The Lost Potters Clays of The Gila River Valley, Arizona
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- Опубліковано 19 гру 2023
- In which I hunt for wild clay in the Gila River Valley where a lot of really great pottery was made 700 years ago.
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Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733
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Nice to see your lady. We don't see enough of her. Looks like it was a wonderful time out there together, hope you got a bunch of good stuff.
Thanks, it was a lovely day.
So this video wasn't the wife reveal?
Little bit o history from the uk, you probably know this already. In early medieval times potters would also take their clay from roads for the same reasons you give. Hence the name for holes in the road were pot-holes. Great content.
LOL, yes I have heard that before. I have made a few pot holes myself.
Thanks Andy. The video whets my appetite for a road trip. Good job.
Time for another Arizona trip.
Thats the adventurer spirit!!! Come visit us! We have some news about that pottery we sent with you back on the other road trip through,.. Its Acoma from the turn of the century, when the railroad had came through,... They were using experemental clays and slips from this specific area, and we may have found a kiln...
great job
Howdy Andy , y’all make a nice pair & once again , you made a real nice video for us to join in & learn a little more about different clays , how they were formed & the fact that you are truly searching for the very clays that the Ancients possibly used ! Keep up the good work , we appreciate you & Tanya in the making of this video ( not everyone has this privilege! )
Thanks Cliff.
Thanks for doing our research, I appreciate it!
I get such inspiration from watching your videos. I live in the Great Lake State of Michigan. The glaciers took all of our wonderful soil and left plenty of clay. I am a novice and trying to learn how to gather clay from my farm. It’s all clay soil here. I slip after a rain in the field. I have an embankment I was told by neighbors that potters gathered clay from. It’s a very wet climate so harder for me to judge. The soil is all very plastic. I can squeeze it into a nice form that keeps its shape. So I’m hoping to start learning more about my native clay. It’s very blue gray in color. Very different from yours. So thank you for your videos and helping a novice learn!!❤️😊
Sounds like a perfect environment for making pottery. Get out there and try making something from it. Glad I could help.
Our side field (pennsylvania) has soil where nothing really grows -- it's a run off for rain. When it is dry, it's all cracked on the surface like you showed with your one sample. I will definitely have to try a sample there and see if I can find where to dig!
Sounds promising
Just stumbled onto this channel and so glad I did. Easily one of my favorite. I have learned so much.
Welcome aboard!
These wild clay videos are my favorite from your channel! The scenery is gorgeous!
Glad you like them!
This is right where I live I got some really rockhounding places if you want to know about them and some places to go see ancient pottery laying everywhere
I Had to stop the video to comment on the cool tip of using your phone's GPS when taking the picture to be able to find your way back to the source of your sample!
Lovely video journey. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
That was fascinating, thank you for a great video
👍
What a fun trip, and all about clay. You are so methodical and painstaking, no wonder you know so much. Howdy Tanya!
Well, that doesn't come naturally to me, I just have too much experience with an unlabeled bag of clay that I can't remember where it came from.
Finding and processing clay are my favourite favourite videos 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽
I'm glad you like these
Nice video. Thanks for taking us along.lots of info. Nice to kick back and learn. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Looked like a fun trip! Hope some of those clays turn out to be real good!!
Thanks Will, it was a great day to be outdoors in Arizona. I think I have some good clays here, I plan on doing a future video showing the testing process.
Great to see you both.
Thanks
Check the ownership of the land, what a great piece of advice... We usually get our clay from National Forrest, they permit it as long as you are not taking an industrial load!!! LOL! Thanks for the nice little trip. I believe this to be the best part of building pots is finding clay places.
I agree, If I just had a job finding clay I would be happy
You should check with some companies that drill water wells. They bring up clay all the time. Plus, the action of drilling powders the clay.
Enjoyed the video....its time for some new clay........
Thanks
nice day and good harvest. A very likeable woman...greetings from Germany
Thank you!
I'm interested in how some of those upland clays turn out. I'm guessing that they may not necessarily be poorer clays, they just weren't as convenient to the original inhabitants who lived by the river. Now the convenience factor is reversed. BTW, this video reminded me of what seemed to me vast deposits of reddish brown clay on the side of U.S. 93 southeast of Kingman to Wikieup, following the Big Sandy River northwest of Phoenix and Wickenberg. I haven't heard of any cultural tradition that used these, but I may try to gather some next time I pass through that area.
Sound like maybe Hualapai country, I think they have a tradition of pottery making. I did some reading on those more upload clays and it appears they are all alluvial so it's all deposited by the Gila but in different ages.
Hi timely! I walk the dog over in Pipestone, MT near butte. It’s famous for extinct mammals. I want to try making something from it!
Montana has some great clays. Have you seen this video? ua-cam.com/video/Jkaafp3lROQ/v-deo.htmlsi=GwcCC4PA5qvITTE4
I take photos of all the clays I find to remember where they are, but I was using a camera that doesnt have gps. so now I take pictures with a GPS on the clay. Not quite as neat as your way but it is better than relying on my memory 🙂 My phone takes terrible pictures so I dont bother using it. Oh I liked the sign saying you have primitive roads, it sounds like it might take you back in time..
LOL, true, a road back in time
Hi Andy, we’re about to drive toward Sierra Vista Friday morning. Will be hoping to find Clay along the way. In this video when you showed where you were on the map were you using a specific app or just the regular iPhone map?
Have a good trip. The app I was using that showed land ownership is called onX Hunt.
Hey, Andy! I'm new around here and one thing I haven't seen you talk about as far as primitive pottery goes is ash glaze. I've seen you talk about sealants, but ash glaze was used in china beginning around 1500 bc. Since you make a lot oof interesting pottery videos, I was just curious, could you do one on the ash glaze?
Any clay out near west of Gila Bend on Painted Rock? Road? North of the solar plants
No idea I have never looked around there but hopefully this video has given you some ideas about how to go about looking for clay.
I have what looks like good clay and ive tryed soooo many different things but only really had 1 or 2 pots without cracks! I often only get a few hairline cracks in
Im going to try sand as temper instead of grog, do you think that will make a difference?
Im also going to buy proper clay that oeople use for kilns to test that!!, do you think i need to add more than 20% temper in the processed clay?
Thank you
No, sand will not be better or worse than grog. You need to help your pot to dry SLOWLY to prevent cracking. Put your pot upside down in a cabinet or wrapped in a piece of cloth. Also not all clay is suitable for pottery. Commercial clay will need to have temper added if you will be firing outdoors without a kiln.,
will you make a ancient roman oil lamp?
Can you please expound on the "great calamity" of the early 1400's? I couldn't find any info by Googling it. Thanks. I'm going to Arizona next month camping and I'm going to be looking for clays.
I hope to do a video all about that soon. In around 1400 a large swath of the Southwest was completely depopulated very rapidly. Check out this video for more information ua-cam.com/video/4KkV8ZKgXXI/v-deo.html
@@AncientPottery thank you!
I appreciate the knowledge youve given us and im really eager to try this out myself. The only issue is I really cannot handle the texture of unglazed pottery, it directly conflicts with sensory issues i have. I know you prefer not to use glaze, and i dont want to ask you to change your view because i think youre probably right, but would you show us how people made glaze in ancient times for folks like me?
Sorry to tell you but ancient people did not glaze their pottery. Glaze didn't become common in Europe until the middle ages and in the Americas after European contact. You need a proper kiln to get hot enough to melt glaze.
@@AncientPottery Well darn. Worth asking anyhow, thanks for the info andy ♡
Hi, can you please upload a vedio to make taraotta animals like, turtle, horse, elephant and other things like music instrument and humans, also humans playing them. I am trying to make them but it seems very hard to make without good tools.
I'm not into sculpture
Ok, no problem 👍
Is there a difference in how to proccess clay if it's from an area with a lot more vegitation and biological components in it? I live in a more forested region, but the tracks at the edges of feilds and through the forrest do form nice tall distinct tracks.
No, you would use the same methods although you might run it through a fine screen to remove most of the organic material.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours. Thx for doing this, filming it and sharing it with us. 👍👍👍👍👍
You are welcome
Better luck probably closer to Pima or Fort Tomas.
Why do you say that? I have collected clay near Pima in the past. Studies have shown that much of the Salado Polychrome made in that area was made somewhere around the Thatcher/Pima area, but everything is so developed on that side of the river it's harder to find open areas where I can dig without getting yelled at by a farmer.
Just putting out some ideas where you might be able to find some. I don't know the quality though.
I'm from casa grande. I have a lot of clay in my yard and reeeallly want to make structures with it. Any advice? It's more orange/red than brown
Wow, cool. You will need probably need to add some sand to it to keep it from cracking when it dries. Also if making sculptures you will have better success if you make them hollow so they can dry more evenly. Here is a video about how to process clay ua-cam.com/video/u6RlHSG4cY4/v-deo.html
@@AncientPottery wow! Thank you so much for the quick response, I was actually sifting sAnd out of it already. So I will watch and get some tips!!! Thanks again
Wishing you had a hat for sale.
Sorry, no hats
so is that native land you were on?... Cause to the north of the Gila River is reservation... what towns were you near?
This was not reservation land. I don’t dig clay on Indian land unless I am with a member of that tribe. I was in Eden, Bryce, Pima and Safford.
It takes clay from several sources to get good clay to use for pottery.
I’m sure it’s true in some cases but that is not a rule. I use many clays from one source that work just fine for pottery.
How to make a brick?! New video idea
Thanks for the suggestion but this channel is about pottery, so I have no intention of ever making brick video. Try this one - ua-cam.com/video/mzJoImT__xc/v-deo.htmlsi=facqHtDfzi_psJIq
Can you find clay that just will always have hairline cracks and cracks in no matter the temper etc?
What? You want cracks?
😂
@@AncientPottery no, I just want to know if there are clays that will always just crack and there's nothing that you can do about it
@@Timmyjg2004 Oh sure, some clays are just not suitable for making pottery.
I ended up finding much better results down by the river here very plastic clay you just have to follow the river against the stream before you cross the bridge in Fort Thomas the clay becomes more and more pure about a 15 minute walk following the old flow of water for the river
Found out today that was private land turned out a friend owns it but I am not going to annoy them by walking on there property
If you were in georgia this video would be about 30 seconds long
Ha ha ha