WILD CLAY | Part II - IMPROVED PROCESS

STEP 1: DIG UP SOME CLAY- You will find it everywhere. The photo above shows a nice piece of naturally occurring compact clay I found along a river bed. You can tell its clay and not a rock because your finger nail can scratch it.

STEP 2: LET THE CLAY DRY AND BREAK IT INTO POWER - Do this outside and wear a mask so you do not breath in dust. I used heavy plastic to contain the clay but you could also use an old t-shirt or pillow case.

STEP 3: SIEVE THE CLAY - I used a common kitchen sieve to remove any possible rocks or organic material.

STEP 4: YOUR CLAY SHOULD BE POWDER and then you can REHYDRATE it by slowly adding the powder to  water. Start with a small amount of water. You don't want to add too much water at this point just enough to allow the clay to be formed up a little and NOT a slurry.

STEP 5: Allow your clay to dry to a workable consistency. I will next use a coil building method to create some small vessels which will be fired in a primitive pit firing. No special equipment or tools to create ceramics in your back yard.

LAUREN DOUGLAS RESULTS

GRACE CHRISMAN RESULTS

 Local Clay Project 

Refining clay that was dug up in my backyard was time consuming and didn’t yield the best results, but I have revised my method and plan to try again. The first time around, I started with a bin of red dirt from the lowest point in my yard. I added water and mixed vigorously to suspend the clay particles, as they are very fine. 

I decanted the mixture into another bucket, leaving the solids behind in the bin. I let the bucket sit for 20 minutes so that the particles settled. 

Then, I sieved it into a new bucket and let that sit for an hour. 

After that, I poured off the water from the top and emptied the tin into a pillowcase, which I tied up and let sit overnight. The next day, after all the moisture seeped through the pillowcase, I was left with a ball of clay. 

The clay wasn’t great to work with. It was pretty useless structurally, it was difficult to attach pieces, and was apparently very saturated because any water added just slid off. 

Next time, I want to work on getting more organic matter out, which means decanting/sieving more. I also want to transfer the solution between buckets more times so that the heavier particles will be left behind. Not having my favorite tools was also a setback. I will put more effort into finding alternative tools around the house. I previously only used a paintbrush and an exacto knife. 

WILLIAM SNIFFEN RESULTS

Got almost 20lb yield. Cured in light shade around 4 lb chunks. Took almost 4 days dry before I had a not pudding consistency. Also have massive piles of brush to burn. Going to attempt firing on wood coals once all the kids are back home next week and can sculpt.

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