Urban Ashes to Glaze

We recently had our chimney cleaned at the purple house. The process generated a bucketful of… nasty things and ash. We have never had a fire in the fireplace, so the ash could have been deposited anytime since the house was built in 1909. I had planned to ignore my hoarder tendencies and let the bucket of ash go; but the chimney cleaner left the bucket, and I realized I couldn’t pass up the raw material.

My lifelong hoarding habit provided the tools I needed to sift the ash and separate it from the random bits that were also in the bucket (sticks, nails, insulation…). Sometime along the way I had acquired a vintage flour sifter, and I also have a stack of metal paint cans purchased for the purpose of storing ash.

Vintage flour sifter

Definitely wear gloves and a mask when handling ash, as it is caustic

You may be wondering why on earth anyone would bother to sift wood ash. Ash is an important ingredient in many glazes used in pottery. The pictures below are details of test tiles combining different proportions of ash, clay and rock (feldspar). Ash helps clay to melt into a glaze, and in a reduction environment, the color of the glaze produced can range across green and blue.

In keeping with my interest in utilizing local materials in pottery, there may be no resource closer to home than the ash collected from your chimney. Natural materials can’t only be found in the wilderness; I now have a gallon paint can of sifted ash from the purple house, ready to be used in making glazes derived from this urban home.