Harvesting wild clay

Hi Y

I am a newbie too, and I was just today contemplating over the advantages of having a "standard" clay to work with. If you harvest clay from your surroundings - if you don't get it all from one huge deposite - each batch will have different properties - plasticity, firing color, etc.

If I may be so bold .... I would suggest that you start out with bought clay that is made to a standard mix and wetness, so that you can learn the skills first and worry about the clay's own properties later.

I would strongly recommend Clay: A studio handbook by Vince Patelka

am only up to about page 50, but have learned tons that 3 pottery "teachers" haven't taught me. This book should be every newbie's first purchase! Anyway - that said - I would say that if you are a newbie, start with techniques and experiment with clay later.

Marianne

Look for building sites where they are excavating the foundations. If the area has clay, that is a pretty good way of finding it.

Dry it out, break it up, and mix in LOTS of water to make a REALLY sloppy mix. Run it through a coarse sieve to get the grit and other rubbish out.

Next mix in some cider vinegar to help it *mature*, pour it into cloth bags (old Jeans legs, pillow cases, etc.) and hang it out to stiffen.

The next bit is trying to make stuff out of what you've scavenged, seeing if it will *work*, and finding out how high it will fire.

Have fun.

Steve Bath UK

In article , mr y writes

To add to that excellent advice, I'd just like to point out that my "garden" clay is good only up to about cone 2 as a body clay. I suspect that this type of clay is what the vast majority of people ahve nearby... not good stoneware clay and not porcelain, etc.

However, although it's only a mediocre low-fire body clay, it's an excellent GLAZE at cone 6, like Albany slip. So you can probably find some use for your clay, no matter what firing range it turns out to be.

Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

exactly - i dug a tree hole once & the dirt at the bottom looked nice & fine.

~ made a great brown @ cone 10!

see ya

steve