Callie Beller Diesel

Your new teapot is unlikely to cause you any harm, short of breaking it and cutting yourself on a shard accidentally. It doesn’t have any warnings about lead or cadmium, nor do I see any colours or textures in that line of work that would lead me to suspect any use of those materials. If you’re super nervous about anything and want some reassurance, you can get lead test kits for pottery on the ‘zon, but I’d be surprised if this item came back positive.
In the product description from your link, where it says Material Icon, there’s a number of little care instruction and definition buttons. When you click on “Iron in Powder” (likely a translation vagary) it points out that there may be some dark specks that appear in the final piece from iron impurities in the clay. There’s going to be considerably less iron that could possibly come out of this teapot than, say, a cast iron frying pan.
Glaze doesn’t work the way you’re describing, no. Whoever gave you that description may have been thinking of earthenware that was painted with some kind of lead bearing decorative slip or underglaze, but even that has some dubious underlying assumptions. 
First, not all pottery is made in the same way. Without getting overly technical, different kinds of clay that people use in different parts of the world will have different levels of porosity, firing temperatures, and a bunch of other stuff. So items made in Japan won’t use the same techniques or materials that get used in, Mexico, or the US, or even Canada. And studio pottery will not be made with the same materials/techniques as industrially produced items.  But in general, glaze is used on a clay body to make it stronger, and to make it more waterproof and easier to clean than just the clay surface would be alone. Also, it makes it pretty!
****IF**** a piece of pottery were to contain lead or cadmium, it won’t be in the clay body. Those metals will typically be present either in an underglaze decoration (they make pretty reds, yellows, oranges and some greens), in some forms of china paint decoration, or in the glaze itself. It’s important to note that a lead free clear over a lead or cadmium bearing underglaze **might** not block all lead bleed through should those materials be present. It’s also important to remember that not all yellow/red/orange/green underglazes or glazes will have any of those things in them. There’s lots of ways to get those colours that don’t involve those metals, and are safe for daily use. 
 
 

I’ve always lived in hard water areas (my city’s website lists PPM in the 180’s for most of the year), and my fingers have likewise always wrinkled with  extended exposure to water. 

It looks like it’s a mineral of some kind (likely iron) bleeding through the glaze from the clay body. It’s quite common in stoneware clay of any kind. Nothing out of the ordinary at all.

It looks like it’s a mineral of some kind (likely iron) bleeding through the glaze from the clay body. It’s quite common in stoneware clay of any kind. Nothing out of the ordinary at all.

The studio I work at does something similar, and we wind up using hair dryers to set up the surface of the piece enough to take a coat of underglaze that isn’t streaky.

The studio I work at does something similar, and we wind up using hair dryers to set up the surface of the piece enough to take a coat of underglaze that isn’t streaky.

Trying it once isn’t definitive. Don’t give up quite yet.
Firing it while still wet won’t get rid of the shrinkage, it’ll just all happen when it’s on the kiln shelf if you do that. 
If shrinking from wet to dry is caused by water evaporating, you have to find a way for there to be as little water as possible. So mix the slip as thick as you can and use darvan to create flow if needed, use calcined clay materials in your ingredients, and you may even have to go as far as adding some gum or other binder to the mix. It’s going to take a lot of experimentation and playing with materials to figure some things out in this area. 

It’s probably a combination of slips/engobes/crawl glazes. It looks like there’s a lot of layers of different things, and without knowing who the artist is or anything about the process, that’s as much as I can guess. 

I try to keep to five glazes in my own practice. In recent years, it’s been 2 base glazes with different colourants in them, and that will get you a lot of possible variation to work with. If you try to have too many glazes, it gets overwhelming fast. 
10-12 glazes is a roster you’d expect to see in a group studio or some other teaching environment, and it gets complicated to find that many that will work together well, without any of them being a PITA.

I try to keep to five glazes in my own practice. In recent years, it’s been 2 base glazes with different colourants in them, and that will get you a lot of possible variation to work with. If you try to have too many glazes, it gets overwhelming fast. 
10-12 glazes is a roster you’d expect to see in a group studio or some other teaching environment, and it gets complicated to find that many that will work together well, without any of them being a PITA.

I try to keep to five glazes in my own practice. In recent years, it’s been 2 base glazes with different colourants in them, and that will get you a lot of possible variation to work with. If you try to have too many glazes, it gets overwhelming fast. 
10-12 glazes is a roster you’d expect to see in a group studio or some other teaching environment, and it gets complicated to find that many that will work together well, without any of them being a PITA.

It’s just conjecture on my part, maybe someone will chime in with other ideas or experience, but my mind goes to more calcined clay in the slip for less shrinkage wet to dry, and perhaps cmc gum to make it harder it once it’s dried.
Rhodes crackle slip (various versions on Glazy) doesn’t produce the extreme texture you’re looking for, but it’s a step in that direction. Applied to bisque ware. 

It’s probably a combination of slips/engobes/crawl glazes. It looks like there’s a lot of layers of different things, and without knowing who the artist is or anything about the process, that’s as much as I can guess. 

Online stores aren’t less work than doing festivals or fairs, they’re just a different kind of work. Certainly less physical labour in terms of not having a booth to set up or tear down. But you have to be good at figuring out software, taking images and promoting yourself online somehow. Some people are really good at making social media connections, some people would rather have a root canal than play games with the algorithms.
As far as my personal opinion on Shopify vs Etsy goes, they’re comparing apples to oranges. Etsy is an online marketplace, and Shopify is a website building platform like Squarespace or weebly. You don’t go to Squarespace expecting them to drive traffic to you. But I’m not of the opinion that Etsy does a stellar ob of driving traffic to a given seller, and they change their SEO requirements frequently enough that no one can really make a consistent living off of it. 
Shopify is just focused primarily on e-commerce, and has a bunch of features that let it handle shopping traffic and security built in. If you build your own website on Shopify, you pay them flat fees and you own it as long as you don’t do anything illegal and keep paying them. You’re in control of your own audience, for good or ill. You’re in charge of driving your own traffic, whether through social meda, ads, your email list, SEO or other methods.
If you open an Etsy shop, they also focus on e-commerce and transactions are secure. But ultimately, they own the platform and you are subject to how they want you to run your business. You don’t have to go too far to find the cons of using Etsy. Some of the complaints are from people who aren’t approaching selling there like running a business, but some are quite valid. The way they run their external ads is borderline usury, the requirements for things like top seller badges are unsustainable and the fee structure is unnecessarily complicated. My accountant *hated* their obtuse reporting. But the reason I left was because the traffic they drove to my site didn’t result in any conversions in a 1 year period. The customers who bought were all from my own efforts (social media and newsletter).
 

It’s probably a combination of slips/engobes/crawl glazes. It looks like there’s a lot of layers of different things, and without knowing who the artist is or anything about the process, that’s as much as I can guess. 

I bought this from 3 different suppliers over a 800 mile area during my travels.  
There is now new all brown bags (not blue) of custar that are from Pacer. I bought some for one of my customers from Laguna 
On another note EPK is again back in operation and the material is now on most supopliers shelves

Appreciate the people who have shared their recipes for a clear glaze. Getting a well fitting clear is one of the harder glazes to come up with.
For those new to mixing their own glazes, be sure to test the glaze for FIT before making up a big bucket. Glaze fit to a claybody is no different than fitting a pair of jeans. What fits my body won't necessarily fit everyone else's body. If you use a high expansion glaze on one side of a pot and a low expansion one on the other there is a good chance of the pot dunting / cracking.
If someone is looking for a clear glaze to use with or over stains or underglazes or some specific colouring combinations (like chrome tin pinks, reds, purples etc) then you need a specific type of clear glaze that is hospitable to the colourants. 

@ChristopherW, I would not expect the recipe you posted to make a durable glaze. (but it will be a very expensive glaze to mix up given the price of Gerstley Borate now)

Stroke and Coat is incredibly user friendly, although I’ve never tried them on wet work. They seem to work fine on leather hard and bisque in my experience. 
Depending on your clay and some of the colours and how your students apply them, if you find they’re coming out a bit dry, they can benefit from a coat of a zinc free clear. If your firing is hot enough and everyone applies them at the right thickness, it may not be necessary. 

Online stores aren’t less work than doing festivals or fairs, they’re just a different kind of work. Certainly less physical labour in terms of not having a booth to set up or tear down. But you have to be good at figuring out software, taking images and promoting yourself online somehow. Some people are really good at making social media connections, some people would rather have a root canal than play games with the algorithms.
As far as my personal opinion on Shopify vs Etsy goes, they’re comparing apples to oranges. Etsy is an online marketplace, and Shopify is a website building platform like Squarespace or weebly. You don’t go to Squarespace expecting them to drive traffic to you. But I’m not of the opinion that Etsy does a stellar ob of driving traffic to a given seller, and they change their SEO requirements frequently enough that no one can really make a consistent living off of it. 
Shopify is just focused primarily on e-commerce, and has a bunch of features that let it handle shopping traffic and security built in. If you build your own website on Shopify, you pay them flat fees and you own it as long as you don’t do anything illegal and keep paying them. You’re in control of your own audience, for good or ill. You’re in charge of driving your own traffic, whether through social meda, ads, your email list, SEO or other methods.
If you open an Etsy shop, they also focus on e-commerce and transactions are secure. But ultimately, they own the platform and you are subject to how they want you to run your business. You don’t have to go too far to find the cons of using Etsy. Some of the complaints are from people who aren’t approaching selling there like running a business, but some are quite valid. The way they run their external ads is borderline usury, the requirements for things like top seller badges are unsustainable and the fee structure is unnecessarily complicated. My accountant *hated* their obtuse reporting. But the reason I left was because the traffic they drove to my site didn’t result in any conversions in a 1 year period. The customers who bought were all from my own efforts (social media and newsletter).
 

It’s worth noting that Etsy selling has never been a way for most users to make a full time living, but many do use it as a supplement or as one of many income streams. Also, don’t follow their advice on pricing your work. Because of how they structure their fees, you’ll have to start with your base price and add all the assorted percentages they charge. Use caution when using their forum for advice on running a business there. Many of the seller communities labour under the (incorrect) assumption that high prices will drive away customers, and that you have to have frequent sales and discounts. None of that is true. Cheap prices draw in deal hunters who will not treat you well. 

Online stores aren’t less work than doing festivals or fairs, they’re just a different kind of work. Certainly less physical labour in terms of not having a booth to set up or tear down. But you have to be good at figuring out software, taking images and promoting yourself online somehow. Some people are really good at making social media connections, some people would rather have a root canal than play games with the algorithms.
As far as my personal opinion on Shopify vs Etsy goes, they’re comparing apples to oranges. Etsy is an online marketplace, and Shopify is a website building platform like Squarespace or weebly. You don’t go to Squarespace expecting them to drive traffic to you. But I’m not of the opinion that Etsy does a stellar ob of driving traffic to a given seller, and they change their SEO requirements frequently enough that no one can really make a consistent living off of it. 
Shopify is just focused primarily on e-commerce, and has a bunch of features that let it handle shopping traffic and security built in. If you build your own website on Shopify, you pay them flat fees and you own it as long as you don’t do anything illegal and keep paying them. You’re in control of your own audience, for good or ill. You’re in charge of driving your own traffic, whether through social meda, ads, your email list, SEO or other methods.
If you open an Etsy shop, they also focus on e-commerce and transactions are secure. But ultimately, they own the platform and you are subject to how they want you to run your business. You don’t have to go too far to find the cons of using Etsy. Some of the complaints are from people who aren’t approaching selling there like running a business, but some are quite valid. The way they run their external ads is borderline usury, the requirements for things like top seller badges are unsustainable and the fee structure is unnecessarily complicated. My accountant *hated* their obtuse reporting. But the reason I left was because the traffic they drove to my site didn’t result in any conversions in a 1 year period. The customers who bought were all from my own efforts (social media and newsletter).
 

No shade on Sue whatsoever, but Tony is the source of this particular glaze, and you’d be better off looking at his notes in this instance. Here is more related information from the source. https://digitalfire.com/article/g1214z+cone+6+matte+glaze. Long story short, I’d add silica in increments of 2%, up to 10%, just to see what it does.
Titanium dioxide is an opacifier, so it’s only useful if you’re making a white or opaque glaze. It’s an optional ingredient in your case.
Calcined kaolin is made by simply putting some epk in your next bisque, if you don’t want to go to the bother of programming a slightly lower temperature into your kiln just for this purpose. A soup bowl sized container will get you more than enough for this purpose. Usually any time you have a glaze with more than 20% clay, you want to look at calcining some of it, or the shrinking of the glaze slurry on the pot will give you grief.
I’d also suggest starting with 100g samples, rather than an entire gallon of glaze. Unless you’re also dividing the batch out to do colour blends?

Hi Haley,
I don't have an answer for you but maybe my ongoing experiences with pinholes will help somehow.  
I am also working through a pinhole issue on my new-to-me brown clay.  I have eliminated almost every variable suggested and have focused on my firing schedule as the most probable cause of the pinholes.  I also had a discrepancy on results of test tiles and ware, so now I do all my testing on 1 lb. bowls.
If you decide to explore changes to your firing schedule, then my advice to you is to do your absorbency testing at cone 5 6 7 before you begin.  For example my % absorption is .2 at cone 5, 0 at cone 6, and 12 at cone 7.  Therefore I know that heatwork above cone 6 is a no go for testing.  
 Good luck.  I will be following this thread to see what worked for you on your clay.  

It's going to be a real crap shoot trying to alter a glaze without the recipe. Which is the glaze that is giving problems, Laguna Turquoise ^10 WC554? Has the amount of reduction you are doing increased?