Recently
a friend sent me some wood ash from his studio in Virginia, so as with all new
materials, I decided to test it and glazed and decorated a teabowl and put it
in the last firing. When I unloaded the kiln, there were two teabowls near each
other, one from the old ash and one from the new Virginia ash and though both
the Nuka surfaces were similar the colors were quite different. The old ash
which had originated in upper NY State came from Bill Klock and my
sister-in-law and has a decidedly blue-grey tone to it while the new ash (see
the attached illustration) from the Commonwealth of Virginia seems quite a bit
cleaner running to a just off-white color and a much brighter surface.
Truthfully I am fine with both surfaces but it is quite apparent what just over
500 miles and varied sources can mean when using wood ash as a major glaze
component.
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