Experimenting with Domestic Sodium Bi-carbonates for Ceramic Glazing and Decoration

Ceramic glazes are a glassy layer of fused material over the surface of a clay-based product. Glazing is an important technique in the decoration and finishing of ceramic products. It is observed that glaze development is not widely practiced by most indigenous cottage ceramic practitioners in Nigeria due to reasons varying from high cost of importation of processed glaze raw materials, to lack of understanding of glaze chemistry that makes it impossible to exploit the local raw materials which exist in abundance. Even where the knowledge is available, the necessary equipment to process the glaze materials are capital intensive and unavailable. Hence this study was carried out to discover the feasibility of using a locally available, easily assessable materials in simple glaze development. This research focused on achieving ceramic glazing, using varying forms of bicarbonates of soda available in Nigeria, outside of the vapour glazing usually associated with soda glazing in ceramics which requires a dedicated kiln for such processes. The research outcome shows that 60% of baking soda mixed in volume ratio with ball clay and water will give a very good mid-temperature glaze when fired in both oxidized and reduced kiln atmospheres.