Since I became interested in Pottery in 2020 I have been drawn naturally to the Potters: Phil Rogers, Jim Malone, Svend Bayer and Mike Dodd - all of whom, little did I know then, used Ash Glazes extensively in their work. In the four-year period since that time I have definitely and thoroughly fallen under the spell of Ash Glazes. To compound this passion in 2021 I was fortunate enough to participate in a wood-firing. Not having any cone-10 glazes at the time I was blessed to be able to use the Green Wood Ash Glaze of a Potter friend on a couple of my pieces. After the unloading of those wonderful pots I was smitten. I knew that I had to find a way of souring and making my own wood ash glazes. Fast forward to the winter of 2023/24 and I requested my Dad to collect all wood ash from the two log-burners of my childhood home in Milton Keynes. He patiently obliged this unusual and somewhat irksome request so that in the Spring of this year I finally had my first ever decent quantity of wood ash. I was finally ready to begin testing my own wood ash glazes.

For the intended cone-10 wood-firings I already knew that a Simon Leach recipe worked well. I therefore decided to keep things simple, at least initially, and made up three test batches using this simple wood ash recipe of one third each of wood ash, potash feldspar and flint. Being naturally drawn to greens and blues I straightaway included Cobalt Oxide, Rutile and Copper Carbonate as additives.

The need for simple and effective tracking and recording will be apparent to any potter that has done glaze tests of their own and so I decided upon a straightforward code to identify the different recipes of:

1A - Green wood ash = Simon Leach recipe (SL) + 4% rutile & 3% copper carbonate

2A - Blue wood ash = 1A recipe + 2% cobalt oxide

3A - Too Blue wood ash = 1A recipe + 4% cobalt oxide

Theory complete it was time for action. I realised at this point that whatever happened it would be critical to keep these codes attached to their corresponding test samples. After weighing and combining the materials to make up the 100gram test batches (plus percentage of additives) it was the usual routine of soaking the powder with around 80ml of water and sieving through an 80's mesh test-sieve the following morning. This done I had four wonderful little jars half-full of a brown liquid identical in colour and consistency. After a couple of days to let the glaze equalize I added water to achieve my desired viscosity and specific gravity of exactly 1.34. Next was to dip my test tiles for an allocated length of three seconds, and then a second dip for another three seconds on the top half of the test tile only. Wood ash glazes are super sensitive to application thickness and to make the most of these tests I wanted to see the different results from a thin application versus a thick one (this is also why I took great care over accurate and uniform viscosity and specific gravity). Test tiles done there was plenty of glaze remaining so I proceeded to glaze three small simple pots.

With cross-contamination in mind I had so many separate stirrers, lids, jugs and mixing bowls crowding my worktop that it was quite challenging to keep track of which glaze was going onto which test tile. It took a consistent focus to ensure that nothing was mixed up before I had the chance to write on the test tiles in my underglaze pencil. It's worth noting that the code identifying the test tile was written on the underside as the top-side would be exposed to melting wood ash and potentially cover the all-important letter and number of 1A, 2A or 3A. After some clearing up I was ready to go, my first ever home-made and partially self-sourced wood ash glaze tests were ready for the flames and fury of the wood-kiln.

Upon loading day I was sure to see the three test tiles go into a central area of the kiln and crucially right alongside each other therefore minimising the effect upon my experiment of the firing factors; temperature variance, wood ash exposure and reduction. After they were loaded I had done all I could do and the rest would be the Kiln's work. The firing day went smoothly as usual due to superb kiln design in harmony with flue, chimney and dedicated team of stokers. A consistently brilliant load of pots were the result on unloading a few days later. My three test tiles all came out with a good melt and just as importantly easily distinguishable from one another.

On reflection I’m proud of myself for putting in the time, effort and planning to testing these three wood ash glazes. For me such a task initially seemed quite dry when compared to actually making pots. I’m really pleased with the results and will be making up a larger batch of ‘2A blue wood ash’ for glazing a number of my pots. I hope then things will get really exciting and crucially that I’ll dream up a better name than ‘2A blue wood ash’.