I've been trying to make an ash glaze using ash from the invasive plants I've been collecting during removal/stewardship sessions with BC Wild Bird Trust at Maplewood Flats, and with Still Moon Arts along Still Creek at Renfrew Ravine.

I took some photos of the Ravine removal on Fujifilm 35mm colour and souped the film later with blackberry juice and salt water from Burrard Inlet. They came out pretty interesting with a purple cast to everything. I was hoping for greater degradation- maybe I need to try a hotter soup.

Ale with his kayak removing cattails at Maplewood Flats! This roll was Kodak Gold 200 and was double exposed but you can’t really make out much overlap in this shot.

I dried out the plants over the summer, and once the fire ban ended, I burned them in my kettle barbecue, collected the ash, and mixed up some tests!

I participated in a wood firing at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in November, and I thought it would be fun to stick a couple ash glaze tests in the wildness of an atmospheric firing just to see what would happen. Some were left open to the wood-ashy elements of the kiln, and others I put in little sagars so they got to soak at cone 9-10 but didn’t get any extra ash. Glaze application was a little inconsistent, but it was fun to see what happened!

Next step, re-test in the more consistent atmostphere of the Blaauw gas kiln.