June Perry on sun 18 nov 07
Hi all,
I fired my soda kiln Friday and was hoping to use the Gail Nichols method of
mixing whiting, light soda ash and baking soda; but the mix would not
harden. She said it has to be light soda ash but I couldn't find a source for it so
I tried the regular soda ash, hoping that maybe it was light. It obviously
wasn't since it just sat there like a well mixed liquid.
Since my hip is trashed, I wanted to avoid walking around the kiln for an
hour and a half to spray the solution which is the method I've used in the
past, so instead, I mixed the soda with a little salt and touch of borax into a
paste and put it on scrap pieces of wood and just kept feeding that into the
firebox and then later just did a tiny bit of spraying.
The kiln won't be open till later tomorrow or early Tuesday, but a very
quick peek looks pretty good.
I'd still like to try her method. Has any one tried it and do you have a
source for light soda ash? She mentions in her book that she had a similar
situation during a workshop (no light soda ash); but she calcined the regular soda
ash to 600 degrees; but I've prefer to just buy it already prepared.
Regards,
June
_http://www.shambhalapottery.com_ (http://www.shambhalapottery.com/)
http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
Bill Merrill on mon 19 nov 07
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June,
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Matt Long does wonderful soda fired pots. He uses 1 1/2 gallons of
water and 6 pounds of soda ash. He starts the process at the end of the
firing by taking a 5 gallon bucket and filling it with about 20% of fine
sawdust. He the puts some of the soda ash water on the sawdust just to
moisten it, not sloppy. The damper is open slightly the same as when he
is firing. He then takes newspaper and makes some sawdust burrittos.
These are introduced into the kiln through the burner ports. After the
burritos are gone he introduces the soda through the burner ports and
uses all the soda in 30 minutes. This isn't like salt so getting the
soda in quickly seems to work best. 6 pounds of soda can cause drips
that may drip on a few pots. The sacrifice of a few things are
acceptable if you get results like Matt's. If you haven't seen his work
his web site is: WWW.fullvictory.com =20
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Bill
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Bill@pcadmin.ctc.edu
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-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of June Perry
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:23 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Need source for light soda ash
=20
Hi all,
=20
I fired my soda kiln Friday and was hoping to use the Gail Nichols
method of
mixing whiting, light soda ash and baking soda; but the mix would not
harden. She said it has to be light soda ash but I couldn't find a
source for it so
I tried the regular soda ash, hoping that maybe it was light. It
obviously
wasn't since it just sat there like a well mixed liquid.
Since my hip is trashed, I wanted to avoid walking around the kiln for
an
hour and a half to spray the solution which is the method I've used in
the
past, so instead, I mixed the soda with a little salt and touch of borax
into a
paste and put it on scrap pieces of wood and just kept feeding that into
the
firebox and then later just did a tiny bit of spraying.
The kiln won't be open till later tomorrow or early Tuesday, but a very
quick peek looks pretty good.
I'd still like to try her method. Has any one tried it and do you have
a
source for light soda ash? She mentions in her book that she had a
similar
situation during a workshop (no light soda ash); but she calcined the
regular soda
ash to 600 degrees; but I've prefer to just buy it already prepared.
=20
=20
Regards,
June
_http://www.shambhalapottery.com_ (http://www.shambhalapottery.com/)
http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com
=20
=20
=20
************************************** See what's new at
http://www.aol.com
=20
________________________________________________________________________
______
Clayart members may send postings to: clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
=20
You may look at the archives for the list, post messages, or change your
subscription settings here: http://www.acers.org/cic/clayart/
=20
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots2@visi.com
Bill Merrill on tue 20 nov 07
I just received the email I sent out yesterday about Matt Longs soda
firings. I mistyped the amount of water and didn't notice it until
today. The amount of water should read 2 1/2 gallons of water and 6
pounds of soda ash to be sprayed into soda kiln over a 30 minute period.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Bill
Merrill
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 11:29 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Need source for light soda ash=20
June,=20
Matt Long does wonderful soda fired pots. He uses 1 1/2 gallons of
water and 6 pounds of soda ash. He starts the process at the end of the
firing by taking a 5 gallon bucket and filling it with about 20% of fine
sawdust. He the puts some of the soda ash water on the sawdust just to
moisten it, not sloppy. The damper is open slightly the same as when he
is firing. He then takes newspaper and makes some sawdust burrittos.
These are introduced into the kiln through the burner ports. After the
burritos are gone he introduces the soda through the burner ports and
uses all the soda in 30 minutes. This isn't like salt so getting the
soda in quickly seems to work best. 6 pounds of soda can cause drips
that may drip on a few pots. The sacrifice of a few things are
acceptable if you get results like Matt's. If you haven't seen his work
his web site is: WWW.fullvictory.com =20
=20
=20
Bill
=20
Bill@pcadmin.ctc.edu
=20
=20
=20
=20
=20
=20
=20
=20
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of June Perry
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:23 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Need source for light soda ash
=20
Hi all,
=20
I fired my soda kiln Friday and was hoping to use the Gail Nichols
method of
mixing whiting, light soda ash and baking soda; but the mix would not
harden. She said it has to be light soda ash but I couldn't find a
source for it so
I tried the regular soda ash, hoping that maybe it was light. It
obviously
wasn't since it just sat there like a well mixed liquid.
Since my hip is trashed, I wanted to avoid walking around the kiln for
an
hour and a half to spray the solution which is the method I've used in
the
past, so instead, I mixed the soda with a little salt and touch of borax
into a
paste and put it on scrap pieces of wood and just kept feeding that into
the
firebox and then later just did a tiny bit of spraying.
The kiln won't be open till later tomorrow or early Tuesday, but a very
quick peek looks pretty good.
I'd still like to try her method. Has any one tried it and do you have
a
source for light soda ash? She mentions in her book that she had a
similar
situation during a workshop (no light soda ash); but she calcined the
regular soda
ash to 600 degrees; but I've prefer to just buy it already prepared.
=20
=20
Regards,
June
_http://www.shambhalapottery.com_ (http://www.shambhalapottery.com/)
http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com
=20
=20
=20
************************************** See what's new at
http://www.aol.com
=20
________________________________________________________________________
______
Clayart members may send postings to: clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
=20
You may look at the archives for the list, post messages, or change your
subscription settings here: http://www.acers.org/cic/clayart/
=20
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots2@visi.com
________________________________________________________________________
______
Clayart members may send postings to: clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list, post messages, or change your
subscription settings here: http://www.acers.org/cic/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots2@visi.com
June Perry on tue 20 nov 07
Thanks Bill,
If I can find a source for the clean sawdust I'll try that one of these
days. But, you know, in a way, that's what I did this time: I made a paste of the
soda/salt/borax mix and spread it on scrap wood and threw that in the
firebox. Since I have a lot of scrap wood I'll use that method for a while, if it
looks like it was successful.
I'll be opening the kiln today to see how well that worked. I can already
see from peeking that the salt caused my flashing slip in some parts of the
kiln to get very dark (almost sewer tile brown), on the white stoneware. Yet in
other areas it still a nice light to dark orange. Next time I'll skip the
salt. The only reason I added it this time was that I wasn't sure if the soda
ash paste alone on the wood pieces would work.
Another weird things happened with the salt addition. It seems that right
below some of the lid overhangs, the flashing slip did not flash and there's
this much lighter band of color for about 3/8 of an inch just below the lid
overhang, while the rest of the body of the jar is very well flashed and much,
much, darker. That never happened with straight soda. I was very surprised to
see that since I know that salt migrates better through the kiln than soda.
It is a surprising and puzzling outcome!
The first firing in this kiln, I did use 6 lbs of soda; but it wound up
being too much. A few other people have borrowed my kiln and used only around
2-3 lbs of soda and got good flashing. Right now I'm only using few flashing
slips and using glazes only as liners and for tiny accent touches. I found that
too much soda really mucked up any glazed decoration. It bleached the glaze
accents and caused running - not a pretty sight.
How big is Matt's kiln if he's using 6 lbs of soda. Mine is only about 36
cu. ft and just using around 3 1/2 lbs this firing I can see some pretty heavy
soda deposits on my advancer shelves.
Regards,
June
_http://www.shambhalapottery.com_ (http://www.shambhalapottery.com/)
_http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com_
(http://shambhalapottery.blogspot.com/)
_http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sodasaltfiring_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sodasaltfiring)
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
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