What Is Crazing In Ceramics

Crazing is a glaze defect of glazed pottery.

What is crazing in ceramics.

A craze pattern can develop immediately after removal from the kiln or years later. Crazing refers to small hairline cracks in glazed surfaces that usually appear after firing but can appear years later. Crazing can be present in varying degrees. Crazing appears when ceramic is cooled and the glaze shrinks more than the clay to which it is rigidly attached.

It can also occur in pottery some plastics and composition materials such as the face of a composition doll that has not been properly stored. They often have a spiderweb like appearance. Glaze crazing or glaze crackle is a network of lines or cracks in the fired glazed surface. It is caused by a mismatch in the thermal expansions of glaze and body.

They are not cracks in the actual piece of pottery but rather surface level cracks in the fired glazed of the piece. Sometimes items may have a couple of crazing lines on one side and not the other other times the crazing can look like a spider web and cover the entire item. What does crazing mean on china. The cause of crazing is the glaze being put under too much tension.

Crazing translates to fine cracks in the glaze or surface layer of porcelain wares. Crazing is a term used to reference fine cracks that can be found in the glaze of pottery or china. We lakeside pottery know of cases where the pinging sounds of newly developed crazing lines go for many years. It happens when a glaze is under tension.