beginners, there is a lot to be said for the earthenware line with its range of 1020 to 1060 °C.
The first reason is practical: almost every hobby kiln and every course kiln reaches this temperature without any problem. The second is economic - earthenware is by far our widest line, so you will find something for almost every colour idea, and you also fire in an energy-saving way.
What you should know: earthenware is usually not fired to density in this range. Many clays still absorb water at 1020 to 1100 °C. For mugs, bowls and decorative pieces this is not a problem; a vase that has to hold water permanently is better off in the stoneware range.
A list of recommendations is only as good as its criteria, so we lay them open. For beginners, what counts is not which colour is the most beautiful, but which glaze is least likely to go wrong. All five meet these criteria:
The transparent glaze is the most versatile jar on the shelf: it seals painted surfaces without changing the colour underneath and, according to BOTZ, is the ideal top glaze for Unidekor. So if you want to paint with underglaze colours, you definitely need it.
One rule is not negotiable, and it is printed on the jar: apply only once, ideally with a soft, thick brush, adding a little water if necessary. Two coats make the glaze milky instead of clear - the most common mistake with this colour. It is recommended for dinnerware and is also suitable for raku.
Lilac Blue is the glaze we would most readily hand to beginners. It is opaque and glossy, melts out very well and does not tend to run even at 1100 °C. That takes away two worries at once: no streaks with uneven application, no puddle on the kiln shelf.
On top of that, it also gives good results on coloured clays - so if you work with red clay, you don't have to allow for a colour shift. Recommended for dinnerware.
Pumpkin Orange has the same forgiving properties as Lilac Blue: an opaque light orange, good results on coloured clays too, melts out cleanly and doesn't run even at 1100 °C. Together with Lilac Blue it makes a pair that covers warm and cool - often enough choice for your first projects.
Maize Yellow is a bright yellow and recommended for dinnerware. BOTZ suggests combining it with the glaze 9501 Carnival - a hint that Maize Yellow works well as a base tone for multicoloured pieces. Like the others, it can be fired up to 1100 °C.
Purple is an opaque, intense dark violet and therefore the strongest colour of the five. It covers completely, which makes it interesting for objects where the clay should not show through. BOTZ recommends combining it with 9514 Autumn Aster. Also suitable for dinnerware and can be fired up to 1100 °C.
The most exciting surfaces in the range are effect glazes - for example 9536 Cumulus, where intense blue flowing specks draw floral patterns on a champagne-coloured base. No two pieces look alike. They are wonderful, but unsuitable as a first glaze: their result depends more on application thickness, temperature and position in the kiln, and if you don't have a reference yet, it is hard to make sense of a failed firing. Save them until you know how your kiln behaves - then they become a pleasure instead of troubleshooting.
The equipment for getting started is manageable - it only gets expensive later.
A bristle brush is essential; it is the standard for applying glaze. For the transparent glaze you should have a soft, thick brush ready, because it is applied in one go. You also need something to stir with: the glaze settles in the jar and must be stirred vigorously before every use, otherwise the consistency won't be right.
You should also plan for kiln wash for the kiln shelves. It is brushed on two to three times and fired along with the bisque firing - and spares you the moment when a running glaze ruins the shelf.
BOTZ glazes come in two sizes: 200 millilitres and 800 millilitres. For your first projects, the small jar is the sensible choice - you try out several colours instead of committing to one early on. Only once you know which colour will become your standard is the large jar worthwhile; per litre it is considerably cheaper.
Don't underestimate how far it goes. Liquid glazes seem more expensive than powder, but they aren't: 800 millilitres of BOTZ correspond to roughly 1.4 to 1.8 kilograms of powder glaze. On top of that, nothing is spoiled by incorrect mixing and there are no leftovers you have to dispose of.
The shelf life is on average two to three years after purchase, and some glazes keep considerably longer. What matters are the storage conditions: no frost, no heat, no large temperature fluctuations. If a glaze has thickened, it is not lost - you stir it back to a brushable consistency with a little water. A practical tip for the jar itself: after use, clean the rim well and pour a little water on top, which you only stir in next time. That way nothing dries onto the lid.
By the way, there is one worry you can spare yourself: BOTZ liquid glazes are lead-free and free of labelling requirements, which means they contain no hazardous substances in concentrations that require labelling. And because they are liquid, they don't create dust - the strain on the airways that comes from mixing powder glazes is eliminated completely. The usual studio rules still apply: don't eat, drink or smoke while working, wash your hands afterwards, and only let children work under supervision.
If you make tableware, you soon come across the term "food-safe". BOTZ itself is clear on this: this term does not exist in ceramics. What counts is something else - the pictogram "recommended for tableware". Only glazes that have passed an acid and alkali test according to DIN standard carry it.
Four of the five glazes presented here carry this pictogram. Not included in general are matt, strongly metallic and crackled surfaces: with these, the glaze is not closed enough, so residues can build up. For the outside of a vase that doesn't matter, for the inside of a cereal bowl it does.
And a second point that is often confused with the glaze: whether your piece holds liquid is decided by the clay, not the glaze. Ceramics only become watertight once the clay body is sintered - ask your clay supplier for the sintering temperature.
The question of the dishwasher depends on this too. Handmade pottery is best washed by hand. High-fired ceramics can occasionally handle the dishwasher; in the earthenware range it is not advisable. BOTZ tested this with two identical bowls - one washed around fifty times in the machine, the other just as often by hand - and the difference is clearly visible in the end. There is a second point: low-fired ware absorbs water when washed and must then dry in a well-ventilated place before it goes into the cupboard.
Too many coats. BOTZ glazes are usually applied two to three times, each coat crosswise to the previous one and only once the previous one has dried. More material does not mean more colour, but more mass that has to flow somewhere during the firing. The transparent 9102 is the exception: only once.
Glazing right down to the edge. The foot of your object stays bare, and the bottom third is glazed sparingly. Otherwise anything that runs ends up on the kiln shelf.
Glazing onto the wrong surface. The glaze belongs on a clay body free of dust and grease. Fingerprints from sanding or dust from the bisque firing mean that the glaze does not adhere evenly - you only see the bare spots after the firing. A quick dusting and not touching it with greasy fingers is usually enough.
By the way: before glazing comes the bisque firing. Traditionally it is fired between 850 and 900 °C; BOTZ gives a good reason to go to around 950 °C instead - then the clay is largely degassed and no longer disturbs the glaze in the second firing with rising gases, which avoids blisters and craters.
The glaze pulls together. Areas where the clay body is bare after firing, while the glaze next to it has run together into a bead, are known in the studio as crawling. The causes are almost always the same three: the coat had not dried through, the clay body was not completely free of grease and dust, or the surface was so rough that the glaze could not grip evenly. Against the last one, it helps to thin the first coat with a little water and work it properly into the texture with the brush.
And the most important sentence for beginners: a failed piece is not lost. You fill bare spots with glaze, let them dry thoroughly, glaze over the whole piece once more with a soft brush and fire again. This works for the vast majority of defects - far too much pottery is thrown away that a second firing would have saved.
Firing too early. Glazed ware must dry thoroughly before firing, for at least a whole day. Moisture under the glaze looks for a way out during heating. How firing temperature and hold time affect the result is explained in detail in the article on the firing curve for the glaze firing.
You will find all five glazes in the earthenware range, and more answers on application, firing and processing are in our frequently asked questions.
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