ARTS AND CRAFTS CERAMICS Salt Glazed Pottery Technical Documents

Pine Mountain settlement School
Series 15: ARTS AND CRAFTS
CERAMICS
Salt-Glazed Pottery
Technical Documents
1965-1970

Salt-glazed pottery made of locally sourced clay. “PMSS First pot made on potter’s wheel 4 Feb, ’65.” [IMG_1349.jpg]

TAGS: arts and crafts, ceramics, salt-glazed pottery, native clay, Paul Lynn, potters, ceramics instruction, firing specifications, technical guidelines for ceramic firing, glazes, Ceramics Monthly magazine, local clay, potter’s notes

ARTS AND CRAFTS CERAMICS Salt-Glazed Pottery Technical Documents, 1965-1970

SALT-GLAZED POTTERY DOCUMENTS SET I

1965-1969 POTTERY SALT-GLAZING
SALT-GLAZING CORRESPONDENCE II
SALT-GLAZING FIRING RECORDS III
SALT-GLAZING MISC. DOCUMENTS

A NOTE by unknown writer [probably Mary Rogers]:

“This folder also contains carbon copies of letters from Paul Lynn to potters and crafts magazines requesting information and bibliography on pottery and salt-glazing. The replies are not included.

It also contains ta pages carbon copy of excerpts from six articles by Carlton Ball in Ceramics Monthly, 1962 (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May., Sept.)

Included also are handwritten records of second test-firing (26 Mar. 1966) and a salt-glaze firing (#3:+1-2 July 1966) These items are not reproduced here.”

[Note for Berea Microfilm project]

GALLERY I: Salt-Glazed Pottery – Examples (1965-1970)

: PMSS Salt-glazed and wood-fired pottery. Ceramics Salt-Glazed Pottery Documents Set I 1965-1970. [IMG_1302]

: PMSS Salt-glaze pottery. Ceramics Salt-Glazed Pottery Documents Set I 1965-1970. [IMG_1330]

: PMSS Salt-glaze pottery. Ceramics Salt-Glazed Pottery Documents Set I 1965-1970. [IMG_1334]

GALLERY II: Salt-Glazed Pottery Technical Documents, Folder 1
1965-1970

PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL, Friday 17, December 1965.
FIRST TEST FIRING of Home-built kiln (left chamber) kiln (east-side), wood fuel (various woods) salt glaze. [1 pg. copy with 4 duplicates and 1 attached note. ]
[Attached note} Raises questions regarding stoneware glaze with salting (Albany slip (?) and multiple other questions regarding the firing process.]
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL, Friday 17, December 1965. Thru Saturday 18 December 1965. FIRST TEST FIRING of Home-built kiln (east-side), wood fuel (various), salt-glaze. REPORT AND ANALYSIS. [1 pg. copy with 4 duplicates.]
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL, Friday 17, December 1965 — Sat. 18th.
FIRST TEST FIRING of East-side kiln (salt-glaze). [2 pgs.]
STOKER NOTES. [on December firing ?] 3 pages.
TYPED NOTES AND EXCERPTS FROM SIX ARTICLES BY CARLTON BALL in CERAMICS MONTHLY 1962. [See Ceramics Literature ….. internal use only]
Includes: INTRODUCTION TO SALT GLAZES, F. Carlton Ball, January 1962.
SALT-GLAZED STONEWARE, F. Carlton Ball, February 1962, pp. 26-27.
PREPARING A SALT-GLAZE BODY, F. Carlton Ball, March 1962.
CLAY BODIES FOR SALT GLAZING, F. Carlton Ball, April 1962, pp.13 & 32.
COLOR IN SALT GLAZING , F. Carlton Ball, May 1962, p. 11.
ENGOBES FOR COLOR IN SALT GLAZE, F. Carlton Ball 1962, p. 28
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL. March 26, 1966. 2nd FIRING OF SALT-GLAZE KILN (EAST SIDE). [Includes diagram] 5 pages.
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL. July 1-2, 1966. 3rd FIRING OF SALT-GLAZE KILN (EAST SIDE ?). [Includes diagrams] 7 pages.
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL. 26 MARCH 1966. 2nd FIRING OF SALT-GLAZE KILN (EAST SIDE). [Includes diagram] 5 pages.
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL NOTES ON 1966 KILN FIRINGS [N.D.] 4 pages.
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL NOTES ON 1966 #4 SALT KILN FIRING. c. cone 5. (5 pages).
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL NOTES ON July 1-2, 1966. NOTES ON SALT-[glaze] KILN FIRING #3. c. cone 5. (4 pages).
CORRESPONDENCE 17 February 1966. Paul Lynn to Ceramics Monthly, regarding technical aspects of salt glazing and technical aspects of firing with wood? Also, asks for information on “…an aesthetic approach to the beauty of traditional (folk) pottery?
RESPONSE to above, February 23, 1966, FROM Thomas Sellers, of Ceramics Monthly, is attached.
6 pages of NOTES related to ENGOBES; TEST OF FLUXES; CORNWALL STONE; FIRING TESTS; CAUTIONS (1. Glazes high in boric oxide tend to boil. Add rufile to improve texture. 2. Don’t use Ca0, Mg )o, Ba 0 below cone 4 – May inhibit fusion! 3. Colemanite is a flocculant and glazes don’t keep. 4. Cryolite + copper causes blisters. List of additives. Tips on the use of glaze additives? Cones on 4th salt-glaze firing.
CORRESPONDENCE 26, October 1965 Paul Lynn to Marguerite Wildenhain Pond Farm, Guerneville, CA, regarding her book, Pottery: Form and Expression, which he discovered after return from Japan. …He writes: “The reason I write you is this: We’ve built this past summer twin wood-burning kilns [ELECTRICAL POWER HOUSE] each with the capacity of about 18 cubic feet. ONE OF THEM IS INTENDED AS A SALT-GLAZING KILN. I have puzzled over just what is best for the pots to sit on during the salt glazing so that that [sic] don’t stick to the shelves (?) Would ordinary three-pointed porcelain stilts work or is something special needed?
This pottery project is a community project for the use of the youth in the community as well as the Homemakers [see Matt Boggs] and other adults.
Our kilns are in the same room as the other pottery activities. When the salt is put into the kiln, what is the danger of gas poisoning? Is this something to be careful about? Will rock salt work as well as table salt? How much?
Would you be able to recommend a good book or two on the technicalities of salt glazing? Such a recommendation would be well appreciated. …” NO RESPONSE WAS ATTACHED.
CORRESPONDENCE March 18, 1966, from Craft Horizons that describes a TRAVEL AND STUDY DIRECTORY PUBLISHED by Craft Horizons and useful for those looking for summer workshops. [Form attached]
CORRESPONDENCE February 17, 1966, PMSS staff, JERRY WORKMAN to Mr. Robert Gray, Asheville, NC, regarding local clays and the use of the kiln in the new potter building [POWER HOUSE] Workman notes that the test was successful and asks for assistance from the Guild [Southern Highlands Craft Guild] for information regarding salt-glazing and on early American pottery (methods of making design, etc,) folk pottery?
CORRESPONDENCE February 17, 1966, from Paul Lynn to W.E. Cross, New England Books, Petersham, MA. Requests information on books on early New England pottery (not porcelain, but earthenware and stoneware). Also, he asks about other books related to the work being done at PMSS.
CORRESPONDENCE February 17, 1966. Paul Lynn to Craft Horizons, the American Craftsmen’s Council. Lynn requests information on salt-glazing and other related materials. He adds,” Also, have there been any articles on an aesthetic approach to the beauty of traditional (folk) pottery?”
CORRESPONDENCE February 21, 1966. Craft Horizon to Paul Lynn. They send tearsheets in answer to requests for information on salt-glazing but “… on your other questions, we are sorry to say that we are not able to help you.”
CORRESPONDENCE April 28, 1966, Paul Lynn to Prof. Clayton Bailey, Whitewater State U., Whitewater, Wis., Lynn advises that PMSS has been “… setting up a primitive salt glaze kiln (approx. 18 cu. ft.) which is fired by wood. We are making use of about three different local clays and firing about cone 3.
It is hoped that experiments with this salt glaze kiln will prove beneficial to one or more local people at Pine Mountain but especially useful to the students here. We’ve made two test firings.
I have been trying to locate all the written information regarding salt glazing, whether it be technical or aesthetic. I’ve exhausted books and articles such as Rhodes; Jug Town; F. Carlton Ball’s C.M [Ceramics Monthly] articles; and so on. …Mr. James McKinnell, who is now at Alfred, said that you got a Tiffany grant to investigate salt-firing. Is any of the information you have gathered available for use? Would it be possible to borrow any of this material to read and be returned promptly? ” C.M. declined to lend material.

GALLERY III: Salt-Glazed Pottery Technical Documents
1965-1970

TECHNICAL NOTES ON FIRING AND GLAZING ?, ? 1966 [5 pages]

000 Notes on file folder content. [probably Mary Rogers]

001 December 17, 1965 FIRST FIRING (p. 1)
001a December 17, 1965 FIRST FIRING (p. 2)

002 December 17, 1965 through December 18, 1965. First test firing of home-built kiln (east-side), wood-fuel (various), salt glaze. Report and analysis. PAUL LYNN (p. 1)
002a December 17, 1965 through December 18, 1965. First test firing of home-built kiln (east-side), wood-fuel (various), salt glaze. Report and analysis. PAUL LYNN (p. 2)

003 December 17, 1965 through December 18, 1965 . First Test Firing of Eastside Kiln (salt glaze) (p.1)
003a December 17, 1965 through December 18, 1965 . First Test Firing of Eastside Kiln (salt glaze) (p.2)

004 charted report [?] with time, amount, stoked, comments, temp (p.1)
004a charted report [?] with time, amount, stoked, comments, temp (p.2)

005 Dup of above [removed]

: 000 [ceramics_salt_glz_i_000]

: 001 First Test Firing. Friday 17, December 1965. [ceramics_salt_glz_i_001]

: 001a First Test Firing. Friday 17, December 1965. p. 2 [ceramics_salt_glz_i_001a]

: 002 Report and Analysis. Friday 17 Dec. 1965 Thru Sat. 18 December 1965. First test firing of home-built kiln (east-side), wood fuel (various), salt-glaze. PAUL LYNN. [ceramics_salt_glz_i_002]

: 002a Report and Analysis. Friday 17 Dec. 1965 Thru Sat. 18 December 1965. First test firing of home-built kiln (east-side), wood fuel (various), salt-glaze. PAUL lYNN page 2