Purifying Mountain Clay

[kkrapf]

This past week I was digging in the garden and came up with a bunch of clay, and so it occurred to me it might be fun to try and purify it for use.

Heck, the mountain's full of the stuff. What else was I going to do with it, right?

So I did some Googling and found a surprisingly limited amount of information on the process. But I found enough. This was a useful website. I also found an interesting video series on youtube.

So, first I filled a bucket about a third full of water, and next I tossed in the clay. I broke the clay up and dissolved it into the water, and ended up with this.



It was basically clay slurry, with a bunch of rocks and dirt and twigs. So, next step was to strain out the debris. I used a standard mesh kitchen strainer for this process. It took a couple of times back and forth between buckets. Once that was done, I let it settle for about ten to twenty minutes, to allow the remaining sediment to settle out. Once it had, I poured off the clay and water mixture on top, while leaving the sediment behind. It was a sandy dirt mixture, like so:



Once that was done, it was just a matter of letting the water separate out from the clay. I have been watching it for about a week. Each day I carefully poured off the layer of clear water which had separated at the top. It looked like this:



And come Saturday evening, enough of the water had separated out that I was able to pour the clay into a bag (about the thickness of pillow case fabric), tied it up, and am presently letting it hang to dry for the remainder:



I checked it today and it is drying nicely. I expect it to be ready for use and/or tempering in about three or four days. I'll post an addendum to this at that time, with results.

[Willis]

Fascinating. Genuine Blue Ridge Mountain clay. Will the little ones use it to model or will you be able to throw it (as in throw on a wheel rather than heaving it at someone)? Great step by step pics, btw.

[kkrapf]

Willis: I'm not sure what we'll be able to do with it once it's ready, but initial results look promising. We should at least be able to model with it. Throwing it on a wheel? We'll see. I don't have a wheel to throw it on, anyway!

Here is some of the clay that remained in the bucket that dried, so you can see how pure it actually DOES look once dry:





And because I thought a "before" picture would be good (and because I wanted to dig up more clay for another batch):

[kkrapf]

FYI: I only had to go about eight inches down to hit solid clay. I don't know if that's true of my entire yard (or the mountain, for that matter), but it is in this little spot.

[Tony]

I don't know as there's too many rocks to make it worth digging down 8 inches around here. The few times I've tried to plant things I haven't seen any clay.

[kkrapf]

I think I was lucky. I just happened to come across this surprisingly rock-free section when I was digging holes and mixing in compost for the bulbs I planted.

[kkrapf]

Picture update with a warning attached: Clay is a brown substance, and when wet and not fully formed it looks kind of unpleasant. Haha.



The clay when taken out of the drying bag, a few days from being ready.



A sample of the clay at this stage, formed into a ball. Still too soft to be workable, but probably a good consistency (perhaps a little too try, but close) for working on a wheel.



And - the finished product! It turned out really nicely. I'm pleased. Me and the kids will be playing around with it over the next few days. Obviously I don't have a kiln. Earthen clay needs to be kiln fired at temperatures around 2000 degrees to be properly hardened (and waterproofed), so without that anything we make will be extremely brittle once dried. I might look into finding a kiln I can use. Perhaps Skipper's in town can hook me up!

I may or may not experiment with adding temper to the clay. I crushed some old broken pottery to use for the purpose. Adding temper keeps the clay from cracking when it is drying and being fired.

I don't know how interesting this was to read, but I definitely had fun doing it.

[LFE]

Horseshoe pits.....

[Willis]

I don't know how interesting this was to read, but I definitely had fun doing it.

We have the makings of an ongoing article on the website, perhaps under mountain living This is interesting stuff.

[Tony]

I wonder if it's good for the skin? Or perhaps for internal use?

[derricksonb]

This is very cool and an extremely interesting process. Seems like it might be a fun Spring/Summer activity for the kids.

[kkrapf]

A tester pinch-pot to see how well the clay does while drying, and some makeshift bamboo tools I fashioned.

And below, the satisfied testers!





And Tony, Maggie has decided that it's great for internal use. Mm, clay for breakfast.

[kkrapf]

This is very cool and an extremely interesting process. Seems like it might be a fun Spring/Summer activity for the kids.

I think it would be a great spring/summer activity for the kids. Alex is a little young to appreciate/assist with the whole process, but she's been interested. Let me know if you have any difficulty finding ample clay, because you're welcome to a bucket load from here.

[rooneymom]

Great pics, thanks for sharing!