I've started down the path of making my own clay again.
I've found some clay about 50cm down that is moist and plastic enough to roll into a ball (not damp enough to roll into a nice smooth round ball).
The photo shows this ball of clay after a ^10 ox. firing.
Today the clay I dug up was dry enough to add water to and delaminate. Tomorrow I will mix it and sieve it.
Looking forward to the next week when I get to test it on the wheel...
2 comments:
I've done something similar - was lucky enough to find a deep layer of clay in a paddock directly behind my pottery. (I got an excavator to remove the topsoil, which may be cheating.)
It's a bit of a long process, drying, slaking, mixing to a slurry, sieving and evaporating, but I got a nice terracotta which is very plastic indeed. Only problem is the constant cracking of thrown pieces, mostly on drying but frequently also in the kiln, no matter how slowly I dry/fire. It has been incredibly frustrating.
I've ordered some earthenware grog from Walkers' and have just thrown a set of pots at 5%, 10% and 15% addition - they're drying now (everything dries slowly in Tassie at this time of year!)
Sounds like fun.
Cracking when drying would be sole destroying. I would not have thought of grog first off, well done.
I used to get clay by the trailer load for $20. The excavator driver would hover the very corner of the bucket? over the trailer and slightly nudge the bucket. It seemed like a little sprinkle would fall out, until it landed in the trailer with a thud and the trailer and car would bounce about with a scary jerking action.
So I have no issues with a little cheating.
Real cheating is buying brush on glaze.
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