Today I celebrated my Valentine's love for bar-b-q by visiting a new spit in Paducah, KY. I have passed this place several times and have always wanted to stop. It was okay...good baked beans.
Lately I have been thinking about doing research on various bar-b-q ash glazes.
The idea is simple:
Travel to numerous bar-b-q pits that used hardwood and collect ashes for glazes sampling.
Create one of a kind pots with that particular ash glaze. See what happens...
Anyway, just a thought. Plus, I have two samples of ash so far.
One from Strick's Bar-B-Que in Hattiesburg, MS and another one from Harned in Paducah, KY.
I have been using Stricks for over two years now and thought other ashes might give special effects. Thus the experiment.
There are several bar-b-q spits here in Kentucky and it would be fun trying the bar-b-q while collecting ashes from the spits to test in glaze recipes.
Hey Mitch, Thanks for following/reading my blog. I'm just now checking yours out! Excellent! It's hard to keep up with all of the new blogs potters are writing!
ReplyDeleteKim Ellington and a lot of the Catawba area potters use BBQ ashes, too. I used to get ash from a place up in Johnson City TN, about an hour from here. It was scrap from a flooring/moulding manufacturer. They used the scaps to fuel their kilns for drying their wood. But since then I've been saving my woodstove ashes. I burn mostly poplar in the shop and oak down at the house.
I grew up in Clarksville TN and have always loved Paducah a little to the N. I hope things are well for you. I look forward to keeping up with your Paducah pottery!
i exclusively use mesquite ash from a bbq joint here in texas. i think it adds a nice local quality to the work.
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