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.
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