Plainsman Clays | POCA
Potassium Carbonate
Potassium carbonate, long known as pearl ash, is a soluble alkali that supplies potash to a melt with no alumina or silica attached. It is used in synthetic ash glazes, and in bodies made to glaze themselves as they dry.
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Potassium carbonate dissolves in the glaze water instead of staying suspended as a powder, so it moves with the water. It soaks into a bisque wall along with the water, or is carried to the surface of a drying piece as the water evaporates if incorporated into a clay body. Self glazing clay bodies are designed around this. The dissolved potash travels to the surface as the piece dries, and in the firing it melts there to form a thin glaze. In a high alkali, low alumina glaze it pushes copper towards turquoise and cobalt towards a more brilliant blue. It also draws water and carbon dioxide out of the air, so an opened bag in a humid room sets into lumps.
- A soluble source of potash with no alumina or silica
- Used in synthetic ash glazes and self glazing bodies
- Travels with the water instead of staying in the slurry
