jrgpots Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Last night I was hovering over my 55 gal drum as flames shoot into the air. The heat was intense as dry tumbleweeds burst into flame. For about two hours I stuffed tumbleweed after tumbleweed into the conflagration as they joined in the sacrificial flames of night.........I really enjoyed it. It is a great yearly ritual. Every year I get thousands of tumbleweeds in my yard with the wind. They end up burning in the drum. I have about 10 inches of ash in the bottom of the drum this AM. It makes a beatiful green "celadon-like" transparent glaze with custer feldspar or granite dust at cone 6 oxidation... I am willing to give away some of this Great resource of the SouthWest to anyone who might want to try it out. If interested, drop me a E-mail. Otherwise, I wil continue to stock pile. Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Last night I was hovering over my 55 gal drum as flames shoot into the air. The heat was intense as dry tumbleweeds burst into flame. For about two hours I stuffed tumbleweed after tumbleweed into the conflagration as they joined in the sacrificial flames of night.........I really enjoyed it. It is a great yearly ritual. Every year I get thousands of tumbleweeds in my yard with the wind. They end up burning in the drum. I have about 10 inches of ash in the bottom of the drum this AM. It makes a beatiful green "celadon-like" transparent glaze with custer feldspar or granite dust at cone 6 oxidation... I am willing to give away some of this Great resource of the SouthWest to anyone who might want to try it out. If interested, drop me a E-mail. Otherwise, I wil continue to stock pile. Jed What's your ash glaze recipe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 There are some towns being buried by tumbleweeds. You should let them know what to do with them. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Jed What's your ash glaze recipe?I used Frasca wood ash glaze from ceramic arts daily, dropping the flint: Tumblewood ash 66 (%) Pot feldspar. 11 Whiting. 11 Ball clay. 11 Plus copper carb. 4% Now I'm using local feldspar that I have ball milled. I call it "mountain feldspar." I'm line testing right now using 5 tiles. I have no idea if it will work. Tile 1. Mountain Feldspar 70 (gm) Tumbleweed ash. 30 Whiting. 20 EPK 20 Tile 2. Mountain feldspar 60 Tumbleweed ash. 40 Whiting. 20 EPK. 20 Tile 3. Mountain feldspar 50 Tumblweed ash. 50 Whiting. 20 EPK. 20 Tile 4. Mountain feldspar 40 Tumbleweed ash. 60 Whiting. 20 EPK. 20 Tile 5 Mountain feldspar 30 Tumbleweed ash. 70 Whiting. 20 EPK. 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Biglou, Are you going to post pics of the tiles? marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Biglou,Are you going to post pics of the tiles?marcia1. I'm not jrg2. Jrg stop teasing post the tiles (please) I have a ash glaze per John b. That's in early test stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta12 Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 JRG, can I stop by and visit the next time we drive to Vegas?? Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Biglou,Are you going to post pics of the tiles?marcia 1. I'm not jrg2. Jrg stop teasing post the tiles (please) I have a ash glaze per John b. That's in early test stage. The tiles should be done in 2 days. I will post asap. Sorry for the teasing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 JRG, can I stop by and visit the next time we drive to Vegas?? Roberta sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChenowethArts Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 First of all, lgrpots, I am fascinated that there is so much tumbleweed...is there a story behind the first time that you thought of using the ash from you annual ritual to make a glaze? Here in the South, if we could just make a similar discovery with omnipresent Kudzu vines... 'looking forward to seeing your test results, -Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 I live in a new subdevision where there are more empty lots than houses. We are surrounded by thousands of acres of tumbleweed. When the wind blows, the tumbleweeds collect inside my backyard. Officially, we can start burning March 8th. But we are getting buried alive already. I have wondered if there would be ceramic market interest for this stuff. Could you imagine setting up a business plan to collect, burn, sieve, and sell tumbleweed ash. Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Jed, In Japan.... there ARE ashmakers that support the pottery field. Different world there. best, ...............john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 I think the market for tumbleweed ash is very small and really not worth your time. On another note this years tumbleweed growth is at an all time high I read more and larger than in many years.It was even on the national news . You can read abut this in the tumbleweed gazette paper.(just joking on the gazette part) Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Jed, In Japan.... there ARE ashmakers that support the pottery field. Different world there. best, ...............john I thought I was doing something new. You have said that most glazes are just remaking of older glazes. It turns out that my current glaze recipe could be classified as a Nuka glaze variant. But I am using my own feldspar which I collected and mall milled. I should have pics of tiles after this week's kiln firing. Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mregecko Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Curious how these came out! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Curious how these came out! :-) ^^^^ yeah whay he said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted March 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 The kiln gods have not been kind to me this week. I fired my test tile to cone 6. I thought there would be enough flux in the ash to melt the glaze. But that was not the case. None of them melted, even the high ash mix. To make matters worse, I used cone 6 clay test tiles, so I can't just refire to cone 10. Well.......... I need to add flux. I have Gerstley borate, Spodumene, and frit 3124. Any suggestions? My test tile had 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 gm feldspar and matching tumble weed ash to total 100 gm. (for example 30 feldspar, 70 ash) whiting 20 gm EPK 20 gm I really like the third tile from the left since it crackled well. It would be nice over a darker glaze. This is what I get for wanting to show off to you Biglou. jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 wonder how this glaze would go over an iron rich glaze at C6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted March 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 I'll let you know when I get it to melt. Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babs Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 I'll let you know when I get it to melt. Jed Try it unmelting, maybe it will be interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biglou13 Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 Nice good data! I like the whiteness John b gave the formula of 33% clay 33% spar 33% ash I ended up using lizella, replaced part of spar with neph Sy, and used ash from a BBQ joint mostly oak. It worked ok, but no exciting ash effects. Too well behaved, I'll post pics tomorrow I like 3 and 4. Ii wonder what would look like with thicker application It look like 1 shivered, but it looks like you got glaze to melt. I really like the whiteness, we may have to trade some ash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JBaymore Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 That 1/3 1/3 1/3 combo is for cone 9-10. Won't fly at 6. Cone 6 is tough for straight wood ash glazes ........... calcium oxide is just becoming really active in that range. You might just have to bit the bulloet and go up to cone 9 if you want that look. You need a source of a secondary active flux to help get the melt going at 6. Unfortunately, that will change to "ash glaze" look a lot. All of the raw materials you listed are viable options to supply the additional fluxes. GB actually is mainly giving you a lower temperature glass former that will blend with the high temp silica and has the effect of acting like a flux .... but boron glass is softer than silica glass...... so there is some trade off there. You could run a tri-axial with each of the materials you mentioned added to the two you used.... but only do the center points of the blend and make the steps maybe 5% changes in there. best, ..........................john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 That 1/3 1/3 1/3 combo is for cone 9-10. Won't fly at 6. Cone 6 is tough for straight wood ash glazes ........... calcium oxide is just becoming really active in that range. You might just have to bit the bulloet and go up to cone 9 if you want that look. You need a source of a secondary active flux to help get the melt going at 6. Unfortunately, that will change to "ash glaze" look a lot. All of the raw materials you listed are viable options to supply the additional fluxes. GB actually is mainly giving you a lower temperature glass former that will blend with the high temp silica and has the effect of acting like a flux .... but boron glass is softer than silica glass...... so there is some trade off there. You could run a tri-axial with each of the materials you mentioned added to the two you used.... but only do the center points of the blend and make the steps maybe 5% changes in there. best, ..........................john I think I will try frit 3124 blend first. Maybe this is the push I need to finish my gas conversion kikn. Thanks for the the push.... Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChenowethArts Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 Jed, I saw this CNN story about the Colorado town that seems to be buried in tumbleweed and thought of your annual cleaning/burning. Is it this bad where you live?:http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/us/irpt-tumbleweed-colorado/ BTW, I have washed the ash you sent me and should have it prepped for testing soon, -Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrgpots Posted April 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2014 Yes, my neighbor has to dig himself out of 14 ft high tumbleweed piles across his house front after any wind storm. Remember,,,I live in a town called "Hurricane" for a reason. I sent some ash to Mountain Pottery in Vitoria Austalia. That shop uses all types of ash in their glazes. They have posted many recipes using different types of ash. Hopefully they will get good results too. Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.