Pottery

[Parnell]

I'm giving pottery making a run for the first time.  I've dug some really sandy clayish material from back behind the neighborhood.  I'll have to get a photo of the pit I made after work and the colors.  Goes from bright orange sandy dirt to a blue gray clayish material.  I made a slurry and filtered it last weekend and have been letting it settle all week slowly pouring off the top water layer and it is starting to look like something that might be useable.  I was speaking to someone with experience at the knap-in and they said that despite the fact of my living at the beach, there is still high quality material to be found. 

We'll see what I can come up with.  I'm looking forward to the firing step the most. 

Here are some pictures to start, more to come this weekend.

Stephen

[Pappy]

You sure that wasn't a sewer line you hit  Just kidding, love to try that some day.
  Pappy

[Parnell]

Ha!  You're not kiddin' Pap!

[iowabow]

Good luck this will be a fun thread.

[Parnell]

Got some dry pancakes.  Gonna try to filter and clean it even more.

[Jodocus]

That looks nice and usable. I'd do a couple of test pieces, just balls, about an inch or a little less. One just like that, one with some temper, one with lots of temper, and test dry and fire them.

[iowabow]

The fastest way I found to filter was with gravity.  Hydrate real well stir in a 5 gallon bucket then pour off the top slowly. The heavies fall to the bottom.

[Zuma]

Nothing like playin in the mud.
I did some last spring and made a nice bowl.
I stored the rest in plastic containers and the clay is now all moldy.
If you have excess try to store it in plastic bags and squeeze out all the ail.
That may help. Let's see a pot
Zuma

[mullet]

I've got a kiln .

[Parnell]

I may take you up on that Eddie.  I am going to try to fire a pot outside, though. 

[Zuma]

My best luck was accomplished by diggin a hole (3X pot).
I started a fire in the hole with fire wood bark.
I had already let the pot dry for over a week and it was leather hard
and not wet or cold when held to my cheek.
I let the pot rest near the fire (down wind).
I fed the fire more bark and slowly moved the coals around the pot.
Then added some coals into the pot that was filled with cedar bark.
I then gently slid the pot into the hole and covered it with more bark.
Before I went to bed I piled a big pile of bark on top of the pot and hole.
Walla, around noon I slowly moved the ashes away.
About an hour later I uncovered the pot slightly and moved the pot a little more into the air. The pot was still very warm an hour later but manageable.
Main ingredient----- don't RUSH
Zuma

[dam_01]

Since there was already a pottery thread I hope you don't mind me crashing this one! I know it's old but anyhoo...

Is it strictly necessary to dry out your dug 'clay' only to slake it again to filter it?
Some stuff I've found is from a bank by a stream which looks like an old drainage ditch so it's fairly deep down already. However it's extremely solid and sticky (saturated) already.
Can you just add that to water and mash it down as it is?

[Ranasp]

I've seen a few different methods of making clay, one of which was to use clear medicine jars so you could see the layers of sediment and just keep pouring off the water and mixing it until all the rocks went to the bottom and the organic stuff floated off.  There was a period of drying out the clay to workable consistency after that, but not to powder-dry. 

[dam_01]

Thanks for that. I've had a look for that too now and have setup a trial jug in the kitchen now so we'll see how that works.
I guess it's all part of the fun. Lots of old ways, new ways, trial and error.