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Faience: Efflorescence of Glaze

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Efflorescence is a self-glazing technique. The glazing materials, soluble salts, are mixed with the raw quartz and alkalis. The water in the body evaporates and the salts cling to the surface within thirty minutes to form a layer. In firing, this layer melts and fuses to leave a glaze of varying thickness.

Further reading: Nicholson 1998: 52-53