The Process
The Origin of My Ash Glazes at Cotton Lake
Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast on September 13, 2008. Officially, it was a category 2 storm but the tidal surge was as bad as the 1915 storm and worse than the surge to hit Galveston in 1900, although by 1915 Galveston had their seawall to protect the city. The surge in our back yard was 16 feet, nine inches - three inches less than the 17 foot surge in 1915. Debris from Bolivar Peninsula wound up in our back yard. Sadly, so did three human bodies that were further out in the marsh which is seen beyond the buldozer in these pictures. We did not find them; they could only be seen from the helicopters that routinely patrolled the coastline for that reason.
I separated the ashes into the following groups - Wood ash, marsh cane ash, mixed debris ash and snow-washed wood ash. All gave a different effect to the pots, most of which were produced at the same time that "Smiley" showed up a few weeks prior to the storm. She's my alligator friend.
The Raku Firing Process
For now, we'll share a couple of photos.......Tee hee.
Actually this was a 9000 gallon water tower that washed up in Marsha's backyard during Hurricane IKE. The EPA came to haul it off.