My grandfather used to take us all over southern Arizona exploring old dirt roads and mining sites and when ever we found a "sticky mud" road, he'd gather samples and have us kids make mud "worms" that we would dry on the patio. I didn't realize until years later that these were his way of testing wild clays for purity! (They had an art gallery that included local pottery back in the 60s and 70s) I remember him "washing" the clay exactly like your video of separating the clay from the dirt until it made "good worms". Geeze I wish I had asked more questions back then! Potters clay wasn't the main reasons we were out exploring AZ...but he never passed up an opportunity to gather interesting or useful things to turn into art for the gallery either.
I’ve never made a UA-cam comment before, but I had to express how much I enjoy your videos. I can’t understand how there aren’t thousands of likes but I’m very glad I discovered you in this world! Such well made videos, extremely knowledgeable content and I’m always excited to see what outfit you have on! 😆 Thanks for what you do.
I like using cattail fluff because it leaves the clay feeling silky smooth, it retains its plasticity, and it polishes well. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect thet the fibers also hold it together better to prevent cracking, and that they also help to keep moisture distributed evenly. The downside is that it's hard to judge proportions and it's also hard to mix evenly.
This is so valuable; I've watched several vlogs about rendering clay from "the wild" without making a proper description of how to balance the process of purifying out gravel, grit, sand, silt, and clay while retaining enough temper to make a quality clay body. I've only seen this topic discussed in your vids--more than once. It's such a valuable topic, but there are underinformed content creators eager to seem like they have primitive survival or primitive tech vlogs, but they are missing the research to teach.
I'm in Florida and there is precious little about using the wild clay here - which is heavy in kaolin. I did find out that the indigenous peoples' pottery got more refined when they started adding cattail fluff!!! There is a mine near where I live that produces clay used all over the country. I am not sure where the wild clay I am using is from, only that it is local. My neighbor bought the wrong sand for her beach. It was mostly white sand mixed with quartz pebbles, white kaolin and big chunks of yellow kaolin, the combination of which would suck the shoes right off your feet and made a pit of quicksand where she wanted a fire pit. The chunks of yellow kaolin I gathered (with permission), dried, slaked and sieved. It has a LOT of organic material - mostly roots, and some sand. Not sure yet how well tempered it is - going to try my first firing tomorrow. If I need to add back sand, what is on our hill is fine and sharp, so should be good. The white sand/clay mix is far too sandy to use as clay and I haven't figured out how to get the white kaolin out of it. Thank you so much for these videos. They are inspirational.
Interesting, I hope that clay works out for you. Try levigation to refine that clay and remove all sand and other impurities. ua-cam.com/video/aryqJ5I3f2Q/v-deo.html
You described my pottery journey perfectly with the tale as old as time! I started becoming more interested in native clay after watching your videos about evaluating and testing native clay. Keep up the amazingly informative work Andy! You've definitely inspired me to deep dive into the world of ancient pottery
I am an Expat from the States, living on the side of Poas Volcano in Costa Rica. I have a background in geology. I have been looking for a new hobby and I think I have found it. Hunting and processing wild clay will be fun, I also have the ability to make my own charcoal out of coffee wood. The indigenous people of Costa Rica made some very beautiful pottery which has always fascinated me. I love your videos and look forward to checking out your class.
Thanks for clearing up many things I wasn't entirely sure about around this topic! I use levigation to remove rocks and organic stuff from my main clay source (collected as dry lumps at an outcrop in the forest). The resulting material doesn't seem to need any temper if dried carefully. It can even get quite shiny when burnished thoroughly.
I use crusher dust (byproduct of crushed stone used in road buillding) with up to 2mm particles, but I mostly sieve it and use the fine "sand" only. Good to learn its uneven texture is a good thing. Can't wait to try out diatomaceous earth which I use as food supplement for my pets and also to help fight fleas.
Brand new to this. I just made my own clay last week from dirt in my yard near SLC, Utah. I poured it to a bucket to get rid of rocks and organics and let it dry and have a good pound or two. I made the saddest little pot/ashtray/thing that looks like something a second grader cobbled together. But it worked. It held together. It dryed out. So I guess I left in natural tempers? I don't know. I didn't over filter it. In fact I thought "next time I do this I'll filter it more to remove more sand." But this video has me thinking maybe leaving some of that in is fine. My little sad pot has been smoothed with a rock and I'm getting ready to fire it. Not having access to a kiln I bought some charcoal and my plan is to cover it with something like a metal bowl, pour the charcoal over it and light it up and walk away. Either it will work or not. If it does, do i add glaze next? What the heck is glaze? I guess that's the next portion of my research. This pot is so sad. But its a good starting point. Wish me luck.
Everybody has to start somewhere, we all crawl before we can run. No glaze on primitive pottery, you can't melt glaze without a proper kiln anyway. I have other videos about decorating, sealing and using pottery like this.
I was touched by your tale of your "sad" little pot. I'm curious whether you continued the endeavor and have created anything you feel better about. Blessings!
@@GrannyGooseOnUA-cam I'm honored that I caught your attention! So this sad pot, I laugh at it. I mean I'm not ashamed of it at all. I'm all about starting a new hobby and just seeing where it leads. For a first time self led project it worked. My interest in this hobby was cost focused, meaning I did not want to dump any money into it. The idea of taking DIRT and making a thing out it for NOTHING just excited me to no end. I had been doing some yard work (building a pond..another hobby I wish I was better at) and had dirt by the pile. So I said "I think I can do this." The result was the little pot. It's like an ash tray. I just couldn't get the clay to stack up. I couldn't get it vertical. I did indeed try some other objects based on UA-cam videos. I was trying for a coffee cup, or just something with some vertical height. I experimented with clay dryness and non-coil based methods. I was just making stuff up. Most of those things did not survive the subsequent fire. However, my daugher saw me playing with the mud and I showed her what I was doing. My 14 year old daughter would throughout the summer process dirt into clay and she made teddy bears. They didn't make it through the fire either but only because she was using large plops of clay for the body and thinner peices for arms and legs. I think she suffered from clay moisture issues too. Or maybe the purity of our clay wasn't up to snuff. But we had some bonding moments over DIRT...for FREE! I'm pretty happy with that. I might try some more next summer. Its so cold now (November) in Salt Lake. I was considering buying a lump of clay from Hobby Lobby just to have a reference of what commercial clay feels like. But that's money which makes me second guess. I'll start buying wheels and parts and I'm worried it will just become wasteful financially if I start down that route. But we'll see what next summer holds for us. I researched glaze and understand it better. I don't think that's my game at all. I'd be thrilled if I made a simple little useable flower vase. My wife might get a kick out of that. I would for sure. Thanks for your interest in my sad little pot. I'll have to post a picture of it. A 2nd grader would laugh at it I'm proud of it. It's a thing I made...for nothing! That's cool!
Oh boy...there will be binge watching happening today...I am along the Colorado River in mohave az...and I absolutely have always been fascinated by clay and pottery....now that I am retired...perfect time to learn! Thank you for the videos...wow....I never realized all the rocks and things in the desert I love...is actually useful!!!
Your amazing, love your content man, keep doing what u love, your videos make me love pottery and creating something with my own hands, think the world needs some of that right now.
This such good news. I just went out this afternoon for more clay samples. Was testing an area to so if was pulverized clay. It wasn't. Almost as fine as baby powder, but when wet, it behaves more like sand. Lots of volcanic ash in the area. So I figure that is what this is. I brought back a bag of it to try/experiment with as temper in the sticky clay I found recently. So am delighted to hear that it's a great temper. Your videos are a fountain of information. I'll have to try to help out financially somehow other than hitting like button on every single one of your videos i watch. Thanks again for answering questions I didn't even know I wanted to ask yet.
I use shards of my broken fired pieces, smashed then ground ultra fine, makes for nice smooth finished pieces. It's been a while since I've done it but this spring I'm starting up again, there is some clay that I know of (itll be my secret mining spot 😉)that had the best plasticity but have never fired before, cant wait to try it out.
Living in the Pacific NW in an area that was definitely affected by the 1980 eruption of mount Saint Helens. I am extracting Red clay from my friends property and am unsure where to start as to adding temper to the clay. Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you so much Andy! You're amazing and generous sharing your wisdom to the world. I'm so glad to come across with your videos and get courage to go back to start pottery again, which I haven't done for years. I love your videos, they're filled with valuable knowledge! I also love your work! Thanks again, whish you good health and happiness 🍁
@@AncientPottery My little Pottery studio is almost complete, we found lots of red clay on our land, so i'm going to be signing up for your online classes soon - can't wait! I'm going to have to learn about available natural pigments in the Kentucky Tennessee area.
One reason for purifying clay would be to get an idea of the natural clay/temper ratio. But this should hopefully only need to be done once per source.
Remember that guy in the very, very beginning of this video?? That's the kind of temper I use. Hahahaha!!! jk. I am straight FNG at this, and am enjoying the whole process, INCLUDING the therapy of it all.
That's good stuff. I have a really smooth, sticky clay. It cracked a bit while drying. I'm going to try a few things. I've got some kind of coarse sand and then we have a very fine river silt sand around here and I have a bucket of food grade DE just sitting around. I also would like to make some grog out of my native clay soil too. I'm probably being picky by levigating everything but I'm also calf deep in mud right now so it may be easier than trying to dry everything out. I guess we have different problems. I used to live in Arizona so I understand where you are coming from. Out there you only see mud about twice a year. What you are doing is considered alchemy in Phoenix. Dirt + water 🤯 LOL!
@@AncientPottery I fired my first piece in my wood burning stove last night. It definately fits into the pencil holder/ashtray category but it is definitely ceramic. It came out a tera cotta red color. I could definitely make bricks with it. Obviously it needs temper but I expected that. It was a good trial run. At one point it turned entirely black and then got lighter. That could either have been reduction or maybe the volitiles burning off. I'm not sure. I got to see it glowing red and everything. It was a really neat experience.
Enjoying your videos! I recently got a pottery wheel and kiln really cheap. Haven't been able to hook it up yet. I have never done pottery but have always wanted to try. I tried making my on clay from red dirt we have around here. Waiting for it to dry out some today. Then I read about temper and found your channel. One article said granite can be used. I have a granite countertop place right down the road. Would the dust or sludge coming off the cutting blade if they cut it wet or dry or with a water jet I have no idea. But could that be used for temper? Thanks for the videos
I'm liking and commenting. I know it helps you out. OF course I've subscribed. I spent last Winter in my RV traveling through the West. Seeing where you go to get things brings it all back to me. Too bad I didn't know about you last year, I'd of wanted to stop by and see things first hand!
If you are interested in learning about collecting, processing, building with, and firing hand dug clay take Andy's courses. I took his online courses, a great why to learn. if you have difficulties Andy will answer your questions. I go back into the course content quite often when trying to figure something out. Andy! thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills with us.
Enjoyed the video big time. You mentioned shell as a temper. It was used fairly extensively by a pre-historic group in my area of interest, and, it's one reason why, with its common use (along with limestone) as a temper through much of pre-historic North America, we know firing temps had to have been low, elsewise the pottery falls apart a day or so after firing. I've been testing some (mostly upland) clays. I tried out some river sandbar sand as a temper, but failed to check it for calcite and the post fire pot breakup was spectacular, that after firing to about 1600F. Calcium carbonate constituents in clay or in the temper as you suggest, is a real problem. I've since begun rudimentary acid testing for the material on all the clays I'm playing with, but ultimately testing clays at higher temps will tease out those that do or do not have enough in them to cause problems. I bit laborious but good to know. Admittedly, I've had good success in the making while not bothering to levigate some clays. My best success so far has been with ground iron-rich sandstone temper (absent the limestone junk). If you like rusty red pottery out of the fire or kiln, nothing's much better. But it is really laborious for sure.
Thanks for sharing about your temper. Here where I live the firing temps were low and a lot of the pottery was made with calcium carbonate in it which was not much of a problem with those low temps. Up in the northern southwest their firing temps were much higher so they had to be more careful what they added up there.
So far, but I am still a newbie with the wild clay, I wet process the clay and do not worry much about removing the impurities...I also mix the clay with leftovers from stoneware commercial clay, some are groggy ....but this is more in the hope to fire it to a higher temp. or to feel confident that it will not melt
That's cool. I have a friend who has been running firing tests on a lot of wild clays and a couple of my favorites have gone all the way to cone 04 so you never know what a wild clay can do until you try.
So the mixing dry thing you mentioned is probably the best advice you could give on saving time. So much hard work kneading. I can’t imagine the wasted energy people have put into that. 😢
Can somebody help me out? Searching the internet has been a struggle as the keywords I search bring up everything but what I'm trying to figure out. Searching google, all that comes up is "how to stop cracking during drying process", but I'm experiencing cracking before that point. My wild clay cracks just by shaping it. Not while drying, its breaking and cracking just making shapes with it. Basically it seems to not be very plastic. Taking a small amount in my hand and trying to shape a bowl for example is a conplete fail. The coil around the finger? Impossible. How do I correct this, or is the clay I found just unusable? I collected a very large amount and I fear it was pointless. Any tips or suggestions are very welcome. If there is even a video that addresses this problem in particular that already exists, if one could direct me there, I'd much appreciate it. Just found a wild clay FAQ by this channel. I'll go check that out now.
@@AncientPottery Thank you for your quick reply and the amazing content on your channel. I watched the video you suggested. I've already done the water processing twice, so maybe the clay I collected just isn't good enough, but I've got another batch hanging in cloth outside. If I experience the same issue, I guess I'll try abd find a new source. If the clay I collected is no good for pottery, I'll use it to make an adobe kiln instead of just mud. Once again, thank you for your very quick response and thank you for your very informative videos.
Thanks for this video, it was very informative! I live in NC and have enjoyed collecting the different clays in the ground. Where I live it's reddish orange with yellows, while at the beach it's more greyish and dull like sandy dirt.
Well there is a textural difference but I think a simple acid test would work. Pour a little vinegar on it, caliche will fizz and diatomite should not.
Thank you so much hopefully this helps others as well in their quest for great clay. I'm going to take a trip tomorrow to test a deposit that I found that I wasn't entirely sure of so I passed on it.
I love that fella banging on the computer!! I needed that cheerful reminder to reach for the right kind of "temper"! A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!! Thank you for the great content 🙂!
@@AncientPottery Dribble glass is still a classic. I've never made anything of clay yet, but I spen't the afternoon sifting and mixing a 70%, 75%, and 80% mix of clay and sand from Pipestone Creek, so I'm going to find out. I suppose you could shape a cup with a hole near the bottom, coil a long wet strand of clay on the outside from.the bottom to the top, skin over that, and have a cup with a hidden spiral silly sippy straw feature inside the wall. (possibly for some reason...)
Sand that is shaped by water actually has sharp edges, thats why only riverbed/sediment sand is used for concrete and why desert sand (wich is shaped round by the wind) isn't used. Great video by the way, really enjoyed
Thanks. I only know what I have been told having never examined sand under a microscope. That river sand is rounded like river rocks and that it is more effective as temper if it is ground on a metate first to "sharpen" it. Perhaps we are talking shades of grey here, that wind blown sand is far more polished and therefore even less effective. I don't see much wind blown sand around here, the Sonoran Desert where I live is not the kind with dunes.
i wonder if a certain porosity of pottery can be used to filter bacteria out of wild water... Like a tall skinny pot with the bottom section made out of a really porous organic tempered clay. -> can two different tempers of clay be used in the same pot? maybe a transition zone/coil of a mixture of the two tempered clays..
Me yesterday: kicking myself because my local sand source is freshwater and therefore coarse. Me After the Video: realizing I have a bag of diatomaceous earth in my car because I use it as a wormer for stray cats
I have been preheating my clay before pit firing. I still get breakage but not as much. Fingers crossed the mincer will work like the corn grinder on the broken stuff. Plan B will be a brick. Love what you do and the effort you go to to share your knowledge. Thank you.
The mincer is my version of a corn grinder. Bought it in an op shop many years ago. I have discovered it grinds dry clay. When I grind wet clay I am getting a shortcake effect. It sticks together but doesn’t have as much plasticity as I would like it to have. I guess it is because the clay has been fired. Maybe I can mix it with some unfired clay. Still working on it.
Thank you this was very informative. I just got into natural clay and got some by the river. I just left the sand in it cause like you said why remove it and then just add another kind to it. I also red clay in my yard that I will need to temper. I already had a bag of diatomaceous earth so I’m going to try that.
Yes but beach sand is full of seashell parts which are calcium so if you use black sand you will want to keep your firing temperature below 800 C to avoid calcium spalls. This video explains the dangers of calcium ua-cam.com/video/6A3j9HKtXtQ/v-deo.html
Wowzer! Have been using dune sand, some beach sand and recently grinding sherds...(got to get me a corn grinder) micaceous earth sounds interesting....ever with Thanks...
Hello, Yáátééh... I'm from Northern Arizona and I'm also new to all this Clay and Primitive Pot Making, I have white clay, and what would you have me mix with it before firing?
Very educational and useful video as all of yours! My youngest son got very much excited when watching you making a mug in a very simple way - and wants to try himself, too. So it happens that I'm currently cleaning with him some local clay I found in a nearby gravel quarry.. :-) It is not a very clean one, so I had to levigate it. But then I started to think about adding temper to it and I started to think if it is reasonable or possible to add at least some part of the temper into the wet clay when it has about sourcream or chocolate cream consistency (ie very soft but not running anymore)?
Maybe, the trick is to add it at just the right point when it isn't too thin so the temper goes to the bottom and not too thick so it doesn't blend well.
My husband and I anr looking to process the red clay we have pulled out of our yard while putting in better drainage. We are finding pockets of vibrantly colored clay and sand nodes, I'm hoping that some of the color stays in the fired clay. We are considering separating and grinding the sand found with each colored node and adding it back as temper. Would that work as temper and would it help preserve the color? We are also considering soucing ground glass of a similar color and adding that as temper, I'm not seeing any info for or against that, would that work, do you think?
Sounds like a fun project. Yes you can add the sand you remove back in as temper but I'm not sure that would have much impact on the color. Found glass would also work, just make sure it doesn't have sharp edges or it could be rough on your hands as you work with the clay.
Thank you for this very helpful video, I recently harvested my first wild clay from the coast of Namibia where I live. It didn't need much purifying, but now I need to temper it.
My wife and I really enjoy your videos and perspectives. We levitate our high clay soil for addition to compost which gives us a lot of clay to make into pottery and adobe that would otherwise be wasted. What is your thought on precise addition of adding damp temper to clay by using volume metric containers? Example would be 1000ml container adding 200 ml damp temper then topping off with damp clay to 1000ml mark. Scoop out clay and temper remaining in bottom is used to scrub out clay that sticks to sides of container and then worked into clay giving a precise 20%. Since it's metric the percentage easily adjusted. Not sure if anyone else had done it this way but something to ponder.
Ooh, my ears pricked up when you said that organic matter would make it more porous - can you quantify or demonstrate that, at all? I'm hoping to start making ollas for gardening - burying the pot, filling with water and letting that perfuse out to the plant roots. I'll definitely be enrolling on some of your online courses soon!
I don't know how I would quantify it, but just think about it, any little root or leaf in your clay burns away in the firing and leaves a void that water can use to move through the pot walls more quickly, Earthenware is by nature porous so any unsealed earthenware will do what you want, use some horse manure for temper and it may be so porous that the water doesn't stay in the pot as long as you would like.
Thank you for this information. I have watched many of your vids....I do have a question that I can't find an answer. When making a natural "paint" does Black Walnut (processed) make a good paint for surface fired pottery?
Black walnut is a dye, in the temperatures achieved in a pottery firings all organic dyes will be burned up. There is something called organic paint used in the Southwest that uses plant material for a paint on a special kind of clay slip and theoretically walnut could be used for that as could almost any plant material. Here is a link to a video I made about organic paint ua-cam.com/video/6UjO_W85So0/v-deo.html
Hello Andy. I go through a translator forgive this bad English. I took clay from my garden which I mixed with very fine sand. I don't have a lot of cracks but still one or two tiny cracks form on drying. My land is also full of limestone. In my garden I have about 30 cm of orange clay placed on limestone (old vine soil). Following your video I wonder if I should add white vinegar to the water when I prepare my clay. I do it for my slush and I must say it's effervescence, sometimes it overflows so much it foams. I haven't baked my clay yet, I'm afraid that my pots will burst because of the limestone particles in my pottery clay. Thanks for your advices. I send you kisses from France (Bourgogne) :)
As long as you keep your firing temperature low, like below 800 C the limestone will not be a problem. That would be my best advice. Let your pots dry slowly and if they still crack try adding a little more sand. You will get this figured out. I know a guy in France who is learning from my videos and making beautiful pottery. @steve.walford1 on Instagram
How about salty beach sand and I don't mean right by the water but the dune sand. I live in the Willamette valley which is 40 ft of blue clay but I have access to ocean beach sand. I could of course go down and buy sharps sand at the local feed store
I wonder if you can tamper different parts of the pot differently to make a pores part of the pot and a non pores part. I.e a evaporative cooling vase base water proof, walls pores to let water through
Interesting idea. The amount of temper may effect the shrinkage rate of the clay and if that is the case then the pot would break as it shrinks at different rates when it dries.
I recently found a nearly pure white alluvial deposit that's pretty plastic, dries with surprisingly low shrinkage, and fires a buff white right out of the ground.
It can be, but be cautious. Beach sand can be salty so if it is, rinse it in fresh water to get rid of some of the salt. Also beware of seashells and even tiny bits of seashells, they are calcium and can cause pops in your pottery, so if you have any seashells in your sand keep the firing temperature below 840 C to avoid problems.
After watching your video I harvested my first wild clay from a riverbed. I was able to pick it off the dried surface in huge chunks. I ground and added water. I made a test pot to check out shrinkage and cracking. I’m excited to watch it dry!
I just Began collecting Clay in the Payson area, and have found a local source of nearly 100% pure clay out of the side of a cliff near Rye AZ. But I just wanted to say, I love your shirt! Something I'd wear the heck out of
I read in the book, "Papago Indian Pottery," page 57, that they made use of the following tempers in their crude clay: 1) Dried and sifted horse manure [They add that fired, manure-tempered pottery shows a heavy carbon streak in the center of a shard when viewed in cross-section]; 2) Coarse sand from desert washes, as well as sand that is sifted through a screen; 3) Ground rock, both granite and schist; 4) Ground potsherds (grog). The general rule among them was to use only one kind of temper, without mixing several kinds together.When looking for broken potsherds to grind into grog, the above-mentioned book (page 13) states: "Almost every inch of the ground [at Casa Grande, Arizona] is covered with bits of pottery, painted as well as plain, and [...] some corrugated pieces."
I live along the Tennessee River in the Southeastern USA. Much of the native pottery found here is tempered with ground mussel shell. I'm really enjoying your videos. Thanks for posting these.
I started digging and using my own clay from my backyard about ten years ago. I didn’t filter it at all, only picking out large pieces of organic material and stone as I found them. I didn’t add anything or knead it much either. I made tiny tests of standard LEGO sized bricks and fired them in the coals of my fire pit. They turned out beautiful with a blend of many colors of browns, reds, greys, and black. None broke, but they were tiny. I made four tiles, one broke into two pieces. I made a sculpture of the head of my girlfriend’s English bulldog. It was then that I thought I should have sieved it and have been afraid to fire it. I tried internet searches to find out what will happen if there are small stones in my sculpture. It wasn’t until this past year that I found your videos and the term wild clay. Could you give me some recommendations about my sculpture? Is there a way to fire it slowly to minimize damage?
@@AncientPotterywould pre firing in an electric oven help? Just thought of that. Most regular kitchen ovens could warm it to 350, 400 and get a lot of moisture out but could also smoke if there is organic material. What do you think?
Wood ash? Wood ash is kind of sticky and plastic when wet, and therefore would not be usable as temper which is defined as "non-plastic material". Volcanic ash works, but that is an entirely different substance from wood ash.
@@AncientPottery Thank you very much. I had another question regarding the addition of temper to the clay. In case of wet processing the clay, instead of adding temper when the clay is already at a plastic consistance, is it possible to add temper to the liquid clay directly? When the clay is still in the bucket, after sieving, to add dry sand or grog, mix it, and then to pour it in a fabric bag and let it dry like that? It seems easier that way, but I wonder if, when drying in the bag, the bigger particles wouldn't sink to the bottom and then the clay body would have an uneven composition? I don't know what your thoughts on that are.. thank you :D
My clay here in Missouri is red, and sticky for the most part but it gets better as it dries. I am having trouble with my pot cracking as I'm working on it. I don't know if it's my inexperience or the clay. It also seems to want to fall, I think you called it "slump" I'm hoping it's just my inexperience, I have a lot of free clay in my area.
It could be that the working properties of your clay are lacking. Some clay just isn’t very plastic, or doesn’t have good wet strength and stuff like that. Hopefully it is experience or maybe you could try processing it differently.
@@AncientPottery I dug it about 4 years ago when the city tore down my North Forest to make a spillway for storm runoff they ground up all the trees into mulch and left the rock and clay bare. I gathered three 10 lb buckets and wet processed all of it. It was the only way I knew. Life changed shortly after that, and they have been sitting in those buckets ever since. I just started working with it today after watching several of your videos. The one I was using was the driest, maybe too dry because it was hard to work. So I tried another one that felt good to me but that's the one I'm having trouble with. I poked a bunch of finger sized holes in it to let it soak up some water (thanks for the tip) and try working it again tomorrow. I am really new at coil pots, in fact it was my first one. Thank you for the inspiration. I will take your class when I can, life is crazy right now.
@@AncientPottery I finally got a couple small bowls out of it, one with a bit of extra sand. Now that its set up a few hours it's not so fragile, in fact it's quite durable. I'm pretty sure I was handling it too much, letting it flex and move too far and too often, out of where I wanted it to be. Thank you for your videos.
11:16 I just asked this on another video. I live in a gulf coast river basin, so I have a clay bed about 2' down. I dug out a bunch, putting in a fence and have been a bit obsessive about extracting all the sand. I haven't gotten to the point of really testing it yet, because the raw clay, is full of fine roots and gravel; but it does clog up my postholer and comes out in a dense, solid plug. At any rate, it has a pretty high sand content, Id estimate at around 35%; very fine sand.
Maybe if your clay is full of sand and roots it would be good to run it through screen to remove some of that. Just a thought, every clay is different.
@@AncientPottery Ive thoroughly screened it and I'm now down to levigating to remove sediment. I have one batch ready to dry(still in suspension, but pretty refined). That batch was from about 4' down and wasn't too dirty. The other batch is still very sandy(slip feels gritty). I think what I may do, is draw off a bit from each and see which behaves better. I haven't done ceramics in decades and that was of course, with commercial products and an electric kiln. Not quite the same thing. Another question... I too have an old corn grinder that as a kid, we used to grind glass with. That got me wondering if ground glass would be useful as a temper? It seems to meet the requirements.
I don't have a favorite temper or clay, I've got clay from my property and sand from a local beach and I'm looking forward to a first attempt at firing soon following your videos. Wish me luck!
Note Andy's comment further down, "I would be carful with beach sand, shells are calcium which could cause spalls in your pottery. It can be used if you keep the firing temp below 840 C." Maybe it is the calcium, not the salt, that is giving me problems.
My grandfather used to take us all over southern Arizona exploring old dirt roads and mining sites and when ever we found a "sticky mud" road, he'd gather samples and have us kids make mud "worms" that we would dry on the patio. I didn't realize until years later that these were his way of testing wild clays for purity! (They had an art gallery that included local pottery back in the 60s and 70s) I remember him "washing" the clay exactly like your video of separating the clay from the dirt until it made "good worms". Geeze I wish I had asked more questions back then! Potters clay wasn't the main reasons we were out exploring AZ...but he never passed up an opportunity to gather interesting or useful things to turn into art for the gallery either.
That's how it was when my kids were young too. Exploring the southern Arizona back roads and finding clay and minerals for pottery. Good times!
DIY making your own caly UA-cam dry to wet
Easy way to make clay at home UA-cam
@@eddiegriffin5603 POV: you forgot to click on the search bar.
Still not as bad as the time I forgot to click on Incognito Mode
@@Tomartyr ☠️
I’ve never made a UA-cam comment before, but I had to express how much I enjoy your videos. I can’t understand how there aren’t thousands of likes but I’m very glad I discovered you in this world! Such well made videos, extremely knowledgeable content and I’m always excited to see what outfit you have on! 😆 Thanks for what you do.
Glad you like them! Keep watching.
I like using cattail fluff because it leaves the clay feeling silky smooth, it retains its plasticity, and it polishes well. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect thet the fibers also hold it together better to prevent cracking, and that they also help to keep moisture distributed evenly. The downside is that it's hard to judge proportions and it's also hard to mix evenly.
That’s cool, I don’t think I have ever heard of using cattail fluff as temper.
I may try this
Whoa, cool idea! How did you figure out to start doing that?
@@overratedprogrammer how did it work
This is so valuable; I've watched several vlogs about rendering clay from "the wild" without making a proper description of how to balance the process of purifying out gravel, grit, sand, silt, and clay while retaining enough temper to make a quality clay body. I've only seen this topic discussed in your vids--more than once. It's such a valuable topic, but there are underinformed content creators eager to seem like they have primitive survival or primitive tech vlogs, but they are missing the research to teach.
Thanks Kenneth! I guess real experience shows.
Thanks for this video. I have been trying to make my own clay and it keeps cracking in the fire. I think this was the part I was missing.
It probably is the missing ingredient.
I'm in Florida and there is precious little about using the wild clay here - which is heavy in kaolin. I did find out that the indigenous peoples' pottery got more refined when they started adding cattail fluff!!! There is a mine near where I live that produces clay used all over the country. I am not sure where the wild clay I am using is from, only that it is local. My neighbor bought the wrong sand for her beach. It was mostly white sand mixed with quartz pebbles, white kaolin and big chunks of yellow kaolin, the combination of which would suck the shoes right off your feet and made a pit of quicksand where she wanted a fire pit. The chunks of yellow kaolin I gathered (with permission), dried, slaked and sieved. It has a LOT of organic material - mostly roots, and some sand. Not sure yet how well tempered it is - going to try my first firing tomorrow. If I need to add back sand, what is on our hill is fine and sharp, so should be good. The white sand/clay mix is far too sandy to use as clay and I haven't figured out how to get the white kaolin out of it.
Thank you so much for these videos. They are inspirational.
Interesting, I hope that clay works out for you. Try levigation to refine that clay and remove all sand and other impurities. ua-cam.com/video/aryqJ5I3f2Q/v-deo.html
You described my pottery journey perfectly with the tale as old as time! I started becoming more interested in native clay after watching your videos about evaluating and testing native clay. Keep up the amazingly informative work Andy! You've definitely inspired me to deep dive into the world of ancient pottery
Awesome, I am glad to provide a little inspiration. Keep at it, it sometimes takes awhile to get right.
I am an Expat from the States, living on the side of Poas Volcano in Costa Rica. I have a background in geology. I have been looking for a new hobby and I think I have found it. Hunting and processing wild clay will be fun, I also have the ability to make my own charcoal out of coffee wood.
The indigenous people of Costa Rica made some very beautiful pottery which has always fascinated me. I love your videos and look forward to checking out your class.
Wonderful, I am glad my videos have been able to provide some inspiration. I would love to see some of that ancient Costa Rican pottery.
Thanks for clearing up many things I wasn't entirely sure about around this topic!
I use levigation to remove rocks and organic stuff from my main clay source (collected as dry lumps at an outcrop in the forest). The resulting material doesn't seem to need any temper if dried carefully. It can even get quite shiny when burnished thoroughly.
Sounds like some good clay there. Thanks for watching.
I wish I had watched this before I spent about 30 hours trying to get every last iota of silt out of my clay 😐
I use crusher dust (byproduct of crushed stone used in road buillding) with up to 2mm particles, but I mostly sieve it and use the fine "sand" only. Good to learn its uneven texture is a good thing. Can't wait to try out diatomaceous earth which I use as food supplement for my pets and also to help fight fleas.
Sounds perfect. Thanks for watching.
Thank you , this so very IMPORTANT I hope you keep giving up you're free information. Your a good guy teaching and passing on a lot.
Thank you Rob
Brand new to this. I just made my own clay last week from dirt in my yard near SLC, Utah. I poured it to a bucket to get rid of rocks and organics and let it dry and have a good pound or two. I made the saddest little pot/ashtray/thing that looks like something a second grader cobbled together. But it worked. It held together. It dryed out. So I guess I left in natural tempers? I don't know. I didn't over filter it. In fact I thought "next time I do this I'll filter it more to remove more sand." But this video has me thinking maybe leaving some of that in is fine. My little sad pot has been smoothed with a rock and I'm getting ready to fire it. Not having access to a kiln I bought some charcoal and my plan is to cover it with something like a metal bowl, pour the charcoal over it and light it up and walk away. Either it will work or not. If it does, do i add glaze next? What the heck is glaze? I guess that's the next portion of my research. This pot is so sad. But its a good starting point. Wish me luck.
Everybody has to start somewhere, we all crawl before we can run. No glaze on primitive pottery, you can't melt glaze without a proper kiln anyway. I have other videos about decorating, sealing and using pottery like this.
I was touched by your tale of your "sad" little pot. I'm curious whether you continued the endeavor and have created anything you feel better about.
Blessings!
@@GrannyGooseOnUA-cam I'm honored that I caught your attention! So this sad pot, I laugh at it. I mean I'm not ashamed of it at all. I'm all about starting a new hobby and just seeing where it leads. For a first time self led project it worked. My interest in this hobby was cost focused, meaning I did not want to dump any money into it. The idea of taking DIRT and making a thing out it for NOTHING just excited me to no end. I had been doing some yard work (building a pond..another hobby I wish I was better at) and had dirt by the pile. So I said "I think I can do this." The result was the little pot. It's like an ash tray. I just couldn't get the clay to stack up. I couldn't get it vertical. I did indeed try some other objects based on UA-cam videos. I was trying for a coffee cup, or just something with some vertical height. I experimented with clay dryness and non-coil based methods. I was just making stuff up. Most of those things did not survive the subsequent fire. However, my daugher saw me playing with the mud and I showed her what I was doing. My 14 year old daughter would throughout the summer process dirt into clay and she made teddy bears. They didn't make it through the fire either but only because she was using large plops of clay for the body and thinner peices for arms and legs. I think she suffered from clay moisture issues too. Or maybe the purity of our clay wasn't up to snuff. But we had some bonding moments over DIRT...for FREE! I'm pretty happy with that. I might try some more next summer. Its so cold now (November) in Salt Lake. I was considering buying a lump of clay from Hobby Lobby just to have a reference of what commercial clay feels like. But that's money which makes me second guess. I'll start buying wheels and parts and I'm worried it will just become wasteful financially if I start down that route. But we'll see what next summer holds for us. I researched glaze and understand it better. I don't think that's my game at all. I'd be thrilled if I made a simple little useable flower vase. My wife might get a kick out of that. I would for sure. Thanks for your interest in my sad little pot. I'll have to post a picture of it. A 2nd grader would laugh at it I'm proud of it. It's a thing I made...for nothing! That's cool!
Dude! That shirt and vest cambo is fantastic. Carry on.
HaHa, thanks!
Hi, I found some wild sand near the river. I filtered it with 250 micron mesh sieve. Is that enough? How fine should sand be for tempering?
This was inspiring. I have tons of volcanic ash in my area, and even a diatomite deposit nearby. I think I have a new experimental project!
Go for it.
Today's irony: Corn is the thing least likely to go through your corn grinder.
Ha ha! I actually have ground corn in my mill, but it's a very small percentage of the material that passes through it.
Oh boy...there will be binge watching happening today...I am along the Colorado River in mohave az...and I absolutely have always been fascinated by clay and pottery....now that I am retired...perfect time to learn! Thank you for the videos...wow....I never realized all the rocks and things in the desert I love...is actually useful!!!
Glad you are watching my videos. You might find a lot of fun activities to do in the desert.
Your amazing, love your content man, keep doing what u love, your videos make me love pottery and creating something with my own hands, think the world needs some of that right now.
Thanks! Will do!
The first video footage in this video made me laugh haha, thanks!
Glad to lighten your day.
Oh man i never did anything Pottery related and probably never will, but damn i have alrdy watched 5 of your videos.
very entertaining and relaxing
Thanks for watching!
This such good news. I just went out this afternoon for more clay samples. Was testing an area to so if was pulverized clay. It wasn't. Almost as fine as baby powder, but when wet, it behaves more like sand. Lots of volcanic ash in the area. So I figure that is what this is. I brought back a bag of it to try/experiment with as temper in the sticky clay I found recently. So am delighted to hear that it's a great temper. Your videos are a fountain of information. I'll have to try to help out financially somehow other than hitting like button on every single one of your videos i watch. Thanks again for answering questions I didn't even know I wanted to ask yet.
That's awesome. I hope it is volcanic ash, that is much rarer than good clay.
I use shards of my broken fired pieces, smashed then ground ultra fine, makes for nice smooth finished pieces. It's been a while since I've done it but this spring I'm starting up again, there is some clay that I know of (itll be my secret mining spot 😉)that had the best plasticity but have never fired before, cant wait to try it out.
Yes, I use ground up pottery too, it makes a great temper.
Living in the Pacific NW in an area that was definitely affected by the 1980 eruption of mount Saint Helens. I am extracting Red clay from my friends property and am unsure where to start as to adding temper to the clay. Any advice would be appreciated!
I would start with adding 20% temper, then see if it tends to crack when it dries, if so add more.
Thank you so much Andy! You're amazing and generous sharing your wisdom to the world. I'm so glad to come across with your videos and get courage to go back to start pottery again, which I haven't done for years. I love your videos, they're filled with valuable knowledge! I also love your work!
Thanks again, whish you good health and happiness 🍁
Thank you so much.
Omg that intro cracked me up.
Awesome video, thank you for your time and knowledge, sir.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
@@AncientPottery My little Pottery studio is almost complete, we found lots of red clay on our land, so i'm going to be signing up for your online classes soon - can't wait! I'm going to have to learn about available natural pigments in the Kentucky Tennessee area.
One reason for purifying clay would be to get an idea of the natural clay/temper ratio. But this should hopefully only need to be done once per source.
True. But if I add 20% temper to an unrefined clay and it works fine for me, do I really care what the total amount of temper is?
Remember that guy in the very, very beginning of this video?? That's the kind of temper I use. Hahahaha!!! jk.
I am straight FNG at this, and am enjoying the whole process, INCLUDING the therapy of it all.
HA Ha! Glad you are enjoying it.
That's good stuff. I have a really smooth, sticky clay. It cracked a bit while drying. I'm going to try a few things. I've got some kind of coarse sand and then we have a very fine river silt sand around here and I have a bucket of food grade DE just sitting around. I also would like to make some grog out of my native clay soil too. I'm probably being picky by levigating everything but I'm also calf deep in mud right now so it may be easier than trying to dry everything out. I guess we have different problems. I used to live in Arizona so I understand where you are coming from. Out there you only see mud about twice a year. What you are doing is considered alchemy in Phoenix. Dirt + water 🤯 LOL!
Thanks, have fun playing with your mud
@@AncientPottery I fired my first piece in my wood burning stove last night. It definately fits into the pencil holder/ashtray category but it is definitely ceramic. It came out a tera cotta red color. I could definitely make bricks with it. Obviously it needs temper but I expected that. It was a good trial run. At one point it turned entirely black and then got lighter. That could either have been reduction or maybe the volitiles burning off. I'm not sure. I got to see it glowing red and everything. It was a really neat experience.
@@rehoboth_farm Glad to hear it. The dark color was the carbon, it starts burning off over about 650 C
I harvest my wild clay from the embankment to the oceanside, so I typically bring enough temper home in the clay after I separate it
That's great, that kind of clay is called "self tempered"
Enjoying your videos! I recently got a pottery wheel and kiln really cheap. Haven't been able to hook it up yet. I have never done pottery but have always wanted to try. I tried making my on clay from red dirt we have around here. Waiting for it to dry out some today. Then I read about temper and found your channel. One article said granite can be used. I have a granite countertop place right down the road. Would the dust or sludge coming off the cutting blade if they cut it wet or dry or with a water jet I have no idea. But could that be used for temper? Thanks for the videos
Yeah that granite dust might work great. I have collected decomposed granite and ground it up for temper in the past and that worked well.
I'm liking and commenting. I know it helps you out. OF course I've subscribed. I spent last Winter in my RV traveling through the West. Seeing where you go to get things brings it all back to me. Too bad I didn't know about you last year, I'd of wanted to stop by and see things first hand!
Thanks! That sounds like a fun adventure, I have an RV but don't get out as often as I would like.
If you are interested in learning about collecting, processing, building with, and firing hand dug clay take Andy's courses. I took his online courses, a great why to learn. if you have difficulties Andy will answer your questions. I go back into the course content quite often when trying to figure something out.
Andy! thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills with us.
You are welcome. Thanks for the shining endorsement.
I prefer using fire clay as a temper .do you think its good for river clay as a grog?
Yes, fired clay makes the best temper, grinding it up is the hardest part
Enjoyed the video big time.
You mentioned shell as a temper. It was used fairly extensively by a pre-historic group in my area of interest, and, it's one reason why, with its common use (along with limestone) as a temper through much of pre-historic North America, we know firing temps had to have been low, elsewise the pottery falls apart a day or so after firing.
I've been testing some (mostly upland) clays. I tried out some river sandbar sand as a temper, but failed to check it for calcite and the post fire pot breakup was spectacular, that after firing to about 1600F. Calcium carbonate constituents in clay or in the temper as you suggest, is a real problem. I've since begun rudimentary acid testing for the material on all the clays I'm playing with, but ultimately testing clays at higher temps will tease out those that do or do not have enough in them to cause problems. I bit laborious but good to know.
Admittedly, I've had good success in the making while not bothering to levigate some clays. My best success so far has been with ground iron-rich sandstone temper (absent the limestone junk). If you like rusty red pottery out of the fire or kiln, nothing's much better. But it is really laborious for sure.
Thanks for sharing about your temper. Here where I live the firing temps were low and a lot of the pottery was made with calcium carbonate in it which was not much of a problem with those low temps. Up in the northern southwest their firing temps were much higher so they had to be more careful what they added up there.
Thank you for that! I have fine red ochre in my area!
So far, but I am still a newbie with the wild clay, I wet process the clay and do not worry much about removing the impurities...I also mix the clay with leftovers from stoneware commercial clay, some are groggy ....but this is more in the hope to fire it to a higher temp. or to feel confident that it will not melt
That's cool. I have a friend who has been running firing tests on a lot of wild clays and a couple of my favorites have gone all the way to cone 04 so you never know what a wild clay can do until you try.
So the mixing dry thing you mentioned is probably the best advice you could give on saving time. So much hard work kneading. I can’t imagine the wasted energy people have put into that. 😢
Can somebody help me out?
Searching the internet has been a struggle as the keywords I search bring up everything but what I'm trying to figure out. Searching google, all that comes up is "how to stop cracking during drying process", but I'm experiencing cracking before that point.
My wild clay cracks just by shaping it. Not while drying, its breaking and cracking just making shapes with it.
Basically it seems to not be very plastic.
Taking a small amount in my hand and trying to shape a bowl for example is a conplete fail. The coil around the finger? Impossible.
How do I correct this, or is the clay I found just unusable? I collected a very large amount and I fear it was pointless.
Any tips or suggestions are very welcome. If there is even a video that addresses this problem in particular that already exists, if one could direct me there, I'd much appreciate it.
Just found a wild clay FAQ by this channel. I'll go check that out now.
Your clay is what is called "short" or "lean" it is lacking in plasticity. You need to watch this video ua-cam.com/video/VdkjntdO4G0/v-deo.html
@@AncientPottery Thank you for your quick reply and the amazing content on your channel. I watched the video you suggested.
I've already done the water processing twice, so maybe the clay I collected just isn't good enough, but I've got another batch hanging in cloth outside. If I experience the same issue, I guess I'll try abd find a new source.
If the clay I collected is no good for pottery, I'll use it to make an adobe kiln instead of just mud.
Once again, thank you for your very quick response and thank you for your very informative videos.
Thanks for this video, it was very informative! I live in NC and have enjoyed collecting the different clays in the ground. Where I live it's reddish orange with yellows, while at the beach it's more greyish and dull like sandy dirt.
Okay important question how can you tell the difference between caliche and natural diatomite?
Well there is a textural difference but I think a simple acid test would work. Pour a little vinegar on it, caliche will fizz and diatomite should not.
Thank you so much hopefully this helps others as well in their quest for great clay. I'm going to take a trip tomorrow to test a deposit that I found that I wasn't entirely sure of so I passed on it.
Would you be able to use something like paper
Paper could work but I would think it would need to be shredded pretty fine before it was mixed with the clay.
I love that fella banging on the computer!! I needed that cheerful reminder to reach for the right kind of "temper"! A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!! Thank you for the great content 🙂!
Glad to help
Maybe temper some clay with ground up Mentos and then you have a joke cup to serve with a can of Coke.
LOL, joke pottery
@@AncientPottery Dribble glass is still a classic.
I've never made anything of clay yet, but I spen't the afternoon sifting and mixing a 70%, 75%, and 80% mix of clay and sand from Pipestone Creek, so I'm going to find out.
I suppose you could shape a cup with a hole near the bottom, coil a long wet strand of clay on the outside from.the bottom to the top, skin over that, and have a cup with a hidden spiral silly sippy straw feature inside the wall. (possibly for some reason...)
Sand that is shaped by water actually has sharp edges, thats why only riverbed/sediment sand is used for concrete and why desert sand (wich is shaped round by the wind) isn't used. Great video by the way, really enjoyed
Thanks. I only know what I have been told having never examined sand under a microscope. That river sand is rounded like river rocks and that it is more effective as temper if it is ground on a metate first to "sharpen" it. Perhaps we are talking shades of grey here, that wind blown sand is far more polished and therefore even less effective. I don't see much wind blown sand around here, the Sonoran Desert where I live is not the kind with dunes.
Andy, great content. Don’t you find particles of caliche in your sand. Isn’t that an issue sourcing temper?
i wonder if a certain porosity of pottery can be used to filter bacteria out of wild water... Like a tall skinny pot with the bottom section made out of a really porous organic tempered clay.
-> can two different tempers of clay be used in the same pot? maybe a transition zone/coil of a mixture of the two tempered clays..
Me yesterday: kicking myself because my local sand source is freshwater and therefore coarse.
Me After the Video: realizing I have a bag of diatomaceous earth in my car because I use it as a wormer for stray cats
This is one of the most useful channels I have ever seen. Thank you so much.
Glad you think so!
I have been preheating my clay before pit firing. I still get breakage but not as much. Fingers crossed the mincer will work like the corn grinder on the broken stuff. Plan B will be a brick.
Love what you do and the effort you go to to share your knowledge. Thank you.
Good to hear you are making progress. What is "the mincer"? You are welcome.
The mincer is my version of a corn grinder. Bought it in an op shop many years ago. I have discovered it grinds dry clay.
When I grind wet clay I am getting a shortcake effect. It sticks together but doesn’t have as much plasticity as I would like it to have. I guess it is because the clay has been fired. Maybe I can mix it with some unfired clay. Still working on it.
Temper, no not that type of temper... LOL! That was a good laugh.
I have heard that it should make sense to add starch and boiled starch to the clay to make it less brittle. What do you think of it?
Very timely information, thank you Andy👍
Very welcome
This is incredibly helpful!! The quality of your videos is amazing, I will definitely share with my friends!!!!
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you this was very informative. I just got into natural clay and got some by the river. I just left the sand in it cause like you said why remove it and then just add another kind to it. I also red clay in my yard that I will need to temper. I already had a bag of diatomaceous earth so I’m going to try that.
Awesome, I hope it works out for you, glad I could help.
AngelLynette: Did you have a chance to try your clay body out in a project yet?
how do you purify dry clay?
You don't, you can only use dry processing for clays that are rather pure to start with.
That outfit it awesome.
Thanks
Hi can you use beach sand as a temper ?
Yes but beach sand is full of seashell parts which are calcium so if you use black sand you will want to keep your firing temperature below 800 C to avoid calcium spalls. This video explains the dangers of calcium ua-cam.com/video/6A3j9HKtXtQ/v-deo.html
it's like adding stones to cement to make concrete.
thank you sir andy for warning me about the tandoor!!!!!!!
Wowzer! Have been using dune sand, some beach sand and recently grinding sherds...(got to get me a corn grinder) micaceous earth sounds interesting....ever with Thanks...
Sand is good. Thanks for sharing your preferred temper.
very informative. 🙏 thanks
Hello, Yáátééh... I'm from Northern Arizona and I'm also new to all this Clay and Primitive Pot Making, I have white clay, and what would you have me mix with it before firing?
Temper, the same as I talk about in this video. You will need to determine what temper is available to you where you live.
diatomit, 25%
Excellent
Very educational and useful video as all of yours!
My youngest son got very much excited when watching you making a mug in a very simple way - and wants to try himself, too. So it happens that I'm currently cleaning with him some local clay I found in a nearby gravel quarry.. :-) It is not a very clean one, so I had to levigate it. But then I started to think about adding temper to it and I started to think if it is reasonable or possible to add at least some part of the temper into the wet clay when it has about sourcream or chocolate cream consistency (ie very soft but not running anymore)?
Maybe, the trick is to add it at just the right point when it isn't too thin so the temper goes to the bottom and not too thick so it doesn't blend well.
My husband and I anr looking to process the red clay we have pulled out of our yard while putting in better drainage. We are finding pockets of vibrantly colored clay and sand nodes, I'm hoping that some of the color stays in the fired clay. We are considering separating and grinding the sand found with each colored node and adding it back as temper. Would that work as temper and would it help preserve the color? We are also considering soucing ground glass of a similar color and adding that as temper, I'm not seeing any info for or against that, would that work, do you think?
Sounds like a fun project. Yes you can add the sand you remove back in as temper but I'm not sure that would have much impact on the color. Found glass would also work, just make sure it doesn't have sharp edges or it could be rough on your hands as you work with the clay.
Thank you for this very helpful video, I recently harvested my first wild clay from the coast of Namibia where I live. It didn't need much purifying, but now I need to temper it.
Awesome, thank you and keep up the good work.
My wife and I really enjoy your videos and perspectives. We levitate our high clay soil for addition to compost which gives us a lot of clay to make into pottery and adobe that would otherwise be wasted.
What is your thought on precise addition of adding damp temper to clay by using volume metric containers?
Example would be 1000ml container adding 200 ml damp temper then topping off with damp clay to 1000ml mark.
Scoop out clay and temper remaining in bottom is used to scrub out clay that sticks to sides of container and then worked into clay giving a precise 20%.
Since it's metric the percentage easily adjusted. Not sure if anyone else had done it this way but something to ponder.
Sound like this would work. I'm sure there are many ways to do it.
Ooh, my ears pricked up when you said that organic matter would make it more porous - can you quantify or demonstrate that, at all? I'm hoping to start making ollas for gardening - burying the pot, filling with water and letting that perfuse out to the plant roots. I'll definitely be enrolling on some of your online courses soon!
I don't know how I would quantify it, but just think about it, any little root or leaf in your clay burns away in the firing and leaves a void that water can use to move through the pot walls more quickly, Earthenware is by nature porous so any unsealed earthenware will do what you want, use some horse manure for temper and it may be so porous that the water doesn't stay in the pot as long as you would like.
Thanks, Andy. I'm at the stage now where I am ready to mix 20% grog (crushed ceramicware) with natural dry clay.
Cool
Thank you for this information. I have watched many of your vids....I do have a question that I can't find an answer. When making a natural "paint" does Black Walnut (processed) make a good paint for surface fired pottery?
Black walnut is a dye, in the temperatures achieved in a pottery firings all organic dyes will be burned up. There is something called organic paint used in the Southwest that uses plant material for a paint on a special kind of clay slip and theoretically walnut could be used for that as could almost any plant material. Here is a link to a video I made about organic paint ua-cam.com/video/6UjO_W85So0/v-deo.html
If you wanted to make a water filter clay vessel, which Tempering materials, would you use?
That is an interesting idea but having never heard of doing this or even thought about it before, I have no idea.
I have to try this! Am addicted to your channel! Thank you so much for aĺl the amazing information!
You are so welcome!
Hello Andy. I go through a translator forgive this bad English. I took clay from my garden which I mixed with very fine sand. I don't have a lot of cracks but still one or two tiny cracks form on drying. My land is also full of limestone. In my garden I have about 30 cm of orange clay placed on limestone (old vine soil). Following your video I wonder if I should add white vinegar to the water when I prepare my clay. I do it for my slush and I must say it's effervescence, sometimes it overflows so much it foams. I haven't baked my clay yet, I'm afraid that my pots will burst because of the limestone particles in my pottery clay. Thanks for your advices. I send you kisses from France (Bourgogne) :)
As long as you keep your firing temperature low, like below 800 C the limestone will not be a problem. That would be my best advice. Let your pots dry slowly and if they still crack try adding a little more sand. You will get this figured out. I know a guy in France who is learning from my videos and making beautiful pottery. @steve.walford1 on Instagram
How about salty beach sand and I don't mean right by the water but the dune sand. I live in the Willamette valley which is 40 ft of blue clay but I have access to ocean beach sand. I could of course go down and buy sharps sand at the local feed store
Beach sand is often full of calcium from seashells so that can be a problem.
You use a brick on the patio?? Sounds like premeditated murder :)
Could be...
I wonder if you can tamper different parts of the pot differently to make a pores part of the pot and a non pores part. I.e a evaporative cooling vase base water proof, walls pores to let water through
Interesting idea. The amount of temper may effect the shrinkage rate of the clay and if that is the case then the pot would break as it shrinks at different rates when it dries.
I recently found a nearly pure white alluvial deposit that's pretty plastic, dries with surprisingly low shrinkage, and fires a buff white right out of the ground.
That sounds awesome. 1 in a million clay.
Can I add glacial till?
Is clay with beach sand in it good for making pottery
It can be, but be cautious. Beach sand can be salty so if it is, rinse it in fresh water to get rid of some of the salt. Also beware of seashells and even tiny bits of seashells, they are calcium and can cause pops in your pottery, so if you have any seashells in your sand keep the firing temperature below 840 C to avoid problems.
I got a ton of grog to make lol.
I've bingewatching your videos. Good stuffs.
Awesome, thank you!
After watching your video I harvested my first wild clay from a riverbed. I was able to pick it off the dried surface in huge chunks. I ground and added water. I made a test pot to check out shrinkage and cracking. I’m excited to watch it dry!
Sounds great!
It cracked as expected. I will add 20 percent sand to the next batch and test again :)
I just Began collecting Clay in the Payson area, and have found a local source of nearly 100% pure clay out of the side of a cliff near Rye AZ. But I just wanted to say, I love your shirt! Something I'd wear the heck out of
A new Style of your videos 😄. Nice shirt by the way ....
Thanks. I want to keep it fresh.
I read in the book, "Papago Indian Pottery," page 57, that they made use of the following tempers in their crude clay: 1) Dried and sifted horse manure [They add that fired, manure-tempered pottery shows a heavy carbon streak in the center of a shard when viewed in cross-section]; 2) Coarse sand from desert washes, as well as sand that is sifted through a screen; 3) Ground rock, both granite and schist; 4) Ground potsherds (grog). The general rule among them was to use only one kind of temper, without mixing several kinds together.When looking for broken potsherds to grind into grog, the above-mentioned book (page 13) states: "Almost every inch of the ground [at Casa Grande, Arizona] is covered with bits of pottery, painted as well as plain, and [...] some corrugated pieces."
Can I crush rocks in my driveway and use that as temper?
That would be the hard way to do it, but yes you could do that.
I live along the Tennessee River in the Southeastern USA. Much of the native pottery found here is tempered with ground mussel shell. I'm really enjoying your videos. Thanks for posting these.
Can you also crush obsidian? Because it has sharp edges.
Yes, obsidian can be used.
I started digging and using my own clay from my backyard about ten years ago. I didn’t filter it at all, only picking out large pieces of organic material and stone as I found them. I didn’t add anything or knead it much either.
I made tiny tests of standard LEGO sized bricks and fired them in the coals of my fire pit. They turned out beautiful with a blend of many colors of browns, reds, greys, and black. None broke, but they were tiny. I made four tiles, one broke into two pieces.
I made a sculpture of the head of my girlfriend’s English bulldog. It was then that I thought I should have sieved it and have been afraid to fire it. I tried internet searches to find out what will happen if there are small stones in my sculpture.
It wasn’t until this past year that I found your videos and the term wild clay.
Could you give me some recommendations about my sculpture? Is there a way to fire it slowly to minimize damage?
You are fortunate to have such good clay available. The safest way to fire that would be in an electric kiln at a very low temperature.
@@AncientPotterywould pre firing in an electric oven help? Just thought of that. Most regular kitchen ovens could warm it to 350, 400 and get a lot of moisture out but could also smoke if there is organic material. What do you think?
I usually grind up my spare kidney stones.
Kidney stones are calcium which should be avoided in your clay.
What happens if you mix ash with your clay?
Wood ash? Wood ash is kind of sticky and plastic when wet, and therefore would not be usable as temper which is defined as "non-plastic material". Volcanic ash works, but that is an entirely different substance from wood ash.
Hello! Thank you for this very interesting video. What is the tool that you are using to grind the clay when it's dry? thanks
It is a Mexican grain mill, here is a link amzn.to/3PLZ1R9
@@AncientPottery Thank you very much. I had another question regarding the addition of temper to the clay. In case of wet processing the clay, instead of adding temper when the clay is already at a plastic consistance, is it possible to add temper to the liquid clay directly? When the clay is still in the bucket, after sieving, to add dry sand or grog, mix it, and then to pour it in a fabric bag and let it dry like that? It seems easier that way, but I wonder if, when drying in the bag, the bigger particles wouldn't sink to the bottom and then the clay body would have an uneven composition? I don't know what your thoughts on that are.. thank you :D
My clay here in Missouri is red, and sticky for the most part but it gets better as it dries. I am having trouble with my pot cracking as I'm working on it. I don't know if it's my inexperience or the clay. It also seems to want to fall, I think you called it "slump" I'm hoping it's just my inexperience, I have a lot of free clay in my area.
It could be that the working properties of your clay are lacking. Some clay just isn’t very plastic, or doesn’t have good wet strength and stuff like that. Hopefully it is experience or maybe you could try processing it differently.
@@AncientPottery I dug it about 4 years ago when the city tore down my North Forest to make a spillway for storm runoff they ground up all the trees into mulch and left the rock and clay bare. I gathered three 10 lb buckets and wet processed all of it. It was the only way I knew.
Life changed shortly after that, and they have been sitting in those buckets ever since. I just started working with it today after watching several of your videos. The one I was using was the driest, maybe too dry because it was hard to work. So I tried another one that felt good to me but that's the one I'm having trouble with. I poked a bunch of finger sized holes in it to let it soak up some water (thanks for the tip) and try working it again tomorrow. I am really new at coil pots, in fact it was my first one. Thank you for the inspiration. I will take your class when I can, life is crazy right now.
@@AncientPottery I finally got a couple small bowls out of it, one with a bit of extra sand. Now that its set up a few hours it's not so fragile, in fact it's quite durable. I'm pretty sure I was handling it too much, letting it flex and move too far and too often, out of where I wanted it to be. Thank you for your videos.
11:16
I just asked this on another video. I live in a gulf coast river basin, so I have a clay bed about 2' down. I dug out a bunch, putting in a fence and have been a bit obsessive about extracting all the sand. I haven't gotten to the point of really testing it yet, because the raw clay, is full of fine roots and gravel; but it does clog up my postholer and comes out in a dense, solid plug. At any rate, it has a pretty high sand content, Id estimate at around 35%; very fine sand.
Maybe if your clay is full of sand and roots it would be good to run it through screen to remove some of that. Just a thought, every clay is different.
@@AncientPottery
Ive thoroughly screened it and I'm now down to levigating to remove sediment. I have one batch ready to dry(still in suspension, but pretty refined). That batch was from about 4' down and wasn't too dirty. The other batch is still very sandy(slip feels gritty). I think what I may do, is draw off a bit from each and see which behaves better. I haven't done ceramics in decades and that was of course, with commercial products and an electric kiln. Not quite the same thing.
Another question... I too have an old corn grinder that as a kid, we used to grind glass with. That got me wondering if ground glass would be useful as a temper? It seems to meet the requirements.
I know you said organic material isn't the best choice for the heating process, but how would grinded up coffee grounds be?
I’m sure coffee grounds would work although it would result in porous pottery.
@@AncientPottery thank you
Another really helpful video thanks!
Glad you liked it.
How about egg shells how would they work?
Probably but they are high in calcium so not sure about the results.
How to fine Pure clay , that wast lake side only I'm right Mr Andy...
It is very informative and useful.
So glad you enjoyed it.
Can you use gypsum for temper?
No, you never want gypsum in your clay because it will turn into plaster of paris when the pot is fired , then when it gets damp will cause spalls.
I don't have a favorite temper or clay, I've got clay from my property and sand from a local beach and I'm looking forward to a first attempt at firing soon following your videos. Wish me luck!
I hope you have successful first firing.
How did it come out? I find I need to wash beach sand very well first, else it has too much salt and causes blowups when fired.
Note Andy's comment further down, "I would be carful with beach sand, shells are calcium which could cause spalls in your pottery. It can be used if you keep the firing temp below 840 C." Maybe it is the calcium, not the salt, that is giving me problems.
@@ginikeating5104 I was referring to freshwater beach sand which is not calcarius. It fired perfectly.