Repetition and training will eventually lead to good pottery. There's a lot to learn, you're doing great ! Failure is part of success, in fact you probably learned much more by failing some times than by achieving a perfect dish first try.
The story we learned at uni was half a class were told to make one perfect pot, the other half were told to make as many pots as possible. The better quality pots came from the group making as many as possible because they learnt through their failures
Yep. Learn a thing the right way and you learn a thing. Learn by fumbling experimentation and you still potentially learn a thing, but there are very many interesting bits of scenery by the way. The reason this channel never runs out of ideas is partly because I take the scenic route.
@@AtomicShrimp it enriches any form of learning I think. I used to frustrate my technician and lecturer at uni with lazy mould making. But I learned the hard way and now I can teach to people exactly why you have to be so particular. But I can also teach them the work that needs doing if they insist on being like I was 😂 Plus now I am older and thinking more about my practice and maybe doing an MA and eventually hopefully PhD, I can see how I am more curious about materials and where to push things.
If you want more of such crafts, try Primitive Technology. Captions on so you can read his thought process as he does not speak during these videos, but they're still fascinating. He's gone from pottery to building huts to weaponry all crafted out of resources found in his patch of woods in Australia.
The numbering convention of this installment of the clay series had a very Slaughter Valley feel to it and gave me a decent chuckle. I love this new series!
I noticed the script in this series felt very non-omnipotent, in contrast with most videos like this, and I definitely feel that it makes for a more engaging experience. I'm happy you confirmed my suspicions with this one
I prefer doing it this way as I feel it allows me to honestly talk about my expectations and hopes and plans at each stage, before reality either confirms them or (often) otherwise.
Love the diversity of videos you put out. There's always something new and interesting-- though it also vibe with your sense of humor enough that you could probably make nearly anything interesting, lmao
Hey Mike, I have been watching your UA-cam channel for about 4 years or so. You've had a genuinely huge impact on how I see the world. Your constant curiosity and wonder has sparked the same in me, giving me purpose. I have started gardening, foraging, and so many other little projects. It's also allowed me to find joy in the learning at university again. I would not be the same person I am today without you and wanted to take the time to let you know. Thank you and stay curious :)
It's so inspiring to watch you try,experiment, fail and, learn at something unfamiliar to you. I just finished binding my own book for the first ever time which had some success and some failure (or rather, less than desirable - though not project ruining - outcomes). Seeing someone else make mistakes (and especially analysing those mistakes) while learning is a nice reminder that those mistakes don't represent a personal lacking but rather are just a part of the learning process.
6:58 While I was doing my DofE, one of the instructors recommended that to clean black, burnt pans, we just needed to rub dirt on them and the charring would just rub off. We all thought he was pranking us until we tried it and wouldn't you know, shiny, clean pans. Not sure how it works, but I can confirm that it does.
Yes, my husband uses very fine powdered pumice to clean up pots (we have a sack of this powder, which we dib damp soap into so we can give our hands a better scrub after gardening/painting/working in the garage). Not sure how much the sack of pumice would cost now, but it's worked out much more cost effective to buy a sack of that and buy cheap supermarket brand soap than to buy specially made gardener's/engineer's soap.
I have to say that, on this video, and who knows if you'll see it - but this video, this series mind you, has me realizing how enthralled I am by your content let alone this project. It cements the idea that more or less you are one of the most starkly unique and enjoyable content creators to grace youtube. I've had notifications turned on religiously since November 8, 2018 when I subscribed and I can't say that I regret it or watching your videos! Where normally theres this sense that in most content creators there may be some underlying thing or hidden drama to come out yet as they gain an audience and an ego that you don't want to know about - I don't have that underlying feeling. Watching you even though I obviously don't know you - from one IT professional to another, it feels like you're a friend who is just talking about things you simply enjoy or are finding generally, genuinely interesting and not only those topics or concepts are that, but you also make them that much more enjoyable. I've watched your content on good days, and really bad days and you've gotten me through a good bit of them since I've subscribed And well, I'm here for it all. Thanks Mike, cheers to an early 1M and beyond.
I got unnecessarily excited when you mentioned the clay making your bowls brighter, I used to sell a clay-based jewelry cleaner and it's my favourite cleaning product ever :)
Fascinating to see your experiments with new techniques. There's nothing like getting stuck in and just trying things out to learn a new skill. Also interesting to learn that you write the script as you go. That must make it even trickier to do the thing, especially when it's a messy hands job. Do you dictate and transcribe or actually write it? And does Jenny ever help with your videos? I hope you don't mind my questions, but it all helps with my material for my Ancient History thesis. I've already popped back for the next instalment as I had extra time on the TM/c but I won't spoil it for your 'current time' viewers.
Dear Shrimp...its 3 AM in PA USA, just to be clear, and due to my insomnia and anxiety I require listening your lovely voice to soothe me to sleep sometimes. By the way, I used to enjoy making di from mud as a kid. I loved the feel of the soft cool mud as I squished it into shape between my fingertips...very satisfying! I would line them up on the window sill in my bedroom, from smallest on up, and play with them every day until my mother found them and threw them away because they shed sand all over the sill. I loved them. Some people, just don't understand. Let your kids play, people, mud di today, who knows what tomorrow! We need future AtomicShrimpers with curious minds to take chances and get messy. Free spirits unite! 🌸
I would recommend that you stuff charcoal inside it for even more even burning but I have never made any clay pottery myself I just know that by experience and also from those bear grills video in which he buries a fish wrapped in foil into the ground and puts charcoal on top and that's supposed to cook it
Such a nice little tajine pot. I felt sorry it didn't "survive"! And the little side swerve to cleaning was very interesting and educative. Now that you unintentionally made soap, will you do it on purpose in the future? Wild soap to clean your wild clay pots, maybe?
It's awesome to see you using the fire on top as well. I've seen several Primitive Technology videos where he's trying to perfect the firing process for his clay creations [and eventually, even a forge for firing iron bacteria]. I think you're getting there as far as the firing process goes!
I discovered you a few months ago and am catching up, a few vids every day, all versions welcome and superb. But here's the thing: it's taking forever. Your voice is so lovely and pleasantly soporific, I find myself zoning out midway and have to keep rewinding to follow coherently. But it's okay, aids digestion, lowers blood pressure, and puts me in a good mood. Thank you from New York City.
Watching this series come out is fun because I'd had marked in my calendar well before this started to go out to gather clay to do something almost exactly like this; it's nice to watch this and get lost in *even more* rabbitholes for ideas to deal with this clay now. Good luck!
Really enjoying this series! I've really been wanting to do something like this for a long time, you might just be the thing that gives me the required nudge!
At 6:58. Everything you said is basically why Car detailers use clay bars for cleaning the paint. The clay pulls thing out of the paint and leaves the surface smoother and nicer. A simple rinse with water and clay bar can make a car go from "Looks okay" to "Looks like someone really cares about their car" The clay car detailers use is quite different much much finer in texture than pottery clay but id imagine if you had pure pottery clay you could get the same effect as detailing clay. But at a risk of possibly putting micro scratches in the clear coat and paint causing it to look hazy.
Can't wait for you to figure this out, I have access to some natural clay myself and I'd love to follow along but I think I'm gonna wait until you figure out the hard parts for me. These videos are very engaging thanks for making them! I think I'm gonna try firing it in my wood burner when the time comes, the heating and cooling should be even.
I am still finding this series absolutely enthralling. I think not too much info at once helps my befuddled brains not to explode, too. This is wonderful.
About how the bowl got cleaner, back in the day when soap wasn’t available in my village in Oman they used sand to wash pots and other cooking equipments, they used to rub wet sand then wash it, it worked perfectly fine even with oil covered stuff. Obviously this was ages ago.
At least here we use kaolin clay as a final step for cleaning the cars paint finish. Together with a lubricant, the clay absorbs and very gently removes impurities from the car finish and makes it super shiny and smooth to the touch.
I agree with you, the flour was a bad idea. Road contractors leave little bags of sand everywhere, ideal if dried and then passed through a sieve, add at 10 percent by weight, cheers
Hi shrimp! We actually use clay (synthetic) when detailing cars to remove metals and sap and other embedded microscopic contaminants on the paint, this is usually the second step after washing and before compounding and polishing.
Thank you Shrimp I'm really enjoying following on with these videos! I think the failures are comforting somehow, though of course I want to see you succeed also! Bring on the cooking pot 😁
I do so appreciate going on all these adventures with Shrimp. He takes me to many places and experiences that I can no longer go for myself. I look forward to every new video, and quite often go on a back-catalogue binge. My favourite video channel by a landslide. Thanks Mike. ❤
Loving this series! I didn't read all of the comments from the prior video, but I've found "paper clay" to be very sturdy and forgiving. Instead of flour, make a slurry of shredded toilet-paper and water in a blender, then wedge it into the clay. I can't say for certain if that would work with earthenware (I work with stoneware), but it might be another option.
You don't really see modern craft potters adding organic material to their clays...or at least I haven't. I suspect the flour holding onto moisture might have been a problem. I doubt this is feasible the way you are firing, but with a gas or electric kiln I'd recommend "candling" before firing to ensure all the moisture is driven off. The one exception is paper clay. A paper pulp slurry is mixed in. What this does for you is make the clay stronger when wet, and lighter both before and after firing which can make it easier to build more delicate structures (less weight to self-support).
Looks like your pottery knowledge and skills are improving exponentially and I really like the designs. As you have an Oak tree, have you considered using your acorns ground as a flour, or finely ground, for organic matter in the pots? People used to mix clay and acorn flour as a loaf to remove the tannins. Okay so they also ate it, but it might help in future firing projects.
I have to say, Pt 2.3 3/8 a(ii) really fleshes out the series so far. Ha Gotta love a recursive rabbit hole. Edit: The brazier returns! I liked that project, and this is an interesting use for it.
This is all very cool. I love the explainations and experimentation you have done with this pottery. I'm quite looking forward to seeing how your little oil lamp does in the end.
Back in the nineties, I used to go to art class ( ceramics) and I remember very well how we made a kiln with wood sticks and paper from fancy magazines soaked in a slurrie of water and clay. It looked like a kind of tipi and burned during hours, And the flame at the top had the most amazing colors. After the kiln was completely burned out, the pots came out very nice. Maybe an idea to try out some day. We used an abandoned terrain near de brick factory.
Plus it makes me realise how much I have learned through feel and experience using materials and that has blown my mind. I know more than I thought because it's instinctive to me!
Oh, this is a really cool experiment! I was going to test this out in my ceramics class a few years back but I lost the clay I mixed up and then couldn't be arsed to mix another batch.
If you replace the plastic bag under your pots with fabric,a bit of old sheet is fine .it will wick out the moisture from the pot as the free edges will evaporate the moisture from the centre.also easier to roll out on as the fabric doesn’t stick to the clay as much.adding a substance such as flour or sawdust which burns out during firing will make your finished pot more fragile.adding grog or sand which doesn’t burn out will strengthen the piece as it’s stronger than the clay
Regarding the cleaning bit, in the world of car detailing, they sell detailing clay, which you use with soapy water as a lubricant, and run it over the surface of the car's paint to pull up and remove embedded dirt and particles, leaving the paint very smooth (it's actually quite surprising the first time you do this) and free of contaminants before machine polishing. I suspect your kitchenware probably received a similar treatment, the clay pulling up various embedded limescales and other particles from the surface leaving it smooth and cleaner after washing.
Another factor to consider in why the clay-cleaned things have come out shinier is clay-flocculation. The individual grains/crystals that comprise the clay all eventually settle together, especially in a water rich setting. The crystal lattice structures that they form tend to pick up a lot debris as they do and incorporate it (also why clays differ in colour by region/setting). Essentially you may have glued all the dirt in the really tiny cracks and crevices of the glassware into the clay!
@@AtomicShrimp A bit, yeah! It's like slotting dirt between the gaps of the clay. Clay likes to form long tetrahedral chains. There's a lot of vacancy between each tetrahedra so it can hold a lot of stray odds and ends in the voids. Iron oxides. dirt, dust, dyes etc.
I wish you would post these videos more frequently! I actually can't wait to see the successful attempt, which I'm sure is coming. Even though I do understand that making clay pots from scratch takes weeks to complete in and of itself.
I told you, met a woman that made her living with her pots, she fired her stuff in a big hole in the ground filled with straw and backfilled. Worth a try I would suspect.
How would salty water effect clay? Would it dry off and crack quicker? Would bicarb or vinegar (independent of each other) have an effect on the clay? Maybe you could try some basic fired slabs/bars and could see if there’s any noticeable difference.
love this series! I know you are trying to use as ancient methods as possible, but have you considered finding a local potter who will let you use their kiln? Trying to glaze local clay pots with modern glaze would be very interesting, as long as you start with low-fire, no higher than cone 04 temperatures. You could also turn your local clay into a glaze to put on standard clay, and then you wouldn't have to worry about your pots cracking!
Yeah, I think this one was either still hanging on to moisture, or there was water vapour created as a product of combustion of the organic filler. My previous pots didn't spall, but the large ones suffered structural cracking on the parts that cooled first. I think I made them too thick and should have fired them for longer
Thinking about things being cleaned by clay, fuller's earth did used to be an important part of wool production. It's a clay rich in aluminium sillicate that absorbs a lot of oil and was rubbed into cloth to clean it and then washed off. Maybe something similar is happening to your crockery.
Unfortunate that these nice pots spawled during firing. Otherwise great video, it was also interesting to hear how you script, to keep these videos organic in a way. Cheers
I think the main problem is your clay is drying out before you have finished making your pots and going back and burnishing them when they are partially dried is a mistake because you are adding slight defects into the walls of the pots, try making a pot keeping it fairly wet it will work easier and you can smooth the edges at the same time then when it comes to drying allow it to dry fully the colour of the clay should get a little lighter when it is ready for baking, and ensure you have a way for the fire to get inside the pot maybe a metal grate for the pot to sit on or build a wood platform for the pot so the flames can reach the inside.
Also airflow is key build a small makeshift fan or bellows to add more air increasing the heat of the fire to thoroughly bake the clay. These are all things that may have been known to early pot makers but a small animal skin bellows or a pump drill fan of sticks and leaves may not have survived through time or could have been reused for other purposes later.
Oxidizing fire to get rid of the carbon followed by reducing to get rid of the oxides maybe? One thing I remember from a pottery class very long ago is you want as time grain as you can get. Grind , sieve, dissolve in water, let the big pieces settle and siphon off the fine stuff, repeat. I remember almost nothing about groggong. If shell is good then bone should be as well. Would that make bone chips disappear from human waste sites as our ancestors incorporated pottery into their craft toolkit?
2:30 Yea, tho it wont make any tasty gluten chains in the clay; it shud still hydrate the flour better if let to sit. Not much better, but likely enuf to get more flour worked in there; tho probs not the whole other half of what you had prepped
The hollow result from the starch is very interesting! I wonder if it could be controlled well enough to make a sort of double-walled mug.... Maybe a future experiment!
Imagining a band of Picts settling a new firth. One scout looks for arable soil, one looks for iron deposits, and one looks for clay. HowToMakeEverything did a series on pottery made from clay within walking distance of my home.
Repetition and training will eventually lead to good pottery. There's a lot to learn, you're doing great ! Failure is part of success, in fact you probably learned much more by failing some times than by achieving a perfect dish first try.
This person gets it. One can learn a great deal from small, gentle failures.
Experiential learning!! It's important for creative practices of any kind
The story we learned at uni was half a class were told to make one perfect pot, the other half were told to make as many pots as possible. The better quality pots came from the group making as many as possible because they learnt through their failures
Yep. Learn a thing the right way and you learn a thing. Learn by fumbling experimentation and you still potentially learn a thing, but there are very many interesting bits of scenery by the way. The reason this channel never runs out of ideas is partly because I take the scenic route.
@@AtomicShrimp it enriches any form of learning I think. I used to frustrate my technician and lecturer at uni with lazy mould making. But I learned the hard way and now I can teach to people exactly why you have to be so particular. But I can also teach them the work that needs doing if they insist on being like I was 😂
Plus now I am older and thinking more about my practice and maybe doing an MA and eventually hopefully PhD, I can see how I am more curious about materials and where to push things.
How can I get so excited about a man playing with clay on the other side of the world? 😂
I am eager for the next update.
If you want more of such crafts, try Primitive Technology. Captions on so you can read his thought process as he does not speak during these videos, but they're still fascinating. He's gone from pottery to building huts to weaponry all crafted out of resources found in his patch of woods in Australia.
😩😩😩😩😩😩
Is this the start of the Shrimpverse?
Gotta say, I’m really loving this video series. Looking forward to the next one!
Agreed!
Same here. It goes to show what tenacity our distant forbears must have had to keep trying and trying, just to make pottery making a success.
The numbering convention of this installment of the clay series had a very Slaughter Valley feel to it and gave me a decent chuckle. I love this new series!
I noticed the script in this series felt very non-omnipotent, in contrast with most videos like this, and I definitely feel that it makes for a more engaging experience. I'm happy you confirmed my suspicions with this one
I prefer doing it this way as I feel it allows me to honestly talk about my expectations and hopes and plans at each stage, before reality either confirms them or (often) otherwise.
I never thought I’d be so invested in a man’s journey of creating clay pots but I’m all for it.
Love the diversity of videos you put out. There's always something new and interesting-- though it also vibe with your sense of humor enough that you could probably make nearly anything interesting, lmao
Hey Mike, I have been watching your UA-cam channel for about 4 years or so. You've had a genuinely huge impact on how I see the world. Your constant curiosity and wonder has sparked the same in me, giving me purpose. I have started gardening, foraging, and so many other little projects. It's also allowed me to find joy in the learning at university again. I would not be the same person I am today without you and wanted to take the time to let you know. Thank you and stay curious :)
It's so inspiring to watch you try,experiment, fail and, learn at something unfamiliar to you.
I just finished binding my own book for the first ever time which had some success and some failure (or rather, less than desirable - though not project ruining - outcomes). Seeing someone else make mistakes (and especially analysing those mistakes) while learning is a nice reminder that those mistakes don't represent a personal lacking but rather are just a part of the learning process.
6:58 While I was doing my DofE, one of the instructors recommended that to clean black, burnt pans, we just needed to rub dirt on them and the charring would just rub off. We all thought he was pranking us until we tried it and wouldn't you know, shiny, clean pans. Not sure how it works, but I can confirm that it does.
Yes, my husband uses very fine powdered pumice to clean up pots (we have a sack of this powder, which we dib damp soap into so we can give our hands a better scrub after gardening/painting/working in the garage).
Not sure how much the sack of pumice would cost now, but it's worked out much more cost effective to buy a sack of that and buy cheap supermarket brand soap than to buy specially made gardener's/engineer's soap.
I have to say that, on this video, and who knows if you'll see it - but this video, this series mind you, has me realizing how enthralled I am by your content let alone this project.
It cements the idea that more or less you are one of the most starkly unique and enjoyable content creators to grace youtube.
I've had notifications turned on religiously since November 8, 2018 when I subscribed and I can't say that I regret it or watching your videos! Where normally theres this sense that in most content creators there may be some underlying thing or hidden drama to come out yet as they gain an audience and an ego that you don't want to know about - I don't have that underlying feeling. Watching you even though I obviously don't know you - from one IT professional to another, it feels like you're a friend who is just talking about things you simply enjoy or are finding generally, genuinely interesting and not only those topics or concepts are that, but you also make them that much more enjoyable.
I've watched your content on good days, and really bad days and you've gotten me through a good bit of them since I've subscribed
And well, I'm here for it all. Thanks Mike, cheers to an early 1M and beyond.
I got unnecessarily excited when you mentioned the clay making your bowls brighter, I used to sell a clay-based jewelry cleaner and it's my favourite cleaning product ever :)
@@Couscous77 Unfortunately, they stopped making it years ago and I haven't found anything else that really compares.
You might try Earth Brite though!
Fascinating to see your experiments with new techniques. There's nothing like getting stuck in and just trying things out to learn a new skill.
Also interesting to learn that you write the script as you go. That must make it even trickier to do the thing, especially when it's a messy hands job. Do you dictate and transcribe or actually write it? And does Jenny ever help with your videos?
I hope you don't mind my questions, but it all helps with my material for my Ancient History thesis. I've already popped back for the next instalment as I had extra time on the TM/c but I won't spoil it for your 'current time' viewers.
Dear Shrimp...its 3 AM in PA USA, just to be clear, and due to my insomnia and anxiety I require listening your lovely voice to soothe me to sleep sometimes. By the way, I used to enjoy making di from mud as a kid. I loved the feel of the soft cool mud as I squished it into shape between my fingertips...very satisfying! I would line them up on the window sill in my bedroom, from smallest on up, and play with them every day until my mother found them and threw them away because they shed sand all over the sill. I loved them. Some people, just don't understand. Let your kids play, people, mud di today, who knows what tomorrow! We need future AtomicShrimpers with curious minds to take chances and get messy. Free spirits unite! 🌸
I would recommend that you stuff charcoal inside it for even more even burning but I have never made any clay pottery myself
I just know that by experience and also from those bear grills video in which he buries a fish wrapped in foil into the ground and puts charcoal on top and that's supposed to cook it
I don't think charcoal would burn inside the pot, as there's not much ventilation for oxygen to get in there
Yes, dirt has cleaning properties. My grandmother used to finish up washing with red dirt things that had oil on them.
Such a nice little tajine pot. I felt sorry it didn't "survive"!
And the little side swerve to cleaning was very interesting and educative. Now that you unintentionally made soap, will you do it on purpose in the future? Wild soap to clean your wild clay pots, maybe?
It's awesome to see you using the fire on top as well. I've seen several Primitive Technology videos where he's trying to perfect the firing process for his clay creations [and eventually, even a forge for firing iron bacteria]. I think you're getting there as far as the firing process goes!
The combination of a great vid and me having time to watch it straight away has already made my day. Thanks AS.
I'm gathering from this series that pottery is extremely difficult. Really makes me think about all the difficulties our ancestors went through
I discovered you a few months ago and am catching up, a few vids every day, all versions welcome and superb. But here's the thing: it's taking forever. Your voice is so lovely and pleasantly soporific, I find myself zoning out midway and have to keep rewinding to follow coherently. But it's okay, aids digestion, lowers blood pressure, and puts me in a good mood. Thank you from New York City.
I love your attitude of try it and find out. Then think about it to understand what just happened.
Watching this series come out is fun because I'd had marked in my calendar well before this started to go out to gather clay to do something almost exactly like this; it's nice to watch this and get lost in *even more* rabbitholes for ideas to deal with this clay now. Good luck!
Really enjoying this series! I've really been wanting to do something like this for a long time, you might just be the thing that gives me the required nudge!
At 6:58. Everything you said is basically why Car detailers use clay bars for cleaning the paint. The clay pulls thing out of the paint and leaves the surface smoother and nicer. A simple rinse with water and clay bar can make a car go from "Looks okay" to "Looks like someone really cares about their car" The clay car detailers use is quite different much much finer in texture than pottery clay but id imagine if you had pure pottery clay you could get the same effect as detailing clay. But at a risk of possibly putting micro scratches in the clear coat and paint causing it to look hazy.
Really loved all the asides in this episode, to me those are the ethos of Atomic Shrimp as a channel
Can't wait for you to figure this out, I have access to some natural clay myself and I'd love to follow along but I think I'm gonna wait until you figure out the hard parts for me. These videos are very engaging thanks for making them!
I think I'm gonna try firing it in my wood burner when the time comes, the heating and cooling should be even.
I am still finding this series absolutely enthralling. I think not too much info at once helps my befuddled brains not to explode, too. This is wonderful.
About how the bowl got cleaner, back in the day when soap wasn’t available in my village in Oman they used sand to wash pots and other cooking equipments, they used to rub wet sand then wash it, it worked perfectly fine even with oil covered stuff. Obviously this was ages ago.
At least here we use kaolin clay as a final step for cleaning the cars paint finish. Together with a lubricant, the clay absorbs and very gently removes impurities from the car finish and makes it super shiny and smooth to the touch.
I always dried my pots out slowly under plastic so the outsides didn't dry too quickly and trap moisture inside the walls of the pot.
Dakota fire pit, a hole in the ground with a ventilation tunnel dug at an angle.
I agree with you, the flour was a bad idea. Road contractors leave little bags of sand everywhere, ideal if dried and then passed through a sieve, add at 10 percent by weight, cheers
My favourite series on UA-cam! Keep up the good work! Cant wait for the next episode!
Hi shrimp! We actually use clay (synthetic) when detailing cars to remove metals and sap and other embedded microscopic contaminants on the paint, this is usually the second step after washing and before compounding and polishing.
Thank you Shrimp I'm really enjoying following on with these videos! I think the failures are comforting somehow, though of course I want to see you succeed also! Bring on the cooking pot 😁
I do so appreciate going on all these adventures with Shrimp. He takes me to many places and experiences that I can no longer go for myself. I look forward to every new video, and quite often go on a back-catalogue binge. My favourite video channel by a landslide. Thanks Mike. ❤
I really enjoy learning from your videos! I look forward to the next part tremendously.
You have a lot of patience for this adventure.
There’s nothing for it, the only solution to your problem is moving house to Stoke-on-Trent. Time for a kickstarter!
Loving this series! I didn't read all of the comments from the prior video, but I've found "paper clay" to be very sturdy and forgiving. Instead of flour, make a slurry of shredded toilet-paper and water in a blender, then wedge it into the clay. I can't say for certain if that would work with earthenware (I work with stoneware), but it might be another option.
I greatly admire and appreciate your curiosity and your tenacity.
Such a lovely series, thank you!
It is a pleasure to watch such thoughtful and intelligent content, and of course, entertaining.
Your humour is so great because its dry you make no notion thar you're making a joke but it's there.
Love this series!
Making pottery out of dirt is something I've always wanted to try and it's a lot of fun following you along in this venture :)
Really enjoying the way this series is presented as a series of experiments!
You don't really see modern craft potters adding organic material to their clays...or at least I haven't. I suspect the flour holding onto moisture might have been a problem. I doubt this is feasible the way you are firing, but with a gas or electric kiln I'd recommend "candling" before firing to ensure all the moisture is driven off. The one exception is paper clay. A paper pulp slurry is mixed in. What this does for you is make the clay stronger when wet, and lighter both before and after firing which can make it easier to build more delicate structures (less weight to self-support).
Looks like your pottery knowledge and skills are improving exponentially and I really like the designs. As you have an Oak tree, have you considered using your acorns ground as a flour, or finely ground, for organic matter in the pots? People used to mix clay and acorn flour as a loaf to remove the tannins. Okay so they also ate it, but it might help in future firing projects.
Im hooked with this series
I have to say, Pt 2.3 3/8 a(ii) really fleshes out the series so far. Ha
Gotta love a recursive rabbit hole.
Edit: The brazier returns! I liked that project, and this is an interesting use for it.
This is all very cool. I love the explainations and experimentation you have done with this pottery. I'm quite looking forward to seeing how your little oil lamp does in the end.
Back in the nineties, I used to go to art class ( ceramics) and I remember very well how we made a kiln with wood sticks and paper from fancy magazines soaked in a slurrie of water and clay. It looked like a kind of tipi and burned during hours, And the flame at the top had the most amazing colors. After the kiln was completely burned out, the pots came out very nice. Maybe an idea to try out some day. We used an abandoned terrain near de brick factory.
Always interesting content, thanks Shrimpy!
Being an artist and art technician with a craft degree I love these videos
Plus it makes me realise how much I have learned through feel and experience using materials and that has blown my mind. I know more than I thought because it's instinctive to me!
Oh, this is a really cool experiment! I was going to test this out in my ceramics class a few years back but I lost the clay I mixed up and then couldn't be arsed to mix another batch.
I must admit that my mind went someplace else than pottery when I read "weird grog"...
i was wondering too what role the rum might play in this and when it would come up
This is some lovely practical archaeology.
If you replace the plastic bag under your pots with fabric,a bit of old sheet is fine .it will wick out the moisture from the pot as the free edges will evaporate the moisture from the centre.also easier to roll out on as the fabric doesn’t stick to the clay as much.adding a substance such as flour or sawdust which burns out during firing will make your finished pot more fragile.adding grog or sand which doesn’t burn out will strengthen the piece as it’s stronger than the clay
Yeah, I'm going to try it with a bit of stretchy cheesecloth - my hope is that it will mostly stretch into the form and not leave a lot of creases
With the crushed seashell, a percentage of it will turn to lime in firing, so it's not recommended in pottery.
Excellent video. One of your very best. Thank you.
I know nothing about pottery but have been hanging out for an update. I'm pleased to see this video ☺️
Good Job Mr. Shrimp, I am looking forward to the continuation of this series.
your creativity cannot be understated
This was absolutely delightful to watch. I never knew Dirt could clean so well 😉👌✅
Regarding the cleaning bit, in the world of car detailing, they sell detailing clay, which you use with soapy water as a lubricant, and run it over the surface of the car's paint to pull up and remove embedded dirt and particles, leaving the paint very smooth (it's actually quite surprising the first time you do this) and free of contaminants before machine polishing. I suspect your kitchenware probably received a similar treatment, the clay pulling up various embedded limescales and other particles from the surface leaving it smooth and cleaner after washing.
Another factor to consider in why the clay-cleaned things have come out shinier is clay-flocculation. The individual grains/crystals that comprise the clay all eventually settle together, especially in a water rich setting. The crystal lattice structures that they form tend to pick up a lot debris as they do and incorporate it (also why clays differ in colour by region/setting). Essentially you may have glued all the dirt in the really tiny cracks and crevices of the glassware into the clay!
Like tiny sponges?
@@AtomicShrimp A bit, yeah!
It's like slotting dirt between the gaps of the clay. Clay likes to form long tetrahedral chains. There's a lot of vacancy between each tetrahedra so it can hold a lot of stray odds and ends in the voids. Iron oxides. dirt, dust, dyes etc.
I'm really enjoying this miniseries
I wish you would post these videos more frequently! I actually can't wait to see the successful attempt, which I'm sure is coming. Even though I do understand that making clay pots from scratch takes weeks to complete in and of itself.
You are some man for one man, Shrimp.
Failure or not, what these experiments tell us about the properties of the materials involved and the physics behind it all is quite faszinating!
I told you, met a woman that made her living with her pots, she fired her stuff in a big hole in the ground filled with straw and backfilled. Worth a try I would suspect.
Enjoying this series!
I could watch your videos all day Shrimp, you are awesome! 👌 👏
I am so invested in this series
How would salty water effect clay? Would it dry off and crack quicker?
Would bicarb or vinegar (independent of each other) have an effect on the clay?
Maybe you could try some basic fired slabs/bars and could see if there’s any noticeable difference.
Such an interesting process. Thanks for sharing
Unscrupulous Victorian food sellers: adulterate their flour with chalk and clay.
Mr Shrimp: adulterates his clay with flour.
love this series! I know you are trying to use as ancient methods as possible, but have you considered finding a local potter who will let you use their kiln? Trying to glaze local clay pots with modern glaze would be very interesting, as long as you start with low-fire, no higher than cone 04 temperatures. You could also turn your local clay into a glaze to put on standard clay, and then you wouldn't have to worry about your pots cracking!
That was very interesting. Thank you for sharing this experiment!
Well, I see an easy solution here, make bricks, and build a little shed with them, it'd be a good place to store the firepit when you're not using it.
😂
I'm so invested in your pottery series
love the clay firing vids. I might even just start hunting them down on youtube
Very informative and still entertaining. Well done!
Spalls are almost always the result of moisture.
Hey, great to see you here! Your content has been hugely useful to me.
@@AtomicShrimp thanks. Great series.
Yeah, I think this one was either still hanging on to moisture, or there was water vapour created as a product of combustion of the organic filler. My previous pots didn't spall, but the large ones suffered structural cracking on the parts that cooled first. I think I made them too thick and should have fired them for longer
@@AtomicShrimp try horse manure. It’s more course than flour and makes a good temper.
@@AncientPottery interesting idea, but I feel like the germophobes would have a field day with that when I get to the cooking pot stage
Thinking about things being cleaned by clay, fuller's earth did used to be an important part of wool production. It's a clay rich in aluminium sillicate that absorbs a lot of oil and was rubbed into cloth to clean it and then washed off. Maybe something similar is happening to your crockery.
Unfortunate that these nice pots spawled during firing. Otherwise great video, it was also interesting to hear how you script, to keep these videos organic in a way.
Cheers
I think the main problem is your clay is drying out before you have finished making your pots and going back and burnishing them when they are partially dried is a mistake because you are adding slight defects into the walls of the pots, try making a pot keeping it fairly wet it will work easier and you can smooth the edges at the same time then when it comes to drying allow it to dry fully the colour of the clay should get a little lighter when it is ready for baking, and ensure you have a way for the fire to get inside the pot maybe a metal grate for the pot to sit on or build a wood platform for the pot so the flames can reach the inside.
Also airflow is key build a small makeshift fan or bellows to add more air increasing the heat of the fire to thoroughly bake the clay. These are all things that may have been known to early pot makers but a small animal skin bellows or a pump drill fan of sticks and leaves may not have survived through time or could have been reused for other purposes later.
Oxidizing fire to get rid of the carbon followed by reducing to get rid of the oxides maybe?
One thing I remember from a pottery class very long ago is you want as time grain as you can get. Grind , sieve, dissolve in water, let the big pieces settle and siphon off the fine stuff, repeat.
I remember almost nothing about groggong. If shell is good then bone should be as well. Would that make bone chips disappear from human waste sites as our ancestors incorporated pottery into their craft toolkit?
Clay barring is a common technique used to clean the paint on cars, so its cleaning properties don't surprise me 😀
It's also used as a cosmetic in like masks used to absorb face oil and hair oil so it's not surprising to me either
Your theory about a type of case hardening leading to the failure seems very plausible.
Thanks Atomic shrimp, a very interesting video 🤗
Thanks for those clay to pot videos.
Maybe a mix of flour, grog, and sand so theres more of a balance of moisture and particle size distribution?
Love this series.
2:30 Yea, tho it wont make any tasty gluten chains in the clay; it shud still hydrate the flour better if let to sit. Not much better, but likely enuf to get more flour worked in there; tho probs not the whole other half of what you had prepped
Dam, onwards and upwards to the intended goal, a good cooking pot.
The hollow result from the starch is very interesting! I wonder if it could be controlled well enough to make a sort of double-walled mug.... Maybe a future experiment!
Imagining a band of Picts settling a new firth. One scout looks for arable soil, one looks for iron deposits, and one looks for clay. HowToMakeEverything did a series on pottery made from clay within walking distance of my home.