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soda flashing

updated tue 30 nov 99

 

Cindy Strnad on mon 29 nov 99

Bob,

I'm forwarding some of the posts I found helpful, in case you missed them.
To answer the questions you ask, yes, I'm just mixing soda ash with water.
The water should be hot, and you simply mix in as much as the hot water will
dissolve. It will precipitate out fairly quickly (a day at most), and you
can re-use it by heating it back up. (In a microwave, for example)

I fire electric, too, ^6. I've heard it works well in other atmospheres at
other temps, but I, too, don't have the option of trying that just yet.

My mixing of soda ash and glazes was purely accidental, and the soda
actually went on *under*, not over the glaze. It's a cobalt and rutile
glaze, but I'm not at liberty to give the recipe (or would already have done
so on the list) as it was given to me in confidence. I mean to try it with
other glazes, both under and over, but haven't gotten to that yet. In order
to avoid this accidental mixing in the future, I'm going to do the glaze
first, then the soda ash wash. I like the color, but it does make it hard to
get the glaze to stick.

And finally, no, I haven't tried it without the oxide wash. Actually, my
primary interest wasn't so much in the color, as I can get that with my
oxide washes, but in the slight sheen it imparts. Very pretty, IMO.

Hope this helps some,