Joseph Coniglio on tue 11 may 04
Wood ash being subjective, and many folks supplying themselves
more than ample amounts for glazes from their own wood firings....
...said that...
Any commercial suppliers around for wood ash? Looking for a
source.
...and if so
any have the brass to sort out by kinds instead of lumping it under
"wood ash" ???
... since Hamers says: Wood Ash is as different as chalk is to granite"
...and if so
Apple Ash
Cedar Ash
Oak Ash
Maple Ash
Seaweed Ash
Sea grass Ash
etc??
-------
also
-------
1) Sundry need "for-a-leg-on-a" Rock Crusher purchase source to
make small amounts of powder for my studio tests??
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and
-------
2) Harry Davis Clay body formula (includes Cornish Stone by the way)
His do-it-your-selfer- had more mechancial machine building talk and
diagrams and I wished it had more about the clay materials.
-------
and
-------
Anyone mixing a "basalt clay body" anymore. I'm interested in mixing a
small body batch for that too. Predominately unglazed high fire. PS
50% Iron I believe!!!
anyone feel free to post and or contact me privately
garnet_mesa_pottery@yahoo.com
Thank you,
Joe
David Hendley on wed 12 may 04
There are published analyses of different species of wood ash, but I'm not
sure how helpful this information is because where a plant grew may be
as important as the species.
According to the table in Phil Roger's Ash Glaze book, there are big
differences in different species of wood ash:
SiO2 ranges from 1.31% for apple to 39.81% for Chinese oak,
K2O ranges from 5.77% for Chinese oak to 49.8% for willow,
and so on.
The figures for Japanese oak and English oak are radically different.
In my opinion, there is too much ash routinely discarded for anyone
to consider paying for it. If you don't have a fireplace, why not
ask a neighbor who does, or ask to clean out the pit at a barbeque place?
Then you work with what you have - who cares what the analysis is.
David Hendley
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> Wood ash being subjective, and many folks supplying themselves
> more than ample amounts for glazes from their own wood firings....
> ...said that...
> Any commercial suppliers around for wood ash? Looking for a
> source.
> any have the brass to sort out by kinds instead of lumping it under
> "wood ash" ???
> Apple Ash
> Cedar Ash
> Oak Ash
> Maple Ash
> Seaweed Ash
> Sea grass Ash
>
> etc??
>
Fredrick Paget on thu 13 may 04
I have been carefully saving the prunings from my apricot tree and
burning them in a clean fireplace to get the ash. Herbert Sanders
thought there was something special about apricot ash . I have seen
greenish effects in ash glaze from it. So far I have about a half
gallon of ash combined from three different years. The apricot tree
also has a gum that oozes out in the spring and it seems to be a lot
like gum arabic. I collect that too and refine it by dissolving it in
hot water and filtering it before drying it into flakes.
Why do I do all these crazy things?
I live on top of a clay bed of earthenware clay. Trouble is almost
every square inch of my lot has buildings or garden on it and I can't
get to the clay. When we put in a new fence a few years ago I got
around 10 gallons of it out of the post holes. You have to get down
about 2 feet before it gets pure.
My next door neighbor put in a patio by digging into the slowly
rising hillside we live on and when they got down about four feet the
clay was really pure. Since they were throwing it into a big dumpster
(what we call a Grange Box here) to go to the land fill I was welcome
to all I wanted. I got about 500 pounds most of which I gave to the
community college for the summer course in Primitive Pottery. I had a
sample analyzed by courtesy of M. Wendt.
Zimmer Clay (that is my neighbor's name):
SiO2=61.25; Al2O3=15.70; Fe2O3=6.52; CaO=0.32; MgO=1.64; Na2O=1.73;
K2O=1.44; TiO2=0.96;
MnO=0.02; P2O5=0.07; LOI=8.58.
Good cone 04 red brick clay. In fact a lot of San Francisco was
built of bricks made out of Marin clay by the Remmelard Brick Works
whose huge kiln and smokestack still stand just up the road from the
quarry seen at the end of the movie "Dirty Harry". Now it's the site
of an upscale condo and apartment development, with a shopping center
on top of the filled in quarry . The brick works was converted into
an office park and there used to be a restaurant inside the kiln. Now
it's vacant.
When I mix this clay 50:50 with Apricot ash I get a rich brown glossy
glaze at cone 10 with rivulets of light tan dispersed over the
surface.
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
Don Kopyscinski on thu 13 may 04
David Hendly Wrote:
<sure how helpful this information is because where a plant grew may be
as important as the species.>>
This made me think of an interesting incident that happened to my friend
Scott Tubby about 20 years ago. He was experimenting with some wood ash gathered
from a family fireplace. He was pleasantly surprised to be getting some nice,
copper red blush, in his test glaze. Repeated tests showed this same
characteristic. Then it dawned on him. The tree that had been cut down was a beech tree.
More specifically, it was a "copper beech". The botanist who named that
species of tree, was right on the money! It had drawn enough copper from the soil
to be a serendipitous, cupriferous, treat for potters.
Regards,
Don Kopyscinski
Bear Hills Pottery
Newtown, CT
Joseph Coniglio on thu 13 may 04
Howdy Don,
That's a good story. I completely believe it!!
David is certainly right. Ash can be plenty ample to ask around for
sources and pricing --and kinds--
Axner had a source for it for a while.
I have some exotic ideas of blending a teaspoon full of ash into a
basic test glaze made from a few pounds of burned cherry blossom
petals. Sounding like an alchemist. Might not amount to a hill of
beans, then again stranger things have happened.
I did read that the sea grass reeds that grow by the sea in Japan had
a lot of sodium and magnesium in them and really contributed to flux
and glaze yield and was a natural source.
This is the direction I'm going in. It makes the work personal, it can
also make it very local and indigenious. Anything interesting can
begin to help create value and allure. No shortage of it.
Take care. Thank you.
---------
Joe
Starting July 1st 2004:
Joseph Coniglio
Garnet Mesa Pottery
3249 1600 Road
Delta, CO 81416
Joe Coniglio
(914) 980-8788 US mobile
Ivor and Olive Lewis on fri 14 may 04
Dear Don,
Some wood which is to be used in situations where rotting might be a
problem are treated with Copper Arsenic compounds. So any off cuts may
be contaminated in more ways than one.
Best regards.
Ivor Lewis. Redhill, South Australia
Joseph Coniglio on fri 14 may 04
Fred Paget continues the string with a facinating story about
managing materials in his locality.
We have access to interesting compounds at our fingertips. And we
seek elegant solutions, employing personal methods to use these
materials in our work. I was very glad Fred's story was shared in this
forum.
---
Indiginous materials:
The town we are moving to in July, (will that day ever come?) Delta, CO
had a brick factory and rather huge kiln [long gone] The brick can be
found in 20-30 establishments including small brick homes. The
clays finished product resembles colonial yellowware (yellow
stoneware). And as mentioned elsewhere, there's a rather deep pure
red terra cotta deposit about 20 miles up the road I plan I funking into
garden pots with ball clay, grog and cornish.
--
I showed my wife a bottle by David Hendley made from his own clay
body derived from the Texas clay in his locality. She quicked nodded
with approval over the entire production gambit: The bottom of the
bottle was sanded smooth as a baby's bottom, the used a pottery
stamp that was impressive, the glazes, applications and wood
flashings unique and the bottle had nice thin walls and was well
balanced.
--
I firmly believe that a potter who can settle down into maintaining
his/or her own unique artistic style, using local materials where found
can indeed develop a very tight, rewarding eclectic market for those
wares, be they art, sculpture, tiles, kitchenware and so on.
There are two reasons to leave the studio a few days per week:
1) Continue to locate and cultivate raw materials.
2) Seek markets and exhibits off site.
---
I remain perplexed about how to best handle making money as a
potter.
Word: of mouth is great.
Consignment: on the other hand gives me an ill shallow feeling about
ever seeing your money come back out from a shop or a gallery.
Wholesale: straight off makes the work too much of a commodity but
does put a recoverable amount of cash in the pocket. Caching large
lots of quality merchandise and getting paid a lump sum.
Art Fairs: No wonder, regardless of art fair entry fees, travel, packing,
road food and lodging, that potters still make these pilgrimages to cut
out the middleman. Boon or bust. "Weather" or not.
Thank you.
---------
Joe
Starting July 1st 2004:
Joseph Coniglio
Garnet Mesa Pottery
3249 1600 Road
Delta, CO 81416
(914) 980-8788 US mobile
Ivor and Olive Lewis on sat 15 may 04
Dear Fred,
Sounds as though your Apricot trees are suffering from a fungal
disease called "Gummosis". This causes "gummy exudations.
The green might be because the trees have been sprayed at some time
with Copper Oxy -Chloride to prevent "leaf curl". Try your apricot ash
glaze in a reduction firing.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis. Redhill, South Australia
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