9 TO 11*

Back when this bottle was made, I had a bucket full of the glaze made from the last of a rather particular source of ash that I was trying to ration out but to all good things. As I am now finding out having made up more ash glaze recently with the base material from a different source is just how different the effects within the glaze can be. In the picture the mottled, almost tortoise shell effect is plain to see on this temmoku and ash glazed bottle over a combed decoration, neither planned or controllable this just happened on the majority of pieces that it was used on but with the new incarnation most of this "patterning" is all but gone. Truth be told, I was well aware of how different varying ash sources can be having used the material for decades and seeing rather dramatic variations within the same recipes and temperature range, this is the nature of the beast. I do still have some of that ash, ash that I was given by Bill Klock the last time that I saw him though I will use it as wisely as possible in the future and only on pots that I think, or hope that Bill would have approved of. 

(* average pH of wood ash)