Jump to content

Yearly Ash Burning


jrgpots

Recommended Posts

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

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

 

 

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

 

Biglou,Are you going to post pics of the tiles?marcia

1. I'm not jrg

2. 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

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... :huh:

 

'looking forward to seeing your test results,

-Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

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

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

post-26461-0-48053000-1393984760_thumb.jpg

post-26461-0-48053000-1393984760_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Guest JBaymore

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

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

  • 3 weeks later...

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

  • 3 weeks later...

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

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.