Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a ceramic glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The glaze may be colourless or may be coloured various shades of brown (from iron oxide), blue (from cobalt oxide), or purple (from manganese oxide).[1][2][3]
Except for its use by a few studio potters, the process is obsolete. Before its demise, in the face of environmental clean air restrictions, it was last used in the production of salt-glazed sewer-pipes.[4][5][6] The only commercial pottery in the UK currently licensed to produce salt glaze pottery is Errington Reay at Bardon Mill in Northumberland which was founded in 1878.[7][8][9]
- ^ Dictionary Of Ceramics. Arthur Dodd & David Murfin. 3rd edition. The Institute Of Minerals. 1994.
- ^ "Salt Glaze ware". www.thepotteries.org. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
- ^ ’The ABC of English salt-glaze stoneware from Dwight to Doulton.’ Blacker J.F. S.Paul & Company, London 1922.
- ^ 'Dictionary of Ceramics' 3rd ed. A.Dodd, D.Murfin. The Instiutue of Materials. 1994
- ^ 'If You Believe What You Read About Salt Glazing Read On ...' I.Lewis. Interceram 45, No.4, 1996
- ^ 'Development Of A Low-Emission Salt-Glazing Procedure Using NaOH Instead Of NaCl' R.Knodt, A.Normann, S.Blasner, J.Denissen, J. de Jong Keram.Z. 53, No.4, 2001.
- ^ "Home". North East Life. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
- ^ "Errington Reay - Outstanding Handmade Pottery". www.erringtonreay.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
- ^ "What´s on North East - Venues". www.whatsonnortheast.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2016-07-01.