Ceramic Arts Daily Announces the Release of a New Free Resource for Ceramic Artists and Educators

Online, January 26, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Ceramic Arts Daily, a blog and website serving active potters, ceramic artists, and ceramic arts educators worldwide, announces the release of an exciting free resource: The Salt Glaze Surface: A Guide to Salt Glazing and Firing. This free download is an excellent resource for ceramic art educators and artists interested in learning new techniques for enlivening the ceramic surface.

Salt firing and salt glazing have been common practice in ceramics for centuries, initially as an industrial glazing method, and then as an artistic treatment and technique in studio ceramics. Not only does salt glazing seal the ware, but it creates a distinctive orange-peel texture that has become a desirable decorative trait of salt glazed ware. We also use sodium in many of our glazes, but if you're going to fire with salt, it is best to use slip and glaze recipes designed to react with the salt in the kiln atmosphere. All of this and more is covered in the free download, The Salt Glaze Surface: A Guide to Salt Glazing and Firing.

Download The Salt Glaze Surface here:
http://ceramicartsdaily.org/free-gifts/the-salt-glaze-surface-a-guide-to-salt-glazing-and-firing/

The Salt Glaze Surface includes:

Salt Firing, Science, and the Environment
by Gil Stengel
Many of us know that salt makes a glaze, and that sodium is a component of many of our glazes, but how this works exactly, and what the effects of the process are is difficult to measure without the right knowledge and equipment. Luckily, Gil Stengel and others have done the research and are willing to share their knowledge of salt firing with us.

Salt Fuming: A Low-Temperature Salt Firing
by Paul Soldner
There is more than one way to salt a fire. The most common way to salt glaze is at high temperatures (around cone 10), but Paul Soldner has been salt fuming at low temperatures for several decades. He walks us through the entire salt fuming process, from loading the kiln to introducing the salt to a post-firing treatment of our work.

Slip and Glaze Recipes for Salt Firing
Will Ruggles and Douglass Rankin have been admired for their wood-fired, salt-glazed work for years, and their slip and glaze recipes are trusted by many professionals.