Tea Bowl, by Hansen

This glaze is 50% my "Backyard Gold" which is a yellow pigmented fusible clay, high in what is probably mica particles, as it is a rapid "settle" mixture. The other %50 is mixed hardwood wood ash, unwashed, from charcoal burned until the ash is white. I added 3% Oregon bentonite which I also excavated and processed. Backyard Gold is only one of several clays I have found around the house. There is a strongly tinted red clay, and a clay that is halfway between the two. There is plenty of sandy soil available also. Loren Scherbak and her team fired the piece in her smokeless wood kiln in Rockville, MD. My design seems to work well in these types of kilns as the vertical sides seem to venturi the ash deposit into the bottom of the bowl, where it becomes trapped in the melt, and offers a ample visual element of it.