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Photo Exhibit - Glazes
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Navy Bean Straw Ash
Origin: Bresnahan Family Farm, Casselton, North
Dakota
Color: Blue/white*
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Sunflower Seed Hull Ash
Origin: Cargil Oil Seed Processing Plant, West
Fargo, North Dakota
Color: Gold/white*
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Popular Wood Ash
Origin: Ashes from the wood-fired boiler at the
Bresnahan boiler in Avon
Color: Purple-gray* |
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Tenmoku
Origin: , Mixture of flax, iron, granite dust,
felspar and elm wood ash
Color: Black/Amber
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Soybean Straw Ash (experimental)
Origin: Bresnahan Family Farm, Casselton, North
Dakota
Color: unknown, has not yet been fired
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Flax Straw Ash
Origin: Bresnahan Family Farm, Casselton, North
Dakota
Color: Blue
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Elm Wood Ash
Origin: Bresnahan Family Farm, Casselton, North
Dakota
Color: clear
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*Color seen in pictures are only one example of firing
results. Glazes will produce different colors depending on
conditions (gas/wood kiln, consistency, purity)
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Natural Glazing
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Underpainting
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Making a Glaze
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Burning of navy bean straw
before collecting ashes
for glaze |
Creating a glaze involves a several step process beginning with
the basic raw materials and ending with a refined glaze product to
the be applied to the pottery pieces. Making a straw ash glaze
(navy bean, sunflower, flax, soybean) begins with the collection of
dried organic material from a particular plant which is then burned.
After the burning, the ashes are collected and stored. Similarly, the
wood ash (elm, poplar) used to make the glazes are collected after
being burned in Richard's home boiler which heats his home. This wood
is collected from Richard Bresnahan's own land and the straw is
gathered from Bresnahan family farms in North Dakota.
Refining the ashes to create a more pure glaze includes many
cycles of washing, sifting and drying. To begin, a large 44 gallon
trash bucket is filled half full with raw ash material and half with
water and mixed. It is then filtered using a fine mesh screen into a
separate bucket where the ash is left to settle at the bottom of the
bucket. The remaining water is then drained off, as it contains a
high amount of alkoli from the ashes, and new water is added to
further the washing of the ash. After mixing the ash with the fresh
water for the second time it is again filtered into a final bucket
using a smaller mesh screen to remove any further impure particles.
After the ash has been allowed to settle a final time the water is
poured off and the remaining ash is collected and set out to dry.
This process is done repeatedly until all the ash in the original
bucket has been filtered. The ash is then considered 'pure' and ready
to be used in a glaze. It takes approximately two weeks to complete a
full ash washing cycle. The dried ashes are often stored until they
are mixing the glaze which consists of the dry ash, water, refined
clay and feldspar (dried mineral substance).
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