Building my Salt Kiln, Summer 2009
My Kiln .....
Scott Shafer, a potter and friend from Centerville, IN designed my kiln and helped me find much of the material used in building it. He also provided quite a bit of sweat equity! My husband Steve also provided additional sweat equity, and major funding for my project! Pouring the slab, building the kiln and the kiln shed took most of the summer of 2009. Utilizing used bricks saved money but made the project more labor intensive.
The Firing Process
After my pottery pieces are bisque fired in my electric kiln, I glaze the interior of most of my work with food-safe glazes. Every piece must be placed onto 3-5 small balls of clay called “wadding” that are made out of materials that will prevent the work from sticking to the kiln shelves. The shelves are coated with a liquid form of the same materials, called “kiln wash.” Wadding is used between the kiln posts and the shelves to keep them from sticking together. The work is then loaded in the salt kiln for firing. Loading a kiln is a lot like putting a puzzle together!!
A typical salt firing can take anywhere from 12 to 20 hours. When the kiln reaches approximately 2100 degreesFahrenheit, the salt is introduced.
I use canning/pickling salt or a sodium carbonate solution which I pour onto an angle iron and shove into salt ports in the back of the kiln. The salt or soda vaporizes and travels throughout the kiln coating the red hot pots with a glassy layer that enhances the decorations.
I place small rings of clay called “draw rings” throughout the kiln that I can pull out with a long piece of metal during various phases of the salting to determine when enough salt or soda has been added and the desired effect has been achieved.
When that happens, the kiln is heated up to approximately 2300 degrees Fahrenheit at which point the burners are turned off. All openings are closed up and the kiln is allowed to cool for about 24 hours.
Waiting for the kiln to be cool enough to unload is worse than waiting for Christmas!! Most potters can’t resist peeking in with a flashlight to see what their pots look like!! Once the temperature is below 500 degrees, I can start unbricking the door and see whether or not the firing was a success!
Scott Shafer, a potter and friend from Centerville, IN designed my kiln and helped me find much of the material used in building it. He also provided quite a bit of sweat equity! My husband Steve also provided additional sweat equity, and major funding for my project! Pouring the slab, building the kiln and the kiln shed took most of the summer of 2009. Utilizing used bricks saved money but made the project more labor intensive.
The Firing Process
After my pottery pieces are bisque fired in my electric kiln, I glaze the interior of most of my work with food-safe glazes. Every piece must be placed onto 3-5 small balls of clay called “wadding” that are made out of materials that will prevent the work from sticking to the kiln shelves. The shelves are coated with a liquid form of the same materials, called “kiln wash.” Wadding is used between the kiln posts and the shelves to keep them from sticking together. The work is then loaded in the salt kiln for firing. Loading a kiln is a lot like putting a puzzle together!!
A typical salt firing can take anywhere from 12 to 20 hours. When the kiln reaches approximately 2100 degreesFahrenheit, the salt is introduced.
I use canning/pickling salt or a sodium carbonate solution which I pour onto an angle iron and shove into salt ports in the back of the kiln. The salt or soda vaporizes and travels throughout the kiln coating the red hot pots with a glassy layer that enhances the decorations.
I place small rings of clay called “draw rings” throughout the kiln that I can pull out with a long piece of metal during various phases of the salting to determine when enough salt or soda has been added and the desired effect has been achieved.
When that happens, the kiln is heated up to approximately 2300 degrees Fahrenheit at which point the burners are turned off. All openings are closed up and the kiln is allowed to cool for about 24 hours.
Waiting for the kiln to be cool enough to unload is worse than waiting for Christmas!! Most potters can’t resist peeking in with a flashlight to see what their pots look like!! Once the temperature is below 500 degrees, I can start unbricking the door and see whether or not the firing was a success!
2747 S. County Road 600E - New Castle, IN 47362 - (765) 518-6565
