Reddit reviews The Complete Guide to Mid-Range Glazes: Glazing and Firing at Cones 4-7 (Lark Ceramics Books)

First, I would recommend finding someone in the makerspace that uses the kiln and ask to shadow them. You don't want to be the newbie that accidentally fires cone 06 clay in a cone six glaze firing and melts the clay to the kiln shelves causing damage.

If there are no other potters making use of the equipment then I recommend buying some glaze books. Most people fire electric kilns to mid-range, around cone 6 -- if you are going hotter, or using a gas kiln then get the high fire book.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Mid-Range-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1454707771

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-High-Fire-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1600592163

You will want to google the product manual for the kiln. You usually can find that on the panel that has the temperature switches or the computer controller if it has one.

You can reclaim your clay in a bunch of ways. My preferred way is to let it dry out, then add water, and put it on a plaster slab to dry it out. Wedge on the plaster slab and it is ready to throw (might need a few hours to a couple of days depending on humidity and temperature, and how saturated the slab already is.

There are lots of youtube videos to teach you the skills you need. Simon Leach is a good place to start:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9BhFmxdS1TWAhyU5xF0rw

That's not how crackle glazes are usually created--crazing develops slowly over hours or days after the pieces come out of the kiln. You don't need to pull the pots out too hot... they are more likely to shatter than crackle, unless you're using a raku body. If you take pieces out when the kiln is 100-200 C, you will already hear lots of 'pinging' as microcracks form in the glaze surface. You can also put a warm-hot piece in water to cool it faster and increase crazing. Try this with existing pieces you have. Boil them in a pot of water then cool them rapidly in cool water. Wear eye protection in case they shatter. Also, to accentuate the cracks, you can soak pieces in some diluted India ink and then wipe off the excess. All this crazing will of course weaken your pieces.

Whether you need a special recipe depends (many 'stable' glazes do craze with time, use, and heating/cooling), but a crackle recipe will be better. You could try for example:
Kuan 1 (a white crackle glaze from John Britt's new mid-range book--Buy it! it's excellent) Neph sye 85, Wollastonite 4, Gerstley Borate 10, Zircopax 10, Bentonite 2 (optional)

I'm going to assume that you're firing cone 6 electric. If you are, then get yourself a copy of this book. If you're firing to cone ten, then this one.

John Britt's books are great. Everything you need to know about basic to intermediate glaze chemistry are in those two books, along with a metric shit ton of recipes... most of which he tested himself.
He has a pretty extensive YouTube channel that's worth checking out too.

Initial stocking of a pantry is a little costly, but not too awful. My wife mixes glazes with off-the-rack ingredients and stocking out the basics cost around $200. That gave her 50 pound bages of the important stuff like a couple feldspars, silica, kaolin, etc and then a few pounds of a handful of colorants and more specialized ingredients like copper and strontium. There's enough material to easily keep her in glaze for a few years without restocking. Compared to jarred glazes, mixing your own pays for itself in a hurry.

If you start mixing buckets of glaze, the first thing you need to buy is a respirator. Silicosis is bad and there's an awful lot of it to be had in a dusty glaze room. You're fine once it's in a slurry.

My suggestion, pick up one of the books by John Britt based on how you fire:

Mid-Range Glazes : https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Mid-Range-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1454707771

High-Fire Glazes: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-High-Fire-Glazes-Ceramics/dp/1600592163

These books are GREAT beginners bibles. He describes all of the equipment you need, what all of the various glaze components actually do, how to do various tests, and a HUGE collection of great glazes with photos.

I'm pretty good at reading articles and putting things together, but his books really opened my eyes, and for the low cost of the books, I think anyone who wants to learn about glazes is foolish to not buy them.

When I do tests, I do 100g batches. I make my test tiles on the wheel, about 3 inches high. Then, I'll apply it to my tile in various thicknesses. Lastly, I'll do a bunch of other tests where I see what it is like when it's layered with other glazes that I have. So one new glaze usually results in about 12 test tiles. I try to do at least one set of tiles every time I do a glaze firing.

I also stamp a serial number into each tile and keep notes in a log book - this is very important! Then, I put all the "ugly" ones into a box for future review, in case my aesthetics change. All of the nice ones, I hang from a small rack on my wall.