Finding raw materials for glazes and clay in Germany can be a little tricky if you are learning from an American knowledge base and are new at it. I love making my own glazes and I highly recommend taking the Ceramic Materials Workshop "Understanding glazes" class. It got me to love chemistry and I feel so much more in control of my materials!

When I started the class I had to shop around for materials and, not being a native German speaker myself, I had to spend quite a bit of time finding the equivalent products from German suppliers, especially as we refer to many of our materials using the name of the brand. Below is a little list I had made for myself as I was shopping around. It may not be complete, so please feel free to let me know if anything should be added.

Some materials are a little more expensive and hard to source from online shops due to their provenance (such as Ferro Frits). But I found that I could easily source them via wholesale ceramic suppliers. 

I have listed the most common suppliers at the end of the page. Hope this helps!

P.S. the photo in this blog post is from Wild lights photography and it shows our glaze and kiln room in our Berlin community ceramic studio, Kleistone Studio. 

 

English Name/brand	German name
Nepheline Syenite	Nephelin-Syenit
Potassium Feldspar (Mahavir)	Kali Feldspat
Soda feldspar	Natrium-Feldspat
Ball clay	Ball clay
Spodumene	Spodumen
Silica (Flint)	Quarzmehl
Calcium Carbonate (Whiting)	Kalkspat (Kalziumcarbonat)
EPK	Kaolin / China Clay
Talc	Talkum
Strontium Carbonate	Strontiumcarbonat
Barium Carbonate	Bariumcarbonat
Zinc Oxide	Zinkoxid (suppliers will sell the Superbleifrei version which contains no lead).
Ferro Frit 3134	Calziumborsilicat (it will also have the name Ferro 3134)
Ferro Frit 3124	Calziumborsilicat (it will also have the name Ferro 3124)
Ferro Frit 3110	Natriumborsilikat (it will also have the name Ferro 3110)
Ferro Frit 3195	Alkaliborsilikat (it will also have the name Ferro 3195)
Gerstley Borate	Gerstley Borat
Red Iron Oxide	Eisenoxid rot
Zircopax	Zirkonsilikat
Copper Carbonate	Kupfercarbonat
Nickle Carbonate	Nickelcarbonat
Manganese Dioxide	Braunstein
Rutile	Rutil
Tin oxide	Zinnoxid
Titanium oxide	Titanoxid
Bentonite	Bentonit
Chrome Oxide	Chromoxid
Cobalt Carbonate	Kobaltcarbonat
Silicon Carbide	Siliziumcarbid
Ulexite	Ulexit
Wollastonite	Wollastonit
Stains	usually referred to as Farbkörper

 

Suppliers:

1. Keramikbedarf online
2. BSZ: very large catalogue and very price competitive. I would recommend to look here before anywhere else
3. Carl Yäger
4. Keramik Kraft
5. Keramikbedarf (Hans Wollbring): they have a lot of raw materials that are hard to find