Mr. Smiley's Salt Reaction Tutorial

[earth*monkey]

Hey, Mr. Smiley! :waving:

How come I'm not seeing a tut on that mega-groovy salt reaction thingy you showed us a few days ago?

:-\"

[Nejoum]

salt reaction??.....I want to see!
Diana

[earth*monkey]

Here is the original thread and it does have some details.

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4546

[Mr. Smiley]

I haven't gotten up the nerve to expose people to the fumes. Whatever it produces, I'm not entirely sure it's safe. We all should have good ventilation near our torch, but I guarantee you don't want to have the salt process happen over your torch. It gets stuff every where. If you guys are gonna play with this, just be careful. I definitely don't want to be the cause of any health problems. A safer less messy way, would be to use popcorn salt and roll it on the piece like frit. ;)

[Rose Leslie]

You could only use that with boro right or with the soft glass too?

[Mr. Smiley]

Any glass with lots of metals in it Rose. I haven't tried it with soft glass, but I'm sure it will react with some colors. ;)

[magnum]

I would love to try this and have pretty good ventilation [hood fan, pretty powerful.] do you think that would be adequate?

[andrew brown]

Hey Smiley!! its good to see you experimenting with the salt..
Henry and I were talking at agi about possibilities of patina's and high metal colors...while using salt isnt a patina it does do weird things to the glass.. I wouldnt do this , or light a torch for that matter, without proper ventilation...a stove hood type just isnt enough....
the idea of using salt while the glass is hot is to introduce a nuclei to the glass. The salt acts as a nuclei from which the crystals grow, and create different colored effects.. Colored rods come with nuclei already introduced to them, with different size nuclei to create different colors, and aid in striking and leingth of striking...
So in a sense when you add more nuclei to a high metal color you are giving the color more chances to express itself...Salt can be used and the size salt should make a difference on what size nuclei you end up introducing.. sugar also works but makes a carmel mess.. Deb Carlson did some tests at agi with some success, and also a sticky mess.. Powdered sugar should give a different effect than regular sugar...
After introducing the nuclei, you should continue to cool and reheat the glass to grow the crystals , giving you a change and varience in color.. when i did some salt tests at agi the piece "gassed" out for quite a while and ended up with a weird oil slick finish. The colors were coming from small pocks, and the piece eventually cracked in an amazing spiderwebish way. I was using amazon bronze which is high in copper and silver...
Like smiley said it gasses something out .. im no chemist but soduim chloride is salt and sodium chloride or any type of chloride gas doesnt sound fun in my book... be careful and have fun...
andrew
ps .. smiley, pm me and call me up id like to hear about what happened and what colors you used... it was good hangin at agi..

[andrew brown]

after searching around for a minute i found out that salt is the colorant for yellow in fireworks.....
and that "Fumes from burning sodium are highly irritating to skin, eyes & mucous membranes." which sounds about right....
andrew

[CCraig]

I strongly caution anyone who wants to use salt against it. Many years ago while getting my BFA I used alot of salt on both glass and ceramic glazes. The salt fumes are a type of chlorine gas and can be deadly. After much researching (the ceramics prof at my school did alot of salt glazing and helped with the researching) it was decided that I could only use salt if I worked outside in the open court yard. Although we of course had very adequate ventilation in the university glass and ceramic departments, it was decided that it wasnt adequate for the experimentation that I was doing.

Cindy

[Karen Hardy]

I strongly caution anyone who wants to use salt against it. Many years ago while getting my BFA I used alot of salt on both glass and ceramic glazes. The salt fumes are a type of chlorine gas and can be deadly. After much researching (the ceramics prof at my school did alot of salt glazing and helped with the researching) it was decided that I could only use salt if I worked outside in the open court yard. Although we of course had very adequate ventilation in the university glass and ceramic departments, it was decided that it wasnt adequate for the experimentation that I was doing.

Cindy

When I was studying ceramics, we tried all kinds of methods of firing. We did specialty Raku firings, firings with organic materials like horse hair and of course, chemical based firings. The only firing that really stuck in my head after all these years was a salt firing we did.

We couldn't use the indoor kilns, we had to use the monster outside one. We had to do it at night - otherwise the school high muckety mucks would have shut our department down if word got out about the process we were using (I was young and stupid(er) then, so this was all very clandestine and exciting to me at the time - sneaking about the campus at night). But the part of that that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck was all the dead birds we found around the kiln the next morning. I don't know if they were flying over or nesting nearby or whatever - but it was quite a sight, and an excellent lesson to us on the dangers of introducing "common" elements into an uncommon situation. :shock:

So, yeah....ventilation...lots of it. And good health insurance.

Karen Hardy
www.karenhardydesigns.com

[Bacchae]

When I was studying ceramics, we tried all kinds of methods of firing. We did specialty Raku firings, firings with organic materials like horse hair and of course, chemical based firings.

I used to work at an art centre and we did a pit firing. Since I have access to lots of horse hair I am curious what sort of finish it makes.

I loved the pit firing but you seem to get a fair amount of breakage, or at least we did.


- Sandy

[chrissij]

I'm on my hubby's computer without Adobe so I don't know how to size down his photos of his pots, but it looks like a bunch of squigglie black lines. I'm sure you've accidentally burned your hair at some point in time, you know how it curls up and becomes carbon twirlies? that's how it looks on a pot. You lay it on the hot pot, and it burns and curls up leaving a carbon based black marking. I'll see if I can figure out how to post a picture later.

Chris

[Darlene Balkcum]

I've tried the horse hair with beads but haven't have any success yet
Darlene

[Kevan]

I love salt glazes on ceramics, but you can actually get into trouble doing that in your kiln nowadays. If you live in an urban or suburban area it's dangerous.

It's so neat though.

It's so caustic though, that it will eat the inside of your kiln. For the same reason you should never burn driftwood in your fireplace.

What does that tell you about the fumes?

[chrissij]

In saggar firing you actually place your "to be decorated" pot inside another pot that holds combustibles, steel wool, copper carb (? hubby is still asleep), and salt. This way the reaction happens inside the pot, not out in your kiln. I think the saggar pots are my favorite.

Chris

[Mr. Smiley]

I love salt glazes on ceramics, but you can actually get into trouble doing that in your kiln nowadays. If you live in an urban or suburban area it's dangerous.

It's so neat though.

It's so caustic though, that it will eat the inside of your kiln. For the same reason you should never burn driftwood in your fireplace.

What does that tell you about the fumes?

It tells me the fumes are corrosive. All slat is. I'm just not sure they are dangerous as long as your venilation is good. ;)

[Jamn!]

Yikes! Sounds like a mess and dangerous... Hmmm.

[Pickledkitty]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought it would be good to clarify. Heating up salt will produce Hydrochloric Acid gas. That is why the salt firing was so clandestine, because it is incredibly toxic to humans as well as birds. It is also very bad for the environment. Every University level ceramic program has switched over to sodium firing if they do any of that type of firing, because it is less toxic than the salt.

In other words, don't try the salt!

[brewbear]

Just my 2 cents, in breaking up sodium chloride you'll end up with some sort of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid gas(HCl). The acid gas is extremely hygroscopic (loves water) so if inhaled it will attach to the water molecules in your tissues and lungs forming highly concentrated if not glacial(99.9% pure) hydrochloric acid. The difference between glacial and highly concentrated acid is just for discussion purposes, either one is lethal just that one might take longer to kill you than the other.
I'm only posting this because as I started reading the thread I thunk it would be something cool to try and then, all that time spent in school rather than playing with molten glass, reasserted itself, slapped me on the forehead and pointed out the health hazards. Dang, I would have loved to try it but better safe......

Cheers
:jawdrop: