the.com/crazing
The fine web of cracks that proves your glaze or patience went on too thin.
means A network of fine, hairline cracks that forms in a glaze, varnish, or old paint as it ages or shrinks unevenly.
from From 'craze,' which in Middle English first meant to crack or break, before it drifted (by the 1600s) toward meaning mentally unsound — as if a mind, like a glaze, could develop fractures under strain. The ceramics sense is actually closer to the word's older, literal roots than the 'madness' sense is.
- ceramics cause
- glaze shrinks faster than clay underneath
- plastics cause
- stress plus solvent exposure weakens surface
- collector slang
- vintage finish flaw, sometimes prized not fixed
- not breakage
- cracks stay shallow, piece still holds together