Salt Fired Work

Over the years I have intermittently worked with salt fired ceramics. More accurately, I did this less often solely with sodium chloride (salt as we know it), more often using a mix of sodium bicarbonate and borax — and sometimes even a mix of all three. I first built a salt kiln at my studio in Arizona, then fired salt kilns while studying with Don Reitz at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. When I taught ceramics at the University of New Mexico, we built and fired numerous salt kilns.

To this day, my favorite salt kiln was the foundry shaped circular kiln I built on Bainbridge Island, with a salt resistant coated ceramic fiber lid wired to an old upside down round metal picnic table! It looked totally makeshift, but since the flames from the two burners swirled up the sides and then back down into the middle between the shelves to the central downdraft flue, it fired exceedingly well.

Regrettably, I do not have photos of much of my salt work, but most of these pieces came out of my beloved Rube Goldberg style island kiln. I love that salt firing makes the firing process such a vibrant creative part of the work.