The Ceramic Spectrum

The problem I had with this book is it is overwritten. Essentially, I ignore the first 68 pages as it is the history of glazes told as a very dry academic lecture. There is good useful information but getting to it is a real chore. Compare this to John Britt's "The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes," and you will find more information in page one of Britt's book then any 50 pages of Hopper's. This goes for pretty much the entire book. Britt's book is an easy read. Hopper's is like a translation of "Death and Transfiguration."As I really disliked the writing style of Robin Hopper and will never buy any of his books.

Love this book! I have had more inspiration from this than almost any other ceramic book that I have. I use it all the time. I bought it with another Robin Hopper book, Making Marks, as a set and I have used them and show them to others constantlly. Robin Hopper is the consumate potter..his style is comfortable, approachable, reasonable, and user friendly. I have even made that beautiful plate on the cover several times (it is not as hard as it looks). These books sit out on my work table almost all the time for reference. You can't go wrong with Robin Hopper!

Every thing you wanted to know about creating, making, testing, and fixing glazes. Great tips on coloration, color tests and recipies for both oxidation and reduction. As a ceramic engineer and potter this is a great understandable manual for the serious creative potter. Expains how and why glaze ingrediants work or not and how to make them right.

A very well done book lots of good information about blends and materials. A very good list of colorants and suggested amounts to use.

LOVE THIS BOOK I ALREADY BOUGTH TWICE

You will create more test tiles than you know what to do with. I love this book and Ron Roy's book too. So good.... so much to try.... so little time....

Bought a used copy to understand better, what is going on with glazes.But those images... huh, truly awful images. I have never seen so many ugly pieces in one book.But this is not a picture books, so I'll get over it. ;)Overseas S&H was a murder.

Each time I pick up this book,(actually the author's trilogy) I always learn or understand something new. They're great books. However, one huge drawback for American readers is that all temperatures referenced are in centigrade, and that's very bothersome. Yes, we Americans should be on the metric system by now, but if a book like this deals so much with temperatures and their ranges, then at least the editors should put the Fahrenheit equivalents in parenthesis. They have cheated the American reader. After all, we probably by the bulk of his books.

Es un libro muy didáctico con información muy valiosa que sirve de guía para la elaboración de esmaltes y la comprensión del quehacer del ceramista. Los buenos maestros hacen accesible el conocimiento, éste libro es un claro ejemplo de ello

A 5 star book for those truly interested in learning about ceramics and in understanding ceramic chemistry. Highly recommended.

I am quite advanced in making glazes and I thought I could learn more from a "Guru". Too bad. The setup of the book is meant to be simple but it isn't. There is a weird systematic for coding the glazes and you have to browse forward and backward to find the glaze you are interested in. The line tests and triangular tests are badly explained. The fundamentals of glaze chemistry are very superficial and sometimes close to be erroneous. There are actual errors in the chemical description of some materials.I expected much better from R. Hopper! A waste of money.