Salt Glaze

I have always liked salt glazed pottery. While living in the Seagrove area of North Carolina, I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of it. Recently I have wanted to investigate its use on my current forms. Fortunately, Eric Smith (E.M. Smith Pottery) lives a couple of towns to the west of me, where he maintains his studio, producing wood fired salt glaze ware. Eric was kind enough to let me put a test pieces in his firing a couple of weeks ago, which is pictured below. This is made from my regular porcelaineous stoneware clay body, with a slip coating of Erect, NC clay, a wild clay I obtained many years ago from Al McCanless of Dover Pottery. This piece doesn't demonstrate the typical "orange peel" effect of salt due to its high silica content, which tends to lap up the salt. The wood ash further fluxes it all, allowing for the development of wonderful green glass.

Guinomi (Sake Cup)