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Description
ABOUT THIS SHOT: And now we finally get to how the salt gets put into the kiln. The salt is dropped into the firebox right over the flames. This metal trough is filled with salt, and some ash, you line it up, push it in, flip it around and take it out. We were putting in salt every 5 minutes for about an hour, I think. I got to do this a couple times, was fun. You don't want to leave it in there too long though, couple people did and the end of it started to droop. Just to give you a little idea how hot the kiln got.

This particular trough of salt was the second to last and was put in by my teacher. This one had a bit of water added to help break down the salt more and it made this great pop when he put it in. The last trough had a lot of water and popped a lot and sparks flew out from the side, was great

This is a series of informal shots that I took at a work group for a salt firing where I've been taking pottery lessons.

This kiln is dry laid brick, brought up to about 2,800 degrees (if memory serves, I might be off by a couple hundred.) When I arrived in the evening it had been heating up since two evenings before and was ready to be salted. Basically, you pour in the salt and the intense heat vaporizes it and breaks it down into sodium and chloride, which, in layman's terms, glazes the pots. It's not nearly so simple and our teacher explained it more thoroughly, but I could never repeat it with any accuracy so I won't.

The quality of all these shots isn't too great since I don't have much control over my digital camera and the lighting was odd.

Description
ABOUT THIS SHOT: And now we finally get to how the salt gets put into the kiln. The salt is dropped into the firebox right over the flames. This metal trough is filled with salt, and some ash, you line it up, push it in, flip it around and take it out. We were putting in salt every 5 minutes for about an hour, I think. I got to do this a couple times, was fun. You don't want to leave it in there too long though, couple people did and the end of it started to droop. Just to give you a little idea how hot the kiln got.

This particular trough of salt was the second to last and was put in by my teacher. This one had a bit of water added to help break down the salt more and it made this great pop when he put it in. The last trough had a lot of water and popped a lot and sparks flew out from the side, was great

This is a series of informal shots that I took at a work group for a salt firing where I've been taking pottery lessons.

This kiln is dry laid brick, brought up to about 2,800 degrees (if memory serves, I might be off by a couple hundred.) When I arrived in the evening it had been heating up since two evenings before and was ready to be salted. Basically, you pour in the salt and the intense heat vaporizes it and breaks it down into sodium and chloride, which, in layman's terms, glazes the pots. It's not nearly so simple and our teacher explained it more thoroughly, but I could never repeat it with any accuracy so I won't.

The quality of all these shots isn't too great since I don't have much control over my digital camera and the lighting was odd.