Ceramic Glaze Salt Soda

Soda glazing was once hailed as an alternative to salt glazing but has proven to be much more than that.

Ceramic glaze salt soda.

Salt glazing also adds a brilliant texture to the ceramics from the building up of layers to the running of salt vapors. Glaze may be applied by dry dusting a dry mixture over the surface of the clay body or by inserting salt or soda into the kiln at high temperatures to create an atmosphere rich in sodium vapor that interacts with the aluminium and silica oxides in the body to form and deposit glass producing what is known as salt glaze pottery. The salt vaporizes and sodium vapor combines with silica in clay surface forming extremely hard sodium silicate glaze. Salt firing is a vapor glazing process where salt sodium chloride is introduced into the kiln firebox at high temperature.

In these archives salt and soda firing artists share practical technical information salt and soda glaze recipes atmospheric slip recipes and salt and soda glazing and firing techniques. In the soda firing process soda ash sodium carbonate in water solution instead of salt is sprayed into kiln at maturing temperature and sodium vapor combines with silica in clay to form sodium silicate glaze. Salt and soda firings can really affect any underglazes or slips you use on your ware and the results can be very varied and interesting. Soda firing has been touted as modern day nontoxic replacement for salt firing but has proven to be much more than that.