Merrie Boerner on thu 10 may 01
Once I loaded about twelve bisque shot glasses full of salt throughout my
wood kiln beside the pots. We fired about 27 hours, reaching cone 10 to 12.
When we unloaded the wares, the shot glasses looked like orange pumice
stones, or maybe a type of coral. One of the salt containers had begun to
melt and flow off of the shelf and onto another pot. They had a very
interesting appearance, but stuck to the shelf (requiring grinding ) when
they were not wadded. We noticed no significant salting effect on the wares.
We probably only used 3 pounds in a 115 cubic foot pot space.....not enough,
but what a mess 10 pounds would have been !
Lowell had warned me that the salt might eat through the clay.......once
again, I proved him right.
Merrie
Dannon Rhudy on thu 10 may 01
>taught the my technique by a superb French Potter Yves Crespel (this
>is/was also the standard technique with French rural Potters): putting
>small pots of salt in the setting. The salt volatilises early on......
Very interesting. I'd forgotten, but when I was an undergrad
I went to visit a potter in San Antonio to look at his studio,
his work, etc. We talked for quite a while about glazing (he
had colorful glazes not available in the school studio). Just
before I left, I asked about salt firing. I was refering to
LOW-FIRE salt, essentially a pit-fire technique. He thought I
meant high - fire, and explained his technique to me. He used
the technique you describe, of setting shallow containers of
salt in the kiln with the wares. I'd never heard of salt
glazing at all then, and just listened and nodded and tried
not to look the idiot I felt. We had no salt kiln, so
I'd put that information on a mental shelf and forgot it
until now. Next salt fire, I'll try it. Thanks for the
reminder.
regards
Dannon Rhudy
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