Using Wood Ash Spray In Ceramic Firing

Does it have detrimental effects on your elements or bricks in an electric kiln.

Using wood ash spray in ceramic firing.

Putting one and one together the potters discovered that wood ash with very little else added forms a glaze. Used as very thin wash dipped brushed or sprayed over shino this mix promotes carbon trapping and can give the look of wood firing. The salt easily glosses up a piece and helps the wood ash flux out. This complex interaction of ash salts minerals in the clay and the flame itself are what give wood fired pots their unique characteristics.

Jennifer poellot harnetty editor. You can build a simple raku kiln and fire your work with wood to get stunning results. So check out nesrin s post today. Using up wood ash in your yard and garden is a natural solution.

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. Traditionally ash glazes were fired between cones 9 and 10. Nesrin during shows us how to combine wood firing and raku firing as you ll see wood firing isn t just about high firing. 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. The ash from the wood was coating the bricks adhering and melting as a thin layer of glaze. Yard garden uses for wood ash. 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.

But not all wood kilns are built. After mixing with water run the glaze. I only mix up what i ll use in one firing 1000 grams of each since the ash glaze does not store well. 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.

It requires a very hot dirty firing to look good but also it holds up well in multi day super hot wood kilns. 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. 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. In a salt firing the salt vaporizes and the sodium chloride splits into sodium and chlorine gas.

The next step is to weigh equal amounts of ash and redart clay. While wood kiln firing isn t easy the results are incomparable. Now with so many fuel options available to the potter wood fired kilns are more of a choice than a necessity. Salt vaporizes at a fairly low temperature and can work its way into all sorts of nooks and crannies.

Wood ash is caustic so work in a well ventilated area with a respirator and wear safety goggles and chemical resistant gloves.