I’m here to help!

As a ceramic artist who adds gold luster to every piece I fire, the most common emails I receive from other potters contain questions about how to use gold luster. Generally, it seems like there’s a bit of trepidation involved, so if you’re curious about gold luster, but unsure where to begin, help is here!

I personally use Duncan’s Gold Luster Overglazes. They make: “normal” bright gold if you just want to get your feet wet, premium bright gold for higher end work, a nice white gold, and mother of pearl luster. I’ve only worked with the golds, so I can’t give you tips on working with the mother of pearl.

A quick note on Mother of Pearl: This guide is specifically aimed at Gold Luster, but I also have experience with Duncan’s Mother of Pearl. It’s much more straightforward to use than gold, but I do have two tips:

First, do not layer the Mother of Pearl with metallic lusters. Second, Mother of Pearl tends to show your brush strokes after firing. I find it most beautiful on surfaces if I’ve kept my brush strokes all going in the same direction.