Saturday, April 25, 2015

Good Earth at 505

 Our new home was connected to town water prior to our closing. That means a long trench to lay the new pipe... and there was a lot of good looking clay dug up during the process. Jeff brought some back to the studio in February and did some testing. It fired to cone 10!


 Last night I was at the house shampooing carpets, before I left I bagged up some clay for Jeff to process.
Sort of looks like pumpkin pie

All wedged up... we have dubbed it "505" clay, since our new address is 505 E Main St.

Jeff made quite a few purty little cups.


This little cup, made with our 505 clay, was fired in the wood kiln during FireFest. I believe that this is also the glaze that Jeff made from another clay, also found on our property. It's glazed with nuka. The clay fires in wood to a nice toasty orange. We are going to fire a bisque this weekend so that Jeff can take few of his cups, made with 505, to Mungyeong, S. Korea. While there, they will be fired in one the traditional kilns in the area. I can't believe how quickly this trip has come up. So much to do and so little time!!

6 comments:

  1. what a great find. how do you process it, do you add anything to it, do you sieve it to get out the large chunks and organic matter. I may try some of the clay here, I found one hole with some yellow clay in it I'd like to try.

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  2. I am testing it out for now with nothing added, but may add a little bit if ball clay of feldspar after i see how all of our glazes look on it.

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  3. I made a slip out of the clay and then pour it through a screen to seive out the largest particles of rock, and the roots & grass.

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  4. thanks Jeff I just dug up my clay yesterday, but it isn't as yellow as I thought, it's more pink, it must have been a different hole I dug somewhere else that I found the yellow clay. I am thinking I'll use mine as a slip over the top of some other clay, we shall see how it does, good luck with your experiments, amazing it will go to cone 10.

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  5. That is so flippin' cool. There is a lot of clay around here too, and it fires to stoneware also. I have a sample from a friend's yard where the stream flooded and eroded a bank exposing tons of the stuff. but I have not gotten around to doing more than a test fire....your is SO pretty and wonderful :)

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