This soil...

[Ranasp]

Digging up my front yard to plant a tomato some months ago, I was muttering to myself that this soil has a LOT of clay in it.  Then I picked it up and squeezed it, and nope, it's not kinda clay like, it's CLAY.  So I sculpted a tiny sleeping pony with my hands and a twig, then let it bake in the sun and carved into it a bit more with another twig.  Figure you can't get much more earthy than that.    Maybe at some point I'll actually separate out the clay from organic matter and do some real sculpts with it and pit fire them.  This little guy has so much organic matter in it that I'm guessing it would crack/explode with a firing. 

[bowandarrow473]

COOL!!!!!,

[Pat B]

Yes, cool!   

[mullet]

You might be surprised at how good it holds together if you bring the temperature up slowly.

[Ranasp]

I'm mostly worried about air trapped inside with the crud, but then again a pit fire would be a much lower temperature than a kiln so as you say, it might not be an issue especially if the temperature is brought up slowly...Might have to put this pony in a trial by fire.   

[mullet]

I have a friend that makes reproduction native pottery. he starts out with a 1' hole by 3' around and puts the piececs in the center. Then starts building a fire around them and slowly over all day turns in into a Bon Fire and then lets everything cool down slowly.

[Trapper Rob]

 

[lebhuntfish]

COOL!!!!!,

X2!

When I was a kid we had the real red clay on the farm. I use to think it was cool to make all kinds of things out of it. Haven't thought about that in years until I read this thread. Thanks for posting, brought back great memories. Patrick

[Ranasp]

Glad to bring that back up in your mind.  I know I loved playing in the dirt as a kid, although living on the coast it was a LOT more sandy than out here in Iowa. 

I found this article on how to separate out clay from the unwanted stuff, looks like it would be very effective and simple.  http://www.practicalprimitive.com/skillofthemonth/processingclay.html 

[lebhuntfish]

What part of Iowa? I just got home from Omaha about an hour ago. Patrick

[Zuma]

OMG Pokey returns.
I would try the clay as it is first. Just some ropes
 or round beads. Make sure nothing is over a half
inch thick and all of it dries for at least a week in
a cool dry place.
If it survives a kill then soak it and hope nothing
inside swells. If there are particles of limestone they
will swell and pop lid the clay bisk.
Zuma

[Ranasp]

What part of Iowa? I just got home from Omaha about an hour ago. Patrick

Smack in the middle, Ames, which is North of Des Moines by 45 minutes or so. 

[lebhuntfish]

Well I'll be dang. I was about 2 to 3 hours from you this weekend. I kinda like the area up there. Don't know if I would move up that way but the history is awesome! Patrick

[Jodocus]

Nice one! The organic matter will not make it explode. In fact, it wil greatly reduce the risk thereof! Just make sure it's really dry.

[Ranasp]

Good to know!  I've had it sitting on my front stoop on a brick ledge all summer so I think even with how humid it is here it's pretty well dried out.  I'll have to try making some herdmates for it and see how they fire up.