If you like this kind of video where I make and then use a pot for its purpose, I have a whole playlist of "practical primitive" videos - ua-cam.com/play/PLxjk09ZJzrltsy-JeeeEqINUbiTVD3fk-.html
Several years ago I got an olla from a thrift store. I had heard about them, but never used one. Well, I planted a tomato plant about six inches from the olla in my garden. I filled it regularly. At the end of the tomato season, I pulled up the tomato plant. The plant's roots had wrapped around the olla completely. The plant grew really well. The olla was the only water I gave it. These things are super for low maintenance.
Jimmie200, great to learn that from you. How far apart would you suggest placing sprouts / seeds from the olla? What about directly touching at the time of planting?
Garden ollas was originally what got me into your channel. I haven't circled back around to making ollas yet, I've been focusing on making small bowls and pots. Your channel is a great resource for people looking to get into primitive ceramics, thanks for sharing!
Yes but that seems like a lot of extra work because first you have to make the charcoal and then you have to fire the pot. When you could just fire the pot and be done with it. The advantage of the charcoal is that it doesn't make a lot of flames and smoke for people firing in a city.
Ollas are IMO much better than drip systems. First as a gardner one has to occasionally fill the Olla, this is a perfect time to inspect the plant for diseases, pests and whether pruning is necessary. A drip system will clog and may develop leaks that unless inspected will use more water than save as intended. I deep water my Mesquite trees and after 10 years they are still firmly planted. Several of my neighbors trees have fallen over the years during a Haboob because the drip system they installed kept the tree roots in a tight ball instead of spreading searching for water. For this reason any Ollas that I make will have long necks to get the bowl part down deep in the soil so the water will not evaporate as easily but allowed to seep into the soil. Thanks for a great gardening idea and sharing.
@@OublietteTight I let a small trickle of water come out the hose. Just fast enough that you drink the water as if you were really thirsty but not enough the water to drain into the street. After 30-40 minutes the ground will be wet 3-4 feet around the plant but more importantly deep into the soil. This promotes the roots to grow deep where the moisture from your watering will last longer and not evaporate like the water near the surface.
you can fill one of these olla's with sand and charcoal and use it for a water filter! This is something I will do if I have time in the future! Great video, and great lessons! Thanks, Sir!
Lightly bisque fired pottery used outdoors is not usually long lived. I made mine a tubular shape which may have helped. Bringing it in during the winter to use in houseplants probably helped too.
I just found out about garden ollas last week, after having learned about ollas from Andy. I thought, I wonder if Andy will do a video on them? Here it is!
At Mt grandparents house there are pots for storing and cooling water. These pots were there since I was a little kid. I am 40 now and they are still there used for the same purpose. Used everyday for drinking water storing and cooling Impressive.
Cool idea. Literally. Evaporative cooler. To use them as watering devices is also clever. Different shapes probably have different characteristics. You could even shape them according to needs. For example, a ring-shaped trough to surround a plant, an L-shaped one for a corner, or a long tube for a row.
Also works in reverse as a ground water collector which pre-filtlers the water. I would love to see an experiment on evaporative air cooler using a hand made pot. Cheers J
I've been using home made ollas in my garden for the first time this summer, and it is working very well! I only need to water once every 3 days instead of every day. I have noticed that my tomatoes are growing better this year and bearing more fruit than ever! Great tutorial, this is a really good way to get the average person interested in making pottery. Thanks Andy :)
I watch ancient history, terraced landscaping, and perma culture. Subscribing to your channel is the perfect fit. Glad I found you. Now I need to find time to binge.
Dear Uncle Andy, my interest in ceramics arose precisely when I tried to make irrigation vessels for my vegetable garden. In my tests I came to the conclusion that the best shape of the vessel was the cylindrical one because it allows you to remove it from the soil to place it at the foot of another plant, the bulbous shape makes this difficult. Of course, the lid is essential to avoid evaporation, drowned insects and being a breeding ground for mosquitoes. At this point I decided to make two valves from plaster molds, a quick way to make them in series. Thank you so much for your inspiring videos. Querido tío Andy, mi interés por la cerámica surgió precisamente por intentar hacer vasijas de riego para mi huerto. En mis pruebas llegué a la conclusión que la mejor forma de la vasija era la cilíndrica porque te permite su extracción de la tierra para ubicarla al pie de otra planta, la forma bulbosa lo dificulta. Por supuesto, la tapa es indispensable para evitar evaporación, insectos ahogados y ser un criadero de mosquitos. En este punto decidí hacer dos valvas de moldes en escayola, una manera rápida de hacerlas en serie. Mil gracias por tus inspiradores vídeos.
Thanks for sharing my clip in the video, Andy, and for enlightening on the reason my clay pot was not seeping water! What a fantastic video...I did not realize it was even possible to DIY an Olla, I hope to try and make one(or more) sometime in the near future!
I've been interested in clay ever since I was around 7, at a beach I stumbled upon hard bits of sand in the stagnant water, turned out to be this light gray clay. Been messing around with clay ever since. But I never get very far with it. I forgot about that clay from the lake, let sit in a ball outside for a while, and it disintegrated from rainfall haha Been playing with mud and trying to process different consistencies of dirt from around where I live to find out which works best for making clay, and its fun, and I enjoy it but... I have no idea what I'm doing!! I'm so glad I stumbled upon this youtube channel. I'm eager to learn and discover what works for me- and in fact, making ollas sounds like a fantastic first project. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it makes weird dirt nerds like me very happy. Hope the summer is treating you well :-)
This was such a well articulated video - with the support of another creator & a well versed script that broke everything down with simplicity and ease - chefs kiss
@@renpixie A more porous side sounds plausible in theory, but the pot itself might not last? I hope we get updates on how all the pots are holding up. (Meaning in all the comments to this video.) Or even be fireable? Asking because a pottery instructor stressed that we not be lazy about kneading the clay at the very start to get it thoroughly mixed. What about creating consistent pots, but only glazing one side? Now, I am wondering if glazing is possible at this temperature of firing?
Something I remeber from art class for making the ring for the lid and other things like handles is to scratch and score before attaching. Great video!
This is something I want to try. Thanks for easy to understand resources. I want to do a campfire firing because I have a fire ring that can probably accommodate 6-8 at a time.
Thanks for the upload, Andy. Useful information, especially in my area of southern Alberta which is semi-arid and currently very hot. My poor plants are drying out.
Yes! I've been hoping for a very simple tutorial on olla for irrigation. I remember us talking about them a while back. I think this (including prospecting for wild clay) may be a project for me and the grandkids. They are tweens and reliable around campfires. Having Mimi do random crafts projects is always fun LOL.
Thank u so much gor inspirring me, i now have a new hobby, im the fan from cibola and i also found white clay litterally 100 yards behind my house....love it!! Thx!
Thanks for this andy. What a great and handy thing to do. I had to laugh so hard when you talked about the steak knife. My husband keeps wondering where our steak knives go. Well, I often misplace one in the studio, so I go and get another one, and so on and so forth. LOL😅
Ha ha, I have been there. At this point Tonya just says "you keep that one and I will get a new one" because she wants to avoid my hauling tools out of the kitchen.
dropping some misquote bits (buy Dunks, just in granule form) in the pot about once a month will protect from mosquitos and some of the nastier nematodes in the garden, and they are natural! just dump the spent bits out at the end of the season!
Hi Andy, I've been using plastic milk bottles for the same purpose, filling them with water, burying them and using a wicking material like rope or fabric wound around the base of the plant loosly in a widening circle which works well so I'm thinking with the over fired planters your users and friends could do the same thing with the wick. Its layed just below the surface and can be spread as far as the contents of the vessel will suport given the amount of water they might contain. Love your Channel and am myself a primitive potter just getting back into it so picking up more tips from you and others to speed things up. Thanks for your efforts and hard work, cheers.
Great video - I love that you gave options/instruction for really anyone to try - I have made my ollas with soldate 60 cone 10 clay firing to a softer bisque 08. They work really well and are durable. I think adding the sawdust will be my next try but need to find a source - do you think rice would burn out?? I’m not sure I will be able to local sawdust.
Sawdust is easy to get. I just went to the local hardware store, Lowes in this case. In the back of the store they have a big saw where they cut peoples lumber to length all day. I just grabbed a couple of handfuls and stuffed it into a bag. They don't care, it is just trash to them.
This will most certainly be my first large pot that I build out of my local wild clay. Chances are that I will need to build the pot in a cylindrical shape rather than a traditional pear shape to make it easier to put in the ground if I'm digging a hole with a soil auger. I intend to get a research grant to document how much water and money ollas save compared to drip irrigation tape in a commercial vegetable farm when they are built by hand or purchased online.
Andy, when you said to fire at a low temperature I was wondering if a 400-500 degrees F in an kitchen oven would work but you never specified a temperature range for "low temperature" so even if using wood or charcoal what would you recommend for a temperature range? You used a couple of hours of firing so that question was answered. Thx for filming this and sharing it with us.
Sorry I should have been more specific. A low temperature firing is at least 650 C, 1200 F, far above what you can reach in an oven even in self cleaning mode. Any thing below that will likely not turn the clay into fired ceramic.
Why use a credit card for scraping the pot after it has dried? Why not use the same gourd tool you used when shaping the pot? Thanks so much for this video and for all your videos, Andy! I've learned so much from you!
This was a great video, thank you! I have a few hundred kg of almost pure clay I've dug out of my garden, and olla pots are one of my top projects for it. I'd love to see a quick update on how it has affected the watering in that planter. :)
I'm wondering if you could make pots that are double walled, where the outer pot is vitrified/waterproof, and the inner wall is porous. So the end result is a planter that waters itself instead of having something in the middle of it. Perhaps two pots in each other would work just as well.
I've been subscribed for years. I've had some failures but way more successes. Thank you. Do you think you could show us how to make those Japanese dorodongo balls? Thanks again.
Hi Andy great videos I’m loving your channel. Thanks for sharing! After the piece is dried out completelly in bone phase how much time do I have until burn it? Can I leave the piece for like months in bone stage? I’m asking because I don’t have an oven yet ou an easy place to make fire but I want to start making ceramics. Thank you!
I make these for friends/family from my reclaimed stoneware after a single bisque firing and low fire glaze (from clay that vitrifies @ cone 6). My studio does not allow for wild clay.
I can’t pit fire due to drought and fire restrictions in my town. But I’d love to try this. Are you firing your bisque to cone 04? (I assume you have an electric kiln.) This will be great for my container garden!
@@teenageenaballerina8350 yes, electric kiln and yes 04. The ollas I sent to used in AZ has kept the plants through summer and has ~3cup capacity (which I'm told they fill ~1/week) --my other ollas are in Washington (waiting on their review for more details)
Hello! I'm not sure how much knowledge you have about this topic, but I really want to learn more about processing clay that's already wet- for example from a stream or river. I spoke about clay I had found in a lakebed in my previous comment, and I am very satisfied to report that during a roadtrip I was on last week, I found a clay in a lake shore, and collected quite a bit of it. I, however, have no idea what I'm doing. I'm assuming wet processing is the first step, the clay was part of the lake shore for a long while it seems because of how many rotted roots there was in it, and I'd need all of that stuff out to even begin, er- well, I don't quite know what. But I have my eyes set on making ollas for my garden. I found the wild clay along a lake bank in western Quebec, if you were curious Anywho- my questions: Have you ever covered this topic of processing wet clay in your videos? Or are you aware of someone else on youtube who has? Any pointers in the right direction would be very very helpful and very very appreciated :-) I'm very excited at what your community discord server could offer, and I would ask you this in there, but I've got problems with paying- my bank is being fussy. And I'm too eager to wait. I look forward to joining and participating in conversation with people interested in the same things as me!
Wet clay is processed just the same as dry. You can dry it and grind it, or soak it and pass it through a strainer, or just mix in temper as is. I look forward to discussing this in more detail on Discord with you.
The downside of ollas is that other ways of irrigation like wicking pots or water reservoirs are easier to build and more effective. I just use a bucket filled with charcoal or clay pellets and on top a pot or just earth held together by roots (called a sod). Even if you make your own pots -- a mixture of gypsum and paper is probably cheapest if plastic is not wanted.
My biggest problem is: Where do I store those over winter? I live in central Germany, in one of the dryest areas of the country. And due to climate change our springs and summers have become even dryer during the last decades. In fact, we have been in drought since 2018. But in winter we still sometimes get frost (even though it's less often than in the past) and any earthenware that is not fired at high temperatures will break if not put in a fairly dry spot. I have already lost bird baths and large pots. :( Usual pots are stackable, but ollas are not.
Yes, good point that I forgot to cover. If your ground freezes these need to be taken in in winter or they will break. It never gets that cold where I live so I totally forgot.
I finally purified some wild clay from my garden! It does not crack when forming something with it but it just doesn't stay up and is ultra sticky. It collapses on itself. Any idea what causes that? I used crushed charcoal as my temper, one spoon to four spoons of crushed clay.
I have a pile of one gallon wine jugs but the rats ate all the grapes the birds missed so im thinking of using them as upside down waterers into ollas. Was going to plug up terra cotta pots for that.....hmmm home clay. Tempting rabbithole....there is lots of clay here
Hey Andy, Off topic for this video and maybe a silly question but I began to wonder, given that blood has a high iron content have you ever seen any evidence that the ancients used blood as a pottery paint? Seems like it might be a natural since for a hunting society it would be readily available.
You would actually burnish with a credit card? No, I am scraping, the point of this pot is to be as porous as possible, it would be counterproductive to burnish (compress) the clay in this pot.
@@AncientPottery Soak the pots in vinegar till the hard water deposits dissolve, then flush the pot with fresh water. Of course , Arizona has alkaline native soil so slight acid might not be an issue. Baking soda is alkaline so vinegar to dissolve the mineral deposits, flush with fresh water add a little baking soda , rinse, then rinse with fresh water again. Should work.
YOUR TIME IS WORTH SOMETHING ISN'T IT. AND YOU DID USE A LITTLE WATER. ALSO YOU HAD TO BUY SOMETHING TO START THAT FIRE WITH AND THEN YOU SPENT MONEY ON GAS GOING TO THE STORE. SO TIMES THAT NUMBER BY TWO AND YOU MAY BRAKE EVEN! ❤❤❤✌✌✌AND WHAT ABOUT THE COST OF YOUR VEHICHLE AND INSUREANCE.
WARNING ⚠️ the people who own Hobby Lobby are Fascist. In future, please PLEASE consider choose a neutral party!! I was absolutely loving this video, but now i don't know if i can trust you😢
@@wild-radio7373 I am not political and don’t get involved in these kinds of squabbles. Where I live we have Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. HL has clay and M does not, it’s as simple as that.
If you like this kind of video where I make and then use a pot for its purpose, I have a whole playlist of "practical primitive" videos - ua-cam.com/play/PLxjk09ZJzrltsy-JeeeEqINUbiTVD3fk-.html
Several years ago I got an olla from a thrift store. I had heard about them, but never used one. Well, I planted a tomato plant about six inches from the olla in my garden. I filled it regularly. At the end of the tomato season, I pulled up the tomato plant. The plant's roots had wrapped around the olla completely. The plant grew really well. The olla was the only water I gave it. These things are super for low maintenance.
Awesome, thanks for sharing your experience.
Jimmie200, great to learn that from you. How far apart would you suggest placing sprouts / seeds from the olla?
What about directly touching at the time of planting?
Garden ollas was originally what got me into your channel. I haven't circled back around to making ollas yet, I've been focusing on making small bowls and pots. Your channel is a great resource for people looking to get into primitive ceramics, thanks for sharing!
Awesome, well the skills you are developing with small bowls and pots will serve you will in making the ollas.
I like that it can water BELOW the surface, reducing evaporation.
Pit fired charcoal is also easily made if you can get the wood for free. I've made lots and use it for blacksmithing.
Yes but that seems like a lot of extra work because first you have to make the charcoal and then you have to fire the pot. When you could just fire the pot and be done with it. The advantage of the charcoal is that it doesn't make a lot of flames and smoke for people firing in a city.
@@AncientPottery a city or even just a small town with lots of ordinances!
Ollas are IMO much better than drip systems. First as a gardner one has to occasionally fill the Olla, this is a perfect time to inspect the plant for diseases, pests and whether pruning is necessary. A drip system will clog and may develop leaks that unless inspected will use more water than save as intended. I deep water my Mesquite trees and after 10 years they are still firmly planted. Several of my neighbors trees have fallen over the years during a Haboob because the drip system they installed kept the tree roots in a tight ball instead of spreading searching for water. For this reason any Ollas that I make will have long necks to get the bowl part down deep in the soil so the water will not evaporate as easily but allowed to seep into the soil. Thanks for a great gardening idea and sharing.
Thanks for the practical tips.
Yes, thank you.
What do you mean by "deep water"?
@@OublietteTight I let a small trickle of water come out the hose. Just fast enough that you drink the water as if you were really thirsty but not enough the water to drain into the street. After 30-40 minutes the ground will be wet 3-4 feet around the plant but more importantly deep into the soil.
This promotes the roots to grow deep where the moisture from your watering will last longer and not evaporate like the water near the surface.
I've waited for this tutorial on ollas for so long! Thank you so much, sir.
You're very welcome!
you can fill one of these olla's with sand and charcoal and use it for a water filter! This is something I will do if I have time in the future! Great video, and great lessons! Thanks, Sir!
I keep hearing about using earthenware as a water filter, I need to do some research on this.
This is a great idea for the, you know, apocalypse! :D
I made a set of these six years ago expecting maybe a couple of years out of them. They are still working.
I wondered about the longevity of these. I was thinking that hard water could cause them to become less porous over time.
Lightly bisque fired pottery used outdoors is not usually long lived. I made mine a tubular shape which may have helped. Bringing it in during the winter to use in houseplants probably helped too.
@@angeladazlich7145 Oh! I should have mentioned that, I forgot because our ground never freezes here.
I just found out about garden ollas last week, after having learned about ollas from Andy. I thought, I wonder if Andy will do a video on them? Here it is!
LOL, perfect timing.
At Mt grandparents house there are pots for storing and cooling water. These pots were there since I was a little kid. I am 40 now and they are still there used for the same purpose. Used everyday for drinking water storing and cooling Impressive.
How cool
Cool idea. Literally. Evaporative cooler.
To use them as watering devices is also clever. Different shapes probably have different characteristics. You could even shape them according to needs. For example, a ring-shaped trough to surround a plant, an L-shaped one for a corner, or a long tube for a row.
That's quite brilliant.😊
Also works in reverse as a ground water collector which pre-filtlers the water. I would love to see an experiment on evaporative air cooler using a hand made pot. Cheers J
Well, that would be some really soggy soil to work in reverse. You shouldn't be gardening in a swamp.
@@AncientPottery yes it's for boggy area's or by a woodland stream in a survival situation to filter water.
I've been using home made ollas in my garden for the first time this summer, and it is working very well! I only need to water once every 3 days instead of every day. I have noticed that my tomatoes are growing better this year and bearing more fruit than ever! Great tutorial, this is a really good way to get the average person interested in making pottery. Thanks Andy :)
Glad to hear it's working for you. Thanks.
I watch ancient history, terraced landscaping, and perma culture. Subscribing to your channel is the perfect fit. Glad I found you. Now I need to find time to binge.
p.s. and I watch D&D videos too. 😊
Dear Uncle Andy, my interest in ceramics arose precisely when I tried to make irrigation vessels for my vegetable garden. In my tests I came to the conclusion that the best shape of the vessel was the cylindrical one because it allows you to remove it from the soil to place it at the foot of another plant, the bulbous shape makes this difficult. Of course, the lid is essential to avoid evaporation, drowned insects and being a breeding ground for mosquitoes. At this point I decided to make two valves from plaster molds, a quick way to make them in series. Thank you so much for your inspiring videos.
Querido tío Andy, mi interés por la cerámica surgió precisamente por intentar hacer vasijas de riego para mi huerto. En mis pruebas llegué a la conclusión que la mejor forma de la vasija era la cilíndrica porque te permite su extracción de la tierra para ubicarla al pie de otra planta, la forma bulbosa lo dificulta. Por supuesto, la tapa es indispensable para evitar evaporación, insectos ahogados y ser un criadero de mosquitos. En este punto decidí hacer dos valvas de moldes en escayola, una manera rápida de hacerlas en serie. Mil gracias por tus inspiradores vídeos.
Excellent thanks for the tips from your experience making and using these.
Thanks for sharing my clip in the video, Andy, and for enlightening on the reason my clay pot was not seeping water! What a fantastic video...I did not realize it was even possible to DIY an Olla, I hope to try and make one(or more) sometime in the near future!
Thank you for allowing me to use a clip from your video. Let me know if you get stuck making your ollas and I will help.
@@AncientPottery thanks for the offer, will definitely reach out when I do try it!
Inspirational with clear instruction thank you, sharing
clever use of cards 10:30
Glad it was helpful!
I've been interested in clay ever since I was around 7, at a beach I stumbled upon hard bits of sand in the stagnant water, turned out to be this light gray clay. Been messing around with clay ever since. But I never get very far with it. I forgot about that clay from the lake, let sit in a ball outside for a while, and it disintegrated from rainfall haha
Been playing with mud and trying to process different consistencies of dirt from around where I live to find out which works best for making clay, and its fun, and I enjoy it but... I have no idea what I'm doing!!
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this youtube channel. I'm eager to learn and discover what works for me- and in fact, making ollas sounds like a fantastic first project.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it makes weird dirt nerds like me very happy. Hope the summer is treating you well :-)
Welcome to this weird group or weird dirt nerds. I have a lot of videos about this so the answers you are looking for are there.
This was such a well articulated video - with the support of another creator & a well versed script that broke everything down with simplicity and ease - chefs kiss
Sawdust to increase porosity. You could mix sawdust-filled clay with sawdust-free clay to bias the water release direction.
By mix, I mean connect. For example, have a circular porous area on one side so that the water seeps out of it preferentially.
Wow, way beyond my pay grade
@@Kargoneth
Excellent point . 2 or 3 pots with the more porous sides directed inward toward the plant .👍🏼
@@renpixie
A more porous side sounds plausible in theory, but the pot itself might not last? I hope we get updates on how all the pots are holding up. (Meaning in all the comments to this video.)
Or even be fireable? Asking because a pottery instructor stressed that we not be lazy about kneading the clay at the very start to get it thoroughly mixed.
What about creating consistent pots, but only glazing one side? Now, I am wondering if glazing is possible at this temperature of firing?
Something I remeber from art class for making the ring for the lid and other things like handles is to scratch and score before attaching. Great video!
This is something I want to try. Thanks for easy to understand resources. I want to do a campfire firing because I have a fire ring that can probably accommodate 6-8 at a time.
Yes that would be perfect for doing a whole bunch at once.
Thanks for the upload, Andy. Useful information, especially in my area of southern Alberta which is semi-arid and currently very hot. My poor plants are drying out.
We also have water conservation proposals, so I want to waste water as little as possible.
Yes, really great for arid areas and for water conservation. You're welcome
Yes! I've been hoping for a very simple tutorial on olla for irrigation. I remember us talking about them a while back. I think this (including prospecting for wild clay) may be a project for me and the grandkids. They are tweens and reliable around campfires. Having Mimi do random crafts projects is always fun LOL.
Sounds like a fun project to do with the grandkids.
I recently found your channel and I am enchanted!
Welcome
Thank u so much gor inspirring me, i now have a new hobby, im the fan from cibola and i also found white clay litterally 100 yards behind my house....love it!! Thx!
That's great, have fun with that clay
Thanks for this andy. What a great and handy thing to do. I had to laugh so hard when you talked about the steak knife. My husband keeps wondering where our steak knives go. Well, I often misplace one in the studio, so I go and get another one, and so on and so forth. LOL😅
Ha ha, I have been there. At this point Tonya just says "you keep that one and I will get a new one" because she wants to avoid my hauling tools out of the kitchen.
This is an excellent alternative or complement to drip irrigation.
Indeed, a poor mans drip irrigation
Video saved for future reference. This is useful information. Thanks!
Awesome, thank you!
This awesome! :) So basic and so useable.
Glad you think so!
dropping some misquote bits (buy Dunks, just in granule form) in the pot about once a month will protect from mosquitos and some of the nastier nematodes in the garden, and they are natural! just dump the spent bits out at the end of the season!
great video! thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙏
My pleasure!
Awesome, I was just planning on making one of these!
Well great, I hope this helps you
😄👍 A favourite channel.
Hi Andy, I've been using plastic milk bottles for the same purpose, filling them with water, burying them and using a wicking material like rope or fabric wound around the base of the plant loosly in a widening circle which works well so I'm thinking with the over fired planters your users and friends could do the same thing with the wick. Its layed just below the surface and can be spread as far as the contents of the vessel will suport given the amount of water they might contain.
Love your Channel and am myself a primitive potter just getting back into it so picking up more tips from you and others to speed things up. Thanks for your efforts and hard work, cheers.
Great video - I love that you gave options/instruction for really anyone to try - I have made my ollas with soldate 60 cone 10 clay firing to a softer bisque 08. They work really well and are durable. I think adding the sawdust will be my next try but need to find a source - do you think rice would burn out?? I’m not sure I will be able to local sawdust.
Sawdust is easy to get. I just went to the local hardware store, Lowes in this case. In the back of the store they have a big saw where they cut peoples lumber to length all day. I just grabbed a couple of handfuls and stuffed it into a bag. They don't care, it is just trash to them.
Cool idea❤ thank youthe lid is very clever too.
Thank you! 😊
This will most certainly be my first large pot that I build out of my local wild clay. Chances are that I will need to build the pot in a cylindrical shape rather than a traditional pear shape to make it easier to put in the ground if I'm digging a hole with a soil auger. I intend to get a research grant to document how much water and money ollas save compared to drip irrigation tape in a commercial vegetable farm when they are built by hand or purchased online.
Pretty cool! Looks like a fun project for combining gardening and pottery.
Yes it is, thanks Will.
Andy, wonderfully clear instruction! Thank you.
You're very welcome!
Andy, when you said to fire at a low temperature I was wondering if a 400-500 degrees F in an kitchen oven would work but you never specified a temperature range for "low temperature" so even if using wood or charcoal what would you recommend for a temperature range? You used a couple of hours of firing so that question was answered. Thx for filming this and sharing it with us.
Sorry I should have been more specific. A low temperature firing is at least 650 C, 1200 F, far above what you can reach in an oven even in self cleaning mode. Any thing below that will likely not turn the clay into fired ceramic.
@@AncientPottery - Thx.
My dad will like this video because he does gardening
Why use a credit card for scraping the pot after it has dried? Why not use the same gourd tool you used when shaping the pot? Thanks so much for this video and for all your videos, Andy! I've learned so much from you!
The credit card has a sharper edge, better for scraping.
YES !
This is the video I needed.
Thanks Andy
Happy to help!
Merci Andy pour vos belles idées!!!!
vous êtes les bienvenus
@@AncientPottery Dear Andy,
I am your subscriber since 2-3!
Thank you for your ingenious, simple, modern and original ideas!
This was a great video, thank you! I have a few hundred kg of almost pure clay I've dug out of my garden, and olla pots are one of my top projects for it.
I'd love to see a quick update on how it has affected the watering in that planter. :)
I am jealous!
Cool project! I've been looking for a reason to use the abundant clay in my Ohio soil. Thanks for sharing!
Great video Andy. I love practical applications for art too.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it
Your awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks
Interesting idea. I’m curious how well the olla you made kept the soil moist.
So far it is working great, I just checked on it this morning
Haha you have mastered the possibilities!
I'm wondering if you could make pots that are double walled, where the outer pot is vitrified/waterproof, and the inner wall is porous. So the end result is a planter that waters itself instead of having something in the middle of it. Perhaps two pots in each other would work just as well.
Sounds like a lot of work
I've been subscribed for years. I've had some failures but way more successes. Thank you. Do you think you could show us how to make those Japanese dorodongo balls? Thanks again.
Thanks for subscribing and watching but I have no interest in dorodango. It's not even pottery, just dried mud.
Actually, you have already helped. By using temper my dorodongo efforts have become far more successful. Thanks
I bet dental floss sticks would work great for cutting off clay from the top.
Ha ha, yes, I'll bet they would, I should try that in a video.
Might I suggest a white slip for the lid? To further reduce evaporation?
Not a bad idea. I wonder if being buried in the ground keeps the temperature pretty even, like a cave.
THANKS!
Awesome!!
Always keep them closed with a tight fitting lid. You don't want them to become breeding spots for mosquitoes.
Definitely also I could imagine snails finding a comfortable home in there.
WOW Thanks!!!!!
Welcome!
Perfect Idea!!!!
Glad you think so!
Can we get an update on a moisture test now that the olla has been in place for a while to see if it is retaining soil moisture better?
Hi Andy great videos I’m loving your channel. Thanks for sharing!
After the piece is dried out completelly in bone phase how much time do I have until burn it? Can I leave the piece for like months in bone stage? I’m asking because I don’t have an oven yet ou an easy place to make fire but I want to start making ceramics. Thank you!
Yes, you can wait years as long as you keep the un-fired pot dry
Great. Thanks!
Could I have just as good results by adding saw dust to commercially bought clay?
Of course your mileage may vary based on the clay being used but I would assume the sawdust could be added to any clay and would improve the porosity.
Could you make larger, like almost 1 gallon ollas, using this method? Would they be structurally sound?
@@Sheckybea yes I have made much larger pots for other purposes and you definitely could use them for irrigation purposes
I make these for friends/family from my reclaimed stoneware after a single bisque firing and low fire glaze (from clay that vitrifies @ cone 6). My studio does not allow for wild clay.
Excellent.
I can’t pit fire due to drought and fire restrictions in my town. But I’d love to try this. Are you firing your bisque to cone 04? (I assume you have an electric kiln.) This will be great for my container garden!
@@teenageenaballerina8350 yes, electric kiln and yes 04. The ollas I sent to used in AZ has kept the plants through summer and has ~3cup capacity (which I'm told they fill ~1/week) --my other ollas are in Washington (waiting on their review for more details)
@@teenageenaballerina8350 My firing was much cooler than cone 04 probably more like 014. Remember the more you vitrify them the less porous they are.
Thanks for the speedy reply! I’m in the high desert, so what works in AZ will likely work for me!
Hello! I'm not sure how much knowledge you have about this topic, but I really want to learn more about processing clay that's already wet- for example from a stream or river. I spoke about clay I had found in a lakebed in my previous comment, and I am very satisfied to report that during a roadtrip I was on last week, I found a clay in a lake shore, and collected quite a bit of it. I, however, have no idea what I'm doing. I'm assuming wet processing is the first step, the clay was part of the lake shore for a long while it seems because of how many rotted roots there was in it, and I'd need all of that stuff out to even begin, er- well, I don't quite know what. But I have my eyes set on making ollas for my garden.
I found the wild clay along a lake bank in western Quebec, if you were curious
Anywho- my questions: Have you ever covered this topic of processing wet clay in your videos? Or are you aware of someone else on youtube who has? Any pointers in the right direction would be very very helpful and very very appreciated :-)
I'm very excited at what your community discord server could offer, and I would ask you this in there, but I've got problems with paying- my bank is being fussy. And I'm too eager to wait. I look forward to joining and participating in conversation with people interested in the same things as me!
Wet clay is processed just the same as dry. You can dry it and grind it, or soak it and pass it through a strainer, or just mix in temper as is. I look forward to discussing this in more detail on Discord with you.
The downside of ollas is that other ways of irrigation like wicking pots or water reservoirs are easier to build and more effective. I just use a bucket filled with charcoal or clay pellets and on top a pot or just earth held together by roots (called a sod). Even if you make your own pots -- a mixture of gypsum and paper is probably cheapest if plastic is not wanted.
My biggest problem is: Where do I store those over winter?
I live in central Germany, in one of the dryest areas of the country. And due to climate change our springs and summers have become even dryer during the last decades. In fact, we have been in drought since 2018.
But in winter we still sometimes get frost (even though it's less often than in the past) and any earthenware that is not fired at high temperatures will break if not put in a fairly dry spot. I have already lost bird baths and large pots. :(
Usual pots are stackable, but ollas are not.
Yes, good point that I forgot to cover. If your ground freezes these need to be taken in in winter or they will break. It never gets that cold where I live so I totally forgot.
14:32 I have a question. 🙋🏻♀️
What about preheating when we don't have the equipment? Can we do that in that pit too? 14:32 🎉
I suppose you could, you might have to tear down part of the brick structure to set the pots near the burning coals to warm up
can these types of pots be used in cooking?
Yes, ua-cam.com/video/Oboza8SfaZI/v-deo.htmlsi=Q81VTswh_DGmD_E2
Will the micropores of the olla jar be closed with the time ? If this can happen, how to deal with this problem? Thank you in advance.
I finally purified some wild clay from my garden! It does not crack when forming something with it but it just doesn't stay up and is ultra sticky. It collapses on itself. Any idea what causes that? I used crushed charcoal as my temper, one spoon to four spoons of crushed clay.
I have a pile of one gallon wine jugs but the rats ate all the grapes the birds missed so im thinking of using them as upside down waterers into ollas. Was going to plug up terra cotta pots for that.....hmmm home clay. Tempting rabbithole....there is lots of clay here
Ahhh the sawdust.....this is huge, i can use this in my tera preta clay firing. Should be much better than the natural fires ive been doing so.far.
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Is it better to do this on a mild day? Could a hot day dry it unevenly?
Hey Andy, Off topic for this video and maybe a silly question but I began to wonder, given that blood has a high iron content have you ever seen any evidence that the ancients used blood as a pottery paint? Seems like it might be a natural since for a hunting society it would be readily available.
If your soil has poor drainage then it might stop the water coming out too.
👍
Is it safe to use your kitchen oven where you cook?
Of course, clay is just dirt it isn't toxic and it doesn't release any fumes or anything when it is heated.
Here in British Columbia, we have a fire ban since late June because it has been so hot. The risk of grass fires and forest fires is simply too high.
That happens here in Arizona at certain times of the year too. You just need to wait until the fire ban is lifted.
Saw dust - now I am wondering where to get a saw dust source.
You can buy clay fron greenhouses. Is that the same? 3:10
No idea, I assume what greenhouses are selling is clay earth, it might need to be processed like any wild clay to remove impurities
Scraping- do you mean actual scraping or do you mean burnishing? In other words scraping=removing material ; burnishing=compressing clay
You would actually burnish with a credit card? No, I am scraping, the point of this pot is to be as porous as possible, it would be counterproductive to burnish (compress) the clay in this pot.
My concern would be clogging of the pores.
The pores are inside the walls of the pot, I would think the only thing getting in there would be hard water deposits
@@AncientPottery
Soak the pots in vinegar till the hard water deposits dissolve, then flush the pot with fresh water. Of course , Arizona has alkaline native soil so slight acid might not be an issue. Baking soda is alkaline so vinegar to dissolve the mineral deposits, flush with fresh water add a little baking soda , rinse, then rinse with fresh water again. Should work.
Hey , maybe not scrape the sides . This could partially seal it with slip .. D. V.
@@dv9747 sure but it’s also important for the strength of the pot. So I would say scrape the sides. To not scrape would be to gamble on a broken pot.
Add the $5 bag of sand. That stuffs not free man.
@@lostpony4885 sand, I don’t believe I used sand in this video did I?
YOUR TIME IS WORTH SOMETHING ISN'T IT. AND YOU DID USE A LITTLE WATER. ALSO YOU HAD TO BUY SOMETHING TO START THAT FIRE WITH AND THEN YOU SPENT MONEY ON GAS GOING TO THE STORE. SO TIMES THAT NUMBER BY TWO AND YOU MAY BRAKE EVEN! ❤❤❤✌✌✌AND WHAT ABOUT THE COST OF YOUR VEHICHLE AND INSUREANCE.
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Buy em if you want to. We're having fun here man!
WARNING ⚠️
the people who own Hobby Lobby are Fascist.
In future, please PLEASE consider choose a neutral party!!
I was absolutely loving this video, but now i don't know if i can trust you😢
@@wild-radio7373 I am not political and don’t get involved in these kinds of squabbles. Where I live we have Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. HL has clay and M does not, it’s as simple as that.