Saturday, April 9, 2011

Salt-glaze Test Firing

Here's a firing I did last weekend, with a whole bunch of salt glaze tests, using the colourants out of my stoneware glazes in a more suitable salt-glaze slip.

Test salt kiln with chimney in place. The chimney height should be approximately three times in height from the diagonal width of the kiln chamber to get the best draw.

A view through the spy hole of some small test pots and cones 9 and 10

Adding some clay wadding pads to the base of all pots. The wadding is the same as my shelf wash (but with more water so its a kind of a slurry)  and consists of 50 percent Alumina and 50 percent Kaolin which repels the salt quite well and doesn't stick to the bottom of the pots.
Looking through the spy hole, around 800 degrees C

Opening the kiln the next morning to check out the results