POTTERY,clay digging and processing,handbuilding,and firing.

[richardzane]

I'm going to share some things on primitive pottery making and i hope that ANYONE reading can learn the basics to process clay, make a useable vessel,
fire it and use it for cooking or storage or whatever. I've been digging clay and making pots full time, for a  living, since '84.
i've led workshops where students who had never touched clay have made wonderful work and pottery that is beautiful and functional.
Like bow making there are a lot of things about working clay that can discourage a person just starting. but armed with just enough info. it can save you from the most common disasters and in no time you will be boiling up a deer stew or making tea on the fire in an earthen pot .

for this first post i'll just share a few pictures. the first is me working on a biggie, it was all coil built using tiny coils of clay...i don't work this big too much anymore.

i want to emphasize  that NONE of the students pictured here had ever made pots before. just in case your thinking, "yeah,they are naturals."

[David_Daugherty]

Glad to see you have started this tread.  Very nice looking pottery there!  I have read some of the posts in the previous forum and noticed that you said that clay from river or  creeks have problems with sediment.  I have been using clay from a creek bank at water level.  I have had to remove the trash and add a little sand but it has worked fine.  We are able to boil water, cook, make glue or whatever we want with the pottery.  So was just wondering if you think the difference is geography?  I live in lower Alabama, we have really fine silky clay and our sand has a lot of silica in it.  Would love to get your thoughts on this.

[richardzane]

Dave, yeah i can only share my experiences. when you find a great clay no matter where it is ,stick to it!

FINDING CLAY:
the best clays I've found are going to be the purist clays. Color won't be much of a factor.
Road-cuts are good places to look, look under sandstone ledges, wherever coal outcrops are is often a good place to find clays.
Clay is everywhere but its going to require a lot of tests to find a clay that will be both "plastic" for rolling coils, and rigid enough not to slump.
commercial clays are usually garbage! yuck!, you don't know anything about where those ingredients came from.plus why in the world would you BUY CLAY???

MY test for a good clay is first: is it easy to access? is there an infinite supply? is it ok to dig? (am i going to be hiding when the forest service truck comes by?)
if i see some interesting clay from a road cut, i'll take out a baggie and take a sample (mark the nearest mile marker on the bag)
or if i have the time i'll crumble up some of the dry and add some water kneading it in my hand. if it can be rolled into a coil and bent around without cracking,good sign.
BUT even the siltiest river clays will do that and they are only brick material. ONE exception ( a friend sent me some wads of clay from the edge of the St.Lawrence and
it was still quality enough to be made into a vessel with minimal slumping.

When a clay looks promising,take a five gal. bucket home(make sure these buckets are MARKED!) i hate mystery buckets..."what the heck is this stuff?"
dry it in the sun on a plywood board on blocks or something above the line of aim of a male dog.

Once its dry , it can be stored forever. OR it can be processed.

Fill a five gal bucket half full of water and begin putting in the VERY dry clay till the dry clay comes to within 2" to the top of the water.
 (clay with moisture in it just stays clumpy)  DO NOT STIR but allow the clay to break down in clear water. If you stir it will thicken too soon it will take longer.

In a couple hours gently reach down in the clay "slurry" and feel to see if the majority of clumps are broken down. If so, stir it up. use a stick or you can use
a blunger with a drill . it will get very thick like a milk shake. and might need to be watered down till its like fresh milk. rocks go to the bottom,organic stuff to the top where it can be skimmed off with a piece of window screen.   When its thin, its easier to go through the screen and won't get clogged as easily.

screening:  take a piece of window screen, and cut out the middle of a plastic bucket lid and you have your screener (see picture)
have someone hold down the ring "lid" over the screen as you pour it through.

once its screened all you have to do is wait for seperation....water goes to the top which you can siphon off with a bit of tubing. or a sponge, or even draping a cloth over
the top sagging in will wick away some moisture and keep skeeters out.

[richardzane]

Dave,
yeah if you find a river clay that you can make fairly thin round bottom pots with that don't slump flat ,hey thats a great find! 
I've been spoiled by such great working clay in AZ., NM, and here in NE OKl. that any creek or river clay i've played with seems floppy and "uninteresting"
but i have made bricks from them and fired them in my adobe kiln.

PROCESSING CLAY:
When the buckets of clay no longer draw water on the top...(this may take a couple weeks so keep in mind and always have some soaking.)
its ready to add some "temper". I haven't experimented with river clam shell, as its scarce here. crushed sherds work great.
the ground fired pottery has the experience already of the fire, kinda knows where all this is going, to aide the unfired material.
if you need sherds you can slap out very thin sheets of clay and fire them(won't matter if they break or not) in a covered can in a hot fire.
these can be broken up on a stone metate with a mano  or hard flattened sandstone pebble. it should be screened fine.
i'm not very scientific
I usually mix 3 to 4 lbs of dry temper with 12 lbs of pretty wet clay. If the clay is already stiff, ill add water to the temper dust first.

CATTAIL is a wonderful material for adding to the clay and keeps the edges from cracking when working outdoors.
mix four heads of cattail in a 1/4 full bucket of slurry set aside for this purpose...once it is made into clay(and bagged), this will be something you can grab a hunk from
to "wedge"(knead)  into the clay you are making a pot out of. the pictures below are showing a GREAT method(both vessels have cattail fuzz in them
and we were working out in a breezy backyard in Wendake , Quebec.

[richardzane]

FIRST STEPS TO POTTERY MAKING:
Once the clay has had the temper added and has sat for a few days or longer, (the longer the better).
we can get started making a pot.
I start all students the same way , all pounding a thick round hamburger shaped slab over a rounded form.
ideally its paddled over the base of another pot...but if you don't have one, where do you start?
round globe light fixtures, a bowling ball works great! a bald relative? :-)

now to keep the clay from sticking to the form you bring out in a bowl some fine sieved wood ash from your woodstove.
sprinkle this over the "hamburger" and as long as their is wood ash on the clay , IT WON"T STICK.
use your hands and a wood paddle made from anything, and paddle the clay thin and evenly.
the toughest part of this job is "even" because there normally is at least one thick spot.(these are the spots that'll blow your pot up in a firing)
be sure to LIFT it occasionally to make sure it has enough wood ash inside so its not sticking.
When the bowl form begins to get thin you won't be able to lift it without distorting it. instead
pick the whole form up with the pot on it and turn it over into your hand. then sprinkle wood ash, place the form back inside and flip it back over.
once the "bowl" is even and not TOO thick ( you can test it by inserting a needle and pulling it back out, then you are ready to set it in a bowl form.

I use a dried paddy of regular mud that has a rounded dimple in the center. you can also use a larger bowl of damp packed wood ash with a rounded depression.
it will dry hard(relatively) and it makes an "adjustable" depression to set any size pot.
pick up the whole form and bowl flip it over and set the pot into the depression,cover the rim with a damp strip of cloth ,plastic bag it for tomorrow.
I'm stopping here for the night!
eskonyeh! (see you later)
good night!

[David_Daugherty]

Definitely going to try the cattail fuzz.  Plenty of that around here this time of year.  Interesting tip also on forming around another pot or bald head lol, I guess I have always done it the hard way.  I just roll the coils and layer them.  After my pottery made it to a certain level depending on what I was making I would then add the base.  This is some good information.  I hope more people join this thread.

[BearBoy31]

those are sweat lookin
GHN

[richardzane]

kweh omateru' (heya friends)

COILING
Coiling is the process of adding  clay (in snakes)to enlarge the vessel.
rules to remember...(and will save a lot of frustration later on)
---the partial vessel you will add a coil to MUST be FIRMER than the clay coil you are adding If not the coil will warp the form below it.
--- prepare the edge of the vessel form pinching it as thin as you can at the very lip...
--- roll the coil quickly! If you spend too much time perfecting it, it will develop a thick skin...which doesn't join well.
---you can roll them between your hands(like a fire starter spindle) or on a flat surface.
--- hold the coil by one end and the other end is pinched on the inside or outside of the vessel(lapping) (I prefer the inside until forming a neck)
-- its important once the coil is placed that the seams are joined and smoothed invisible as soon as possible  (the fire will be looking for these!)

the coil can be pulled up thin by several different methods or a combination of paddling, pinching with a gentle tug, or scraping with a smooth gourd rind,
oval pot sherd or oval piece of horn. an old CD disc snapped in two works ok too.

If anyone has any questions?
I'll pause here before I go any further. I hope this helps. looking forward to the discussion!

[Parnell]

I loved working with clay when I was a teenager.  Would like to get back into it.  I live in South Florida so finding clay is very difficult.  I have found deposits buried under sand going out into the passes of the gulf.  I suppose it is from ancient mangrove areas that decayed.  Any recommendations for getting started on a project like this living on sand?

Great pictures, by the way.

[richardzane]

I hear ya Parnell, you're out in the sandbar!
it might be worth playing around with that stuff you found to see what it can't do ,but it might be frustrating too.
The coast of Northern Florida had quite a few ancient pottery traditions.
I'd maybe do some research on ancient Florida pottery and then maybe make a "business trip" clay hunting?