Using Wood Ash Spray In Ceramic Firing

Salt vaporizes at a fairly low temperature and can work its way into all sorts of nooks and crannies.

Using wood ash spray in ceramic firing.

The japanese have always held wood fired ceramics in high esteem wood kilns can not only produce temperatures of 1400 c 2 500 f wood fires also produce fly ash and volatile salts. Does it have detrimental effects on your elements or bricks in an electric kiln. The ash from the wood was coating the bricks adhering and melting as a thin layer of glaze. Traditionally ash glazes were fired between cones 9 and 10.

Used as very thin wash dipped brushed or sprayed over shino this mix promotes carbon trapping and can give the look of wood firing. Wood ash is caustic so work in a well ventilated area with a respirator and wear safety goggles and chemical resistant gloves. The work in wood kilns reveals the story of the firing with pieces showing ash deposits and the path of the flame through the kiln. Now with so many fuel options available to the potter wood fired kilns are more of a choice than a necessity.

Lately i have read short descriptions of people using soda ash wash on their bisque fired pieces prior to glaze firing and have several questions. So check out nesrin s post today. It requires a very hot dirty firing to look good but also it holds up well in multi day super hot wood kilns. At this temperature the ash will easily melt and the result to the non purist is almost indistinguishable from pottery fired in a wood firing kiln.

Nesrin during shows us how to combine wood firing and raku firing as you ll see wood firing isn t just about high firing. I remember visiting a well known pottery in japan renowned for its wood fired pots and seeing a woman swathed in indigo cloth spraying wood ash in a fairly thick coating onto the pots. Putting one and one together the potters discovered that wood ash with very little else added forms a glaze. The process that i m talking about is wood firing with salt thrown in.

While wood kiln firing isn t easy the results are incomparable. But not all wood kilns are built. You can build a simple raku kiln and fire your work with wood to get stunning results. The salt easily glosses up a piece and helps the wood ash flux out.

Shino ash wash from sylvia dales 70 potash feldspar g 200 30 wood ash bentonite 2. In a salt firing the salt vaporizes and the sodium chloride splits into sodium and chlorine gas. After mixing with water run the glaze. This complex interaction of ash salts minerals in the clay and the flame itself are what give wood fired pots their unique characteristics.

Using up wood ash in your yard and garden is a natural solution. I only mix up what i ll use in one firing 1000 grams of each since the ash glaze does not store well. Is it only used on bare bisque fired clay or can it be used over a glaze coat under a glaze coat or over underglazes. The minerals from the wood are restored to nature where they can be reused again.

Wood ash contains all the trace minerals from inside a trees wood which are the building blocks needed for plant health.