Wild clay?

I have found some clay near my home, but it is sandy and grey. Is it of
any use and/or is there a way to clean it up somewhat?

TIA

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:08:32 -0400, "Bill DeWitt"
wrote:


I have found some clay near my home, but it is sandy and grey. Is it of
any use and/or is there a way to clean it up somewhat?


How you process this clay will be determined by what you want
to use if for. If you want to use is as a body clay, and it is
plastic enough as-is to form, then I'd suggest just firing a
few small samples to various temperatures/cones and see
what happens. My garden clay, for example, fires a light
brick red color at earthenware temperatures, up to maybe
cone 1 or 2. But at cone 6 is is completely melted into a
puddle.

Another common problem, which also afflicted my clay,
is lime inclusions. These show up as white flecks in
the body after firing, and when they then pick up humidity
from the air they expand and pop out, taking chunks of the
body with them. Ugh!

You can solve the lime problem by sieving to 80 mesh or
finer. If the clay is otherwise acceptable but too sandy,
you might be able to remove a lot of the sand by some
sort of settling method. In either of these cases, you
will need the clay in dry powdered form before you start;
it's very difficult to get damp or wet clay to dissolve.
I ended up drying mine over the kiln, then broke it up,
sieved out the sticks and pebbles through an old window
screen, and then added it to water.

To remove sand, you probably want to add a lot of excess
water, stir it up well, and let the sand settle before you
pour off the clay and water. May take a few test runs
to find out how long to settle... you don't want the clay
to settle out with the sand.

I my case, however, I finally decided that the best use
for the clay was as a glaze at cone 6. I just sieve it at
110 mesh (one of those reuseable plastic coffee filters)
and use it all by itself. Makes a rich brown "Albany slip"
glaze that has become one of my favorites. Plus, it
will last a lot longer as a glaze than as a body, important
if you consider all the work to process it. And it still has that
"personal touch" because you dug it yourself!

Best regards,


Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

"Bob Masta" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:08:32 -0400, "Bill DeWitt"
wrote:


I have found some clay near my home, but it is sandy and grey. Is it
of
any use and/or is there a way to clean it up somewhat?


How you process this clay will be determined by what you want
to use if for.

Thank you for your information (which I snipped for brevity), it
is -very- helpful and encouraging. I have set up a couple of tests to see
how it works out as per your directions. I imagine that if I am able to use
it at all I will use it as a glaze to give a "local" flair to my commercial
clay. I wasn't sure that it would be usable at all, it will be nice to have
even a small amount as a dressing.

Thanks again.

I too found that local clay works best as a glaze. I tried it when a
friend was building a house and I noticed lots of clay when they were
digging the foundation. I made her a housewarming pot glazed with that
clay. I washed it and sieved it to get junk out. The glaze wasn't
great, a greenish brown. It was a fun project, however.

Janet

"Janet Price" wrote :

The glaze wasn't
great, a greenish brown. It was a fun project, however.

I don't know how this is going to turn out yet, but the unfired color is
an almost perfect rgb(192,192,192) = middle grey. A quick test with a blow
torch suggests it may become a red tinted light tan. Unfortunately, I lost
my only place to fire stuff and until I find another or a very small kiln I
can afford, this is an unfinished experiment.

I did notice that under magnification, there appears to be small flecks
of mica and slate in it. Both very common around here. I expect they will
present a problem but they are very fine particles and my sifter doesn't
take them out.

Like your project, I'll be satisfied just to have the enjoyment of an
interesting few days of messing around.