How To Make Clay At Home (It's Just Dirt)
How To Make Clay At Home (It's Just Dirt)
Making clay is not that hard. Not too long ago it was part of most potters jobs to dig and process all the clay they used. Yet today it is almost a lost art. In this video I show you 3 methods for making clay at home, simply and easily.
Some clay processing equipment
Screen – https://amzn.to/3J5GdZy
Another screen – https://amzn.to/3Kbt3LS
Paint strainer bags – https://amzn.to/3NOONzk
Metate for grinding clay – https://amzn.to/3DGoczQ
Hand cranked mill for grinding clay – https://amzn.to/3DIjhP0
β€οΈ Please help support my channel
Channel membership https://www.youtube.com/c/ancientpottery/join
Ancient Potters Club https://ancientpottery.how/ancient-potters-club/
π T shirts and other merch – https://andy-wards-ancient-pottery.creator-spring.com/
π Shop for pottery related goodies
Classes, tools and pottery are available at my online store: https://ancientpottery.how/shop/
π Improve your pottery skills
Check out my in-person pottery workshops and online masterclasses to improve your pottery making skills. https://ancientpottery.how/classes/
βοΈ Social media
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/andywardpottery
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ancientpottery/
π¬ Send me mail
Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733
0:00 What Is Clay?
2:02 Selecting the Right Dirt To Make Clay With
4:58 The 3 Methods For Making Dirt Into Clay
9:03 Tempering Clay So It Won’t Crack
#wildclay
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I live in a big yard with a lot of dirt that has a lot of clay
My dirt is mostly sand
Around my parts there used to be a BUNCH of brickyards- three a couple minute walk from my house and at least 4 more in the town- because the dirt is so rich in clay.
There are entire man made lakes that used to be clay quarries before the brickyards went out of business in 90s and eary 2000s. Even the coat of arms of our city is a red brick fort.
There’s so much of it that I had to sift out entire fist sized chunks of it from the dirt when I was making my raised bed tomato garden and mix it with like 200 liters of potting soil.
Great for pottery and a wattle and daub shed but a huge hassle for gardening bc you have to prepare the soil several feet down to plant anything other than an apple tree or something.
CHRIST IS KING. βοΈ
Glad your channel came up in my feed. My cousins showed me the clay they used in their yard as a kid. Just for play purposes. White clay was used as a slurry to the keep the fireplace bricks looking clean. Looking forward to watching your content. Thanks for sharing.
Refine not make…
Just show it alreadyπ·π
wait until this guy finds out what a mortar and pestle is
We have an area with about 50 million white clay in Yemen, Marib.
20% sand. By weight, or volume?
How does the sand not show up the pottery that stuff looked coarse
As a person who lives in a country where there is no clay for sale, that was super beneficial.
Thank you so much..
Can you use this clay for metal casting or is it a different type of clay you need
Now I just need to find some copper, tine and iron ore and I can advance from the stone age to the iron age
The best place to fins clay that doesn’t need a lot of processing is in creek beds. Often times I go down to the creek my brother and I grew up playing around, has carved itself some goo’s sized walls and in some spots there’s sandy beach areas but where it floods a lot you can walk along the walls and notice they’re full of nearly pure clay. They may have tree roots in them but it’s what the Indians did to get pottery clay. Mt friends mom gave me the idea, she did that when she was a little girl
7:11 Hello doggo!
Clay is water soluble. Just soak it in water, skim the top, seperate the sediment, and pour the water in a drying tray and leave it in the sun.
Are you in AZ? Iβm in Phoenix and that dirt looks VERY familiar not to sound weird π
you found poop
Dirt is what you wash off your hands. Clay is just one possible component of soil. If your soil doesn’t have clay, like central Florida then you ain’t making clay. You can play with all the sand in the world and it won’t make clay.
Can I use camp fire ash with no charcoal in it.
Sir I admire the way you teach this ancient knowledge, please keep your investigation about different pottery methods. How about McCarty’s style?
What a gangster. Bravo!
My yard is basically entirely orange clay lol
Thank you great video!
Yall never dug a whole and hit clay before?
He’s probably going to mention this, but just remember that if you’re foraging, you want to be aware of what environmental pollutants could be in the area. When foraging for plants you have to be careful of this too
Working or playing in the dirt exposes you to microorganisms that can strengthen your immune system. Save yourself an expensive hospital visit. Eat dirt.
I went to dig up Clay one day for a science project.
I couldnβt remember where I buried him.
My man risking it all to teach us about clay. Respect 2:47
U can also use a wine pump to pump out the water without sucking up the clay in the buckets instead of dumping it an wasting some clay.
you literally found poop
Bro you just load your video on internet I should not see this video fool
I’ve been decanting tubs full of mosquitoe larvae thru a pillow case for years! The tea is clear and larvae free. The pcase has leaves and muck, l hang it and when dry empty into the garden. I’m in Houston, we have lots of clay. Gumbo. I have learned to appreciate it. Enjoyed this info.
A 4:1 ratio would give you a 25% sand mixture, not 20%.
My dirt has a large percentage of dog doo.
my back yard I moved to the south red dirt red clay country
I have been fooled by high silt soils. I don’t think it’s that easy. Besides, Black Rock Desert has that cracked earth texture but is incredibly poor in clay levels (it fires badly), while the nearby Hualapai Flat had similar cracked earth texture and high levels of clay (fired well). Other possibilities is that the BRD has such high levels of other minerals that act to separate the fine particles rather than permit them to bind. I was going to use my own dirt on my own property for making earthen floors and it turned out that it tested high in SILT not clay. The amount of clay was only about 13% and silt was about 60%. For an amateur, they look and behave similarly at first glance. This is interesting but this amateur might just end up buying the clay LOL
good video man thanks. one question, why not leave some of the junk in the original dirt to act as grog. iβve never done any of this, so iβm just curious. maybe just cleaner and more uniform?
20% by volume or weight?
One time at band camp,,i found some awesome white clay in a pond bank and mase a really awesome pipe w it
Thank you for teaching me this π
"Dont spend all day watching youtube"
Don’t tell me what to do dirt boy.
Your amazing ππΎπ
Can somebody come and get their dad he keeps rambling at seagulls about clay
Guy is like Indiana Jones of Clay.
i love living in georgia red clay everywhere
beautiful
So glad I found this. Wish you were my chemistry/physics teacher – it owuld have been better with your simple and practical approach
Sir, thanks for the info. You totally rock!