Monday, March 18, 2013

Do you like walnuts?

In the post Ash glazes in time of potter’s life I wrote about walnut shells ash waiting to be tested as a glaze and it seems, that the time has come.

Why we use ash for glaze? The answer is quite simple, it contains (in most cases) all oxides needed to produce glaze. It is much easier ingredients to obtain - to understand this statement consider the amount of work involved in turning silica stone into silica powder and burning for example rice straw, which has quit large amount silica in its ash. It is pure fun to see unravel what is nature hiding.

How to turn walnuts into walnut glaze?

Enjoy walnuts and enjoy A LOT of them....

 

Collect walnut shells...


Burn walnut shells... and then be surprised how small amount of ash you get from a large amount of walnut shell....


Add water and sieve all the ash through glaze sieve.... Let it stand and then pour some water out ... Glaze should be on yogurt thickness. Glaze and fire...

Here is walnut ash on porcelain... 



And here on stoneware...
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A glaze with a lot of potential, luckily, all our family likes walnuts a lot, so they have been notify to save all walnuts shell for a different use, then bio recycle.