Surprise in the Kiln!

Okay, so most of the time I don't want surprises in the kiln. Not at this stage in the game. One, it was a bisque load, so pretty predictable. But second, until I'm mixing my own glazes and experimenting, most of the work I do I do with an expected outcome, and when it doesn't happen, I'm usually disappointed, not excited.

HOWEVER, today is an exception! I put a small test chunk of the creak-bed-clay into the kiln to see how it holds up to cone 03. Not only did it hold up, but here's how it turned out:

In case you can't tell, it's the red piece of clay (well, brown, but "red" as far as clays usually go) against the gray clay behind it, which is the unfired creak-clay. The gray clay doesn't fire white, as I thought it would, it fires red! I can't believe it! I've never used "terra-cotta" clay before! I'm not sure exactly what kind of clay it is, but the red has a few advantages. One, in smoke firings, red often has pretty cool results. Two, if I can mix it with my earthenware clay, then I can do marbling and other such effects. I'm so stoked!

Of course, there's no guarantee that it will be compatible with my other clay, but I'll do the tests as soon as I can. And, there's the SMALL chance that it will be high-fire clay. Can you imagine!!

Oh, I can't wait to see what else this clay has in store for me!

Native Clay!

I am so excited! The kids and I decided to take a walk through the creek that runs through our small town (as in wading right in the water), and we went further than we've ever been. Turns out that just past the bend where we often stop to play, there's HUNDREDS of pounds of NATURAL CLAY - just waiting to be dug up and used!

It turns out that most everyone in town knew it was there but me :P And since most people don't yet know that I play in clay, no one thought to offer to tell me about it :)

Anyway, I called the woman who owns the property and she was more than happy to let me dig up all the clay I wanted. So I started out with about 80 or so lbs. of clay, as much as I could get home on the stroller, LOL!

The first step in testing native clay is drying it out and then crushing it to pieces/dust, then you add water to make a very thin slip, then sieve it through some mesh, and then you can dry it out, wedge it, and finally test it in the kiln.

So for now I have a bucket full drying, and put a couple slabs of wood out with some chunks to dry, which I've now crushed and am waiting to add the water when I have a chance to sieve it.

Here are some pictures that show how pure the clay is straight out of the creek. The clay is resting at the bottom of the creek bed, so there's no stones or sand even on top of it. Amazing! The wall is also clay, but will be harder to mine...

It's just so neat how you can see the layers so easily!

This past weekend was the first weekend at the local Wild Rose Renaissance Faire. The fist day wasn't too bad, beautiful weather and a record number of people, but only a few sales for myself. The second day was pretty bad attendance-wise. Only a handful of people braved the rain to come visit, and no sales that day. So I'm hoping for a better outcome the next two weekends.

Now I'm off to my garden to fix some plants that blew over in the bad wind (which also destroyed 5 vendors' tents at the faire...), and hopefully pick some strawberries!