Glaze type · Base glazes & colours
Purple
Across 131 published recipes: mostly cone 6 and cone 5, fired in oxidation and reduction; Glossy, opaque.
Materials that define it
Share of recipes containing each material, and the typical amount when present. Materials link to their reference pages.
| Material | In recipes | Typical | Half of recipes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silica | 87% | 20% | 16–27.12% |
| Whiting | 58% | 12.9% | 8.04–18.25% |
| EPK | 44% | 9% | 4.99–14.07% |
| Cobalt carbonate | 42% | 0.6% | 0.25–2% |
| Dolomite | 38% | 6.5% | 6–10.59% |
| Tin oxide | 38% | 2.83% | 2–5% |
| Nepheline syenite | 35% | 19.14% | 16–32.09% |
| Gerstley borate | 33% | 12.7% | 8.44–18% |
| Zinc oxide | 33% | 3.28% | 2.7–5% |
| Kaolin | 31% | 7.2% | 5–15% |
| Bentonite | 30% | 2% | 2–2% |
| Chrome oxide | 27% | 0.17% | 0.1–0.25% |
| Custer feldspar | 25% | 37.34% | 30.54–50% |
| Talc | 24% | 13.6% | 8.62–15% |
Typical fired chemistry
Median oxide analysis (weight %) across the recipes that report one, with the interquartile range. Silica and alumina set the melt; the fluxes and colorants make the family.
| Oxide | Median | Half of recipes |
|---|---|---|
| SiO2 | 52.61% | 47.36–57.82% |
| Al2O3 | 9.52% | 8–11.45% |
| B2O3 | 3.37% | 1.89–5.32% |
| Na2O | 2.31% | 1.65–3.83% |
| K2O | 2.29% | 1.01–4.11% |
| CaO | 7.83% | 5.12–11.46% |
| MgO | 1.16% | 0.11–4.41% |
| ZnO | 3% | 2.6–4.84% |
| SnO2 | 2.94% | 1.9–4.72% |
| CoO | 0.47% | 0.28–1.21% |
What potters should know
Cobalt with magnesium and manganese with alkaline fluxes are the two classic routes to purple.
Related types
Questions
- What is a Purple glaze?
- In 131 published recipes, Purple glazes are mostly fired to cone 6 and cone 5 in oxidation and reduction, with a Glossy, opaque result. The defining materials are Silica, Whiting, EPK, Cobalt carbonate, Dolomite.
- What cone is Purple fired to?
- The most common cones in published recipes are cone 6 and cone 5; the full distribution is on this page. Atmosphere matters as much as cone for this family: oxidation and reduction.
- What is the typical chemistry of a Purple glaze?
- Median fired analysis: SiO2 52.61%, Al2O3 9.52%, B2O3 3.37%, Na2O 2.31%, K2O 2.29%, CaO 7.83%. Treat these as the centre of a range, not a target — the same family spans different fluxes and cones.
Sources. Every figure is a statistic computed by Claybench over 10,859 glaze recipes compiled from publicly shared community recipe collections (snapshot 2026-02-27); no recipe is reproduced. Colour-chemistry notes are paraphrased from Linda Arbuckle's Ceramic Materials handout.
Colorant and flux notes touch on materials with handling hazards (barium, cobalt, chrome, manganese, lead in historic recipes). Read each material's page and its supplier SDS before mixing; test any food surface.
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