How to Read a Glaze Recipe
It is quickly becoming the standard for potters to write their recipes in percentage-based notation. All the basic glaze components will add up to 100. All additions such as colorants and glaze modifiers are given at the end of the recipe as percentages, which are in addition to the basic 100%.
In doing it this way, it makes it much easier to change the colorants and modifiers for a particular base glaze. Or, should you need to, you can more easily change the glaze's basic structure through changing basic ingredients.
Should you have an older recipe that does not have the basic ingredients adding up to 100, see How to Read a Clay Body Recipe for directions on how to convert it.
Collecting Glaze Recipes
Collect glaze recipes whenever you come across them. You can find recipes in books, magazines, on the Internet, and from other potters.
Use a collection system that makes sense and works best for you. There are software programs designed to store and work with glaze recipes. These are geared more for those potters who are creating or modifying their own glazes. For many potters, the older methods may work better. Glaze recipes may be kept on index cards (either 3x5 or 4x6), in notebooks, and in three-ring binders.
Organize Your Glaze Recipes
Whichever system you use, catalog your recipes in the way that makes the best sense for you. Generally, this will mean setting up major sections for various firing ranges. From there, it can be helpful to categorize glazes by their primary firing atmosphere, or the main flux used. For example, you may want to place potash feldspar glazes in one section and soda feldspar glazes in another.
I do suggest you do not categorize mainly by color, unless you are working with a system that can easily cross-reference sections. The reason I say this is that one base glaze can have many variations in additives, resulting in different colors.