There is a direct relationship between the way ceramic glazes fire and their chemistry. INSIGHT is a calculation tool anyone can use to learn and harness the power of ceramic chemistry.
-Fix problems like crazing, blistering, pinholing, settling, leaching, cutlery marking, crawling, scratching, powdering.
-Substitute frits or incorporate better, cheaper materials, replace no-longer-available ones.
-Adjust glaze melting temperature, gloss, surface character, color.
-Identify weaknesses in your glazes to avoid problems.
-Optimize a base glaze, develop and fine tune difficult colors or stains, create special effects dependent on opacification, crystallization or variegation.
-Create your own glazes from scratch and use your own native materials in the highest possible percentage.
Without ceramic chemistry you'll never really have control and you could be a slave to the textbook recipe culture or your suppliers.