Abstract: A ceramic body having the oxide composition,SiO.sub.2 : 33-46 wt. %Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 : 37-57 wt. %MgO: 5.5-15 wt. %ZnO: 0.4-1.7 wt. %Na.sub.2 O+K.sub.2 O: 1.0-3.0 wt. %ZrO.sub.2 : 0-5 wt. %The sum of these oxides (including ZrO.sub.2, if present) should preferably be at least 97% of the total. The remainder of the composition may comprise those ingredients such as CaO, Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 and/or TiO.sub.2, which are normally present in conventional ceramic batch raw materials. Essentially no Li.sub.2 O should be present. The fired body, in which cordierite is the perdominant crystal phase, has a modulus of rupture greater than 10,000 psi and often higher than 14,000 psi, and is suitable for freezer-to-oven utensils and for dinnerware. It is glazable with a wide range of glazes including non-Li.sub.2 O containing glazes. The composition from which the ceramic is made has a firing tolerance which is unusually wide for a cordierite ceramic.

Abstract: Glassware having small bubbles or blisters that impart a handcrafted appearance to it is made by metering specially formed decomposable granules into a soda-lime glass melt at the feeder of a glass forming machine. The granules are made by coating or wetting an alkali metal nitrate with sodium silicate aqueous solution. They decompose in the melt, but the water glass coating slows the decomposition rate such that the resulting gas inclusions cannot escape from the melt before it has been formed or set in a desired shape in the forming machine.