I remember digging up clay as a child, but I never really thought much about it. I honestly didn't know that clay is just dirt with a certain particle size. I thought it was a fundamentally different substance.
DUDE me and my cousin when we were kid we found out how to make clay by ourselves and started making so much of it we make pots, cakes a lot of stuff without even knowing taht it was clay! Today i asked her if she remembered how to do it and we have no idea how
To a certain extent, it *is* a fundamentally different substance. The reason clays behave so differently from other soils is because they have different electro-mechanical properties that are *related* to their size. I've never been entirely clear on the exact mechanism for why particles below that 2 micron threshold have different properties, but it's probably related to how they're formed as well as just size. The reason clays behave so differently from silts, sands, gravels, or any other size of soil particle is that they have a tiny charge to the particles just enough to attract a little layer of water (water is a slightly polar molecule, so one end of the water is attracted towards the clay essentially). This is what gives them that plastic behaviour that other soils don't have, and can be both extremely useful and extraordinarily annoying, depending what you're using that soil for. Quite nice for pottery, typically much less so in foundations. One more fun fact about clays, if a soil is made of ~30% clay, it will behave as though it's *all* clays (as far as engineering applications goes, anyways. I'm sure potters would disagree with that assessment)
It's not just dirt with a particular size - it's specifically minerals made of aluminum and silicon. "Dirt" includes organic materials, sand (silicon dioxide, aka quartz) and some other minerals. Clay is present in most dirt, but it's not "just dirt" any more than chocolate chips are "just trail mix" even though trail mix includes chocolate chips.
@@arcaearscorrect. "Dirt," even very fine dirt (more properly called soil) is full of organic matter that would burn off in a kiln, leaving voids. Further, "dirt" would not fuse. That requires a very high proportion of silica.
This is what RUclips was invented for good honest content. It was the first time I have seen your videos but I have to say It was a really really interesting video. The amount of clay you got from the one with all the grit actually shocked me. Thanks for this video it was really good
RUclips FINALLY suggests a video I actually want to see. I've been toying with the idea of trying my hand at some primitive pottery using local clay, and up pops this video. A very nice to watch, wholesome, easy to listen to, and educational video. THIS kind of quality content is hard to find. Thank you.
I have also considered making clay as well because of how much of it is naturally in my local soil. like, when I squeeze wet dirt from my yard it stays in shape. It even feels like clay when I mess with it when wet.
Even though I'll more than likely never have the need to follow this guide, there is something about watching a passionate and experienced person describe how to carry out a task. I find it inspiring to listen to this.
Brick making used to be pretty common in my area (in England, UK) There are local disused Victorian kilns and places called Brickhill and Clay Hill, so I'm pretty sure it should be a good place to find clay soil. Thanks for all the tips!
Clay particles are really tiny so if it's dry and in an open top container it's gonna go airborne and coat everything, including the inside of your car
This man's videos are priceless! He shows even poor people how to do things without having to buy stuff. He's not pushing us to buy a bunch of junk and teaching us skills,not only to make as gifts,but in a survival situation,could literally save your life
Me who was disappointed on how i prob didnt have clay but after hearing the clay “how to find” part I learned i have the equivalent of a gold mine but in clay
Very cool. Reminded me of about 65 years ago when I would collect clay from dried river bottoms. At school they told us where to get it. We did not process it other than getting it wet, rolling into rope like strings and then spiraling them to make pottery.
We are making Christmas presents this year. We also had to dig up a ton of red clay soil in our yard. My kids wanted to make gifts out of clay. Since we are broke, I looked up videos on how to utilize what we had in our yard. Your video was the BEST one! It is SO good that I was able to use it for homeschooling. We took notes and everything. The layout and instructions are so great. We are about to drain the water to see if there is any clay at the bottom. Wish us luck!
How is it this was never taught in pottery class? We really need to keep all ties to the past. I always thought you had to find a creek bed or dig deep for clay. This was very informative
I am thankful we had the clay recycling thing happening at our studio. I loved to grab the white and black porcelain out of the buckets. I didnt know these tips so I had a lot more trouble with it though.
Fortunately, my mother knew how to do this, as she learned from her grandparents, how to make vessels from clay taken from the river. When I was a child, I would wade in the river and then sit up on the bank in the middle of the river where other people had taken clay and made structures drying in the sun. It was a rich blue-grey colored clay and was excellent for hand building, and probably would've done well on a wheel too.
For pounding/grinding on your countertop: Consider a molcajete. It's basically a gigantic mortar and pestle, literally designed for pounding things into a powder/paste.
I was watching this the whole time thinking “hey…that landscape looks familiar” And that’s how I realized that I’ve been to some of these exact locations with my dad as a kid
We have a powwow at the onigum native reservation every year, and there's all kinds of vendors selling blankets, hoodies, poncho's, drums, artwork, and especially clay pottery, there was a traveller who comes to the powwow every year selling handcrafted artwork that a group of Navajo women made out in Montana, I bought a jewelry box with The End of the Trail painted on it. I loved buying from this guy because he wasn't just selling it to make a buck, he was selling it so he could feed his people back home and make a living. Thank you for sharing your trades with the internet man, people could really learn a lot from you.
You know, I've never dabbled into pottery whatsoever but I felt very compelled to watch this and was not disappointed. I'm familiar with soil and clay because of my background on civil engineering and I love seeing how different compositions that are no good for construction can be used in other ways.
watched this last evening, ran out with shovel and pail at 10pm in full moonlight, got a pail of our dirt, sifted and left in water overnight. This morning added diatomaceous and wow, I have really beautiful clay. So excited to to go to the next step. Thank you so much for your channel!
I love this! This is 100% me. My husband will come out after he & my son lay down for bed & he “catches” me playing in the dirt hahahah. He just looks at me like…wow. It’s my dirty little secret aye!
I was on a horizontal drilling site this week and the soil was 20 feet deep of layers of red and yellow claw. There was one inch that was a very fine homogeneous waxy clay, too. Made me think about pottery. I couldn't stop picking up chunks and squeezing them.
As someone living in Arizona, I've wondered where I could go to get my own clay for personal projects since everything is just sandy dirt around me. This video was just what I needed.
I live in Florida too. If you want clay just go down to your local river or stream with a shovel. Take some of the dirt hear the edge of the water. You should get loads of clay. I've done this with my son at the St. Johns River and Lake Monroe.
@@mathew00 I can see! I live pretty close to the shore so a lot of waterways around here are either sandy creeks or beaches, but I think I have a few ideas of less sandy spots
One of the relatively few positives about living in rural Iowa is that the soil is so rich, we don't have to amend it to use it and you can see and feel the pure, light brown clay if you do any amount of digging. I'll be using your method today though! And I very much appreciate the video!! 😁❤
I'm having a lot of fun exploring native clays in my area. And it costs little to do so. Thanks Andy for the inspiration and knowledge about this process.
Andy, thank you so much for all your efforts in creating these videos. They are so informative and easy to follow, as well such an asset in learning about primitive pottery. I just harvested my first batch of wild clay and will be using the sample #1 method. I really appreciate you sharing your years of experience that aid in me having great results the first time. I fired a pot yesterday and the process was effortless thanks to your videos.
I just came back by to say I've just done my first clay-finding excursion and it was a success! I admit, I had geography very much on my side, as clay is literally everywhere in my area of Tennessee, but it was such a thrill! I tried just dry processing by hand and made a kindergarten quality pinch pot right there on the spot. I'm trying the levigating process now, to see if it yields a better, more useable clay. Thanks so much! This video was a fantastic motivation to get me to try something I can really feel proud of, whether my first attempt yields success or failure.
Another note is that because clay sticks to itself so well, it can become a little hydrophobic-- it's not shown a lot in the video but when the water is mixed with dirt #1 it doesn't absorb the water as much or as fast as sandy or silty dirt would. This is why where I live in Northern California, we go from blazing wildfire to high floods in a matter of months-- the baked dirt, which is high in clay, doesn't absorb the heavy rainfall in the winter.
This isn't quite "hydrophobic" behaviour, but rather the result of clays having very small pore sizes between the soil particles. This means that water takes a really long time to travel through the pore network of clayey soils, and also a really long time to absorb into it. Larger soil particles, such as sands, have much larger pore sizes, and can move water around much more quickly as a result. This has some really interesting consequences in civil engineering applications. For instance, if you lay a foundation or concrete slab on only sand, any water pressure changes happen almost instantly (I forget if it's measured in minutes or just under a day, but in either case, pretty negligible in terms of the lifespan of most foundations). On the other hand, if you lay the same foundation on a more clayey soil, the soil beneath might experience changes in pore water pressure over the course of months or even years. This then has to be accounted for with all kinds of lovely equations, and can cause a lot of problems with settling, which might not happen until it's long past the ability to change anything about the foundations.
Have you tried making clay and had trouble getting it to a good, workable texture? Then you need to watch this video where I give you the best advice for improving your clay. ruclips.net/video/VdkjntdO4G0/видео.html
What an extremely well done video. This was everything I had questions about, and so many other things that are completely tied into this process that I never even thought of. I feel my clay finding will now be easy and successful! Thanks for the informative and interesting video
I have a horrible attention span. Often, I don't retain information well because I can't seem to get intrigued enough. You should have your own network tv show or a college class or something because you literally made dirt interesting. I love the way you explain things, it kept me engaged the whole time. You earned a new subscriber!!
I'm gonna do this. I'm in the US south, there's so much red clay here, I can't even grow a garden without heavy amendments. But I'd be happy to find some use for the soil we have. Also, literally every step here are the same steps we'd use to make bread or tofu in the kitchen. It's shockingly similar, down to the muslin bag, or in your case, a pillowcase.
So nice to hear you wanting to share the rather simplistic side of pottery that was never properly addressed when taking Pottery A-levels. A very important part of a process that becomes your own from the very start. Thank you ☺
Once when I was a kid I dug a deep hole and found clay. As a city kid it blew my mind, I thought of clay as something people make. My Mom didnt even believe me lol.
I work at an adult day program, and our art director pays through the nose for clay that looks just like yours, every month. Like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month.
@@celebratedeth362 unless you plan on eating the clay, that really isn't a problem. Unfortunatly the bacteria hosted by the moisture and organic bits mixed in could kill you faster.
Watched you for the first time . 8 am and subscribed 2 mins in . Grew up beside a gravel pit and forgot how important those little adventures were to for self fulfilment and personal wealth of knowledge . You have a gift to educator and inspire young sir
the end results in 8:50 looks so much like the clay my granny used to make (still alive, just stopped doing it) it makes me rly inspired to make clay myself. im actually thinking of making it in school for the pottery workshop near the woodworking workshop (special ed) itll be rly cool to do a clay making day with the people from school from dirt in the school :D
As a kid I often played with friends on cliff like hill side near our homes. It was 5 meters or more high and pure clay in 50% easy. Dough like consistence at times. Gonna take my kids for a clay hunt I guess. Great content!
In agronomy we have a test called "black pudding / cylindrical object" (boudin in french) that enable us to estimate if the clay level is under or above 20%. Take a hand of soil, put lot of water, malaxe it and try to make a ring with that. If the ring break soon that mostly sand (you can feel the grains cripsy), if you cant close the ring but only an half moon and there is cracks that limon mostly (the texture is soft and slidy) and if the ring can be closed that full of clay :)
Thanks for this info Andy. I was out this week rockhounding with my son, looking for sapphires and other cool gems, but found myself also collecting bagfuls of different clays as it had just rained there. I've just started processing it now so this video is quite timely. (pillow case trick will save me heaps of time) I've got a lovely light tan clay which I'm hoping fires a nice pale colour as well. Cheers from Oz!
The information from your channel is so amazing. I’ve grown a love for plants and wanted more pots but wanted them to be more sentimental and close to me. Making my own pots is something I’m working towards and you’re helping every step of the way!!!!!!
this is my first time watching this videos but as soon as I clicked on one of his videos I knew he was the type of guy I would like to watch he is kind and caring
Thankyou so so much for this, i was thinking of trying pottery but i just couldn't find the clay for it and frankly as a newbie i kept wondering why ordinary dirt wouldn't work, so thankyou so much for this ❤️❤️
“Remember, being on the Internet all day is not good for you.” Very glad you point this out. Also clay is like dough. I love seeing the chemical reactions in this world and learning all the different terminology for certain sciences.
I am so excited to have run across this video! I bought a farm in a town that was, at one time, well known for their red bricks that they made from the clay in the groundy Most of the old buildings still standing are made from those old red bricks and I love getting to see the few that remain. I find red clay everywhere on my farm so I am stoked!!!!
You're definitely an authority on clay! Thank you for the great content! I'm starting to catch the bug for gardening and hope to create some (probably outdoor) planters by hand from clay sourced in the front/back yard (GAs finest). Your videos have been super helpful in making this feasible.
Ha ha, if only it were that I was thinking of the viewer. In reality I forgot to bring something and it was a long way back or even to a hardware store where I could buy something so just make do.
Thanks for inspiring me to try this! I went o an adventure and found a spot with some “mud” which felt very moldable and plastic and started purifying it. I’ve seen your other videos and I’m excited to try making some pottery out of this! :) I had always thought pottery was super expensive to get into.
Andy, just found your channel. Very interesting stuff as an outdoor survivalist. Never knew how to process my own clay for building, now i do. Absolutely, fantastic stuff.
aaa thank you!! ive been wanting to get into creating clay figures as a hobby, but i don’t have the money to constantly buy clay. this is really helpful and motivates me to get more into it!
Great video! The clay I used was always VERY orange, arms length down as a kid. I used to dig down to my shoulder with a spoon as a kid, pull out the clay and make things and let them dry out. Having your kids go out back and dig an arm length hole is a GREAT way to get your kids outside and keep them busy. Just make sure they learn the importance of burring the holes so no one breaks a leg.
Great job on talking about the clay content in different soils. This is definitely something to consider. I'd like to add that silt also forms that crackle texture in flat surfaces, however upon grabbing a sample it falls apart into fine powder, whereas clay would keep it shape, or break off in chunks. Best way to improve clay ID skills is to watch Andy's vids and go dirt hunting and testing! Keep up the great work Andy.
Hmm, I am skeptical. After 30+ years of looking for clay I can't say I have ever seen silt form cracks like that unless that silt had a small amount of clay in it, in which case it is easy to tell from the texture (as you say). Anyway thanks for watching and commenting.
Hi man .Super inspiring what you said about going on your own adventure to get some clay . I showed my son this and his mind was blown ,now we collect different types to make nice clean clay using your methods Mad props to yeh
Hey man, your vids have helped me out alot. I have been a primitive hunter, primitive bow and arrow maker and flint knapper for over 30 years. I dug some clay just outside Savannah GA. and made and fired a cool bowl. I wanted to get better working with clay and thanks for your videos. I going to make a clay oven to help with controlling heat or concentrate heat on my rivercane arrows and atlatl shafts. Think of an upside down clay funnel with open area on the side to feed the small fire with hickory nuts and clay cooking balls. I will sit it up so air comes in from the bottom. Hickory nuts burn and burn. Ancient charcoal. Using a fire pit to straighten cane shafts means sitting close to a hot fire. It works but has draw backs. I have pulled out small amount of coals/ embers but they don't last long and the wind can be a problem. This is my own idea and don't know if anything like this was used in the past. But I think it will work. I made my test pot to test the clay and decomposing granite for temper. I believe this granite contains mica. Worked very well. Thanks again for your RUclips channel
As a geologist, there is a field test used to identify if a soil is 'plastic' or not. From dry you slowly add moisture and attempt to roll the soil in the palm of the hand to form a 6mm thick 'thread'. At too low a moisture content it will crack apart before getting to 6mm and at too high it will 'smear' without rolling into a thread. A non-plastic soil will begin to smear before you are able to roll it into a 6mm thread (i.e. there is no moisture content where a 6mm thread will be able to be rolled). A more highly plastic soil will have a larger range or moisture contents where a 6mm thread can be rolled. In practice though; if it feels like clay, it has a lot of clay content :D I will say that the amount of silt content can be deceptive in hand sample. Even a small clay content of 10-15 percent is enough to make a soil highly plastic; because of this, I would levigate all the soil I collect unless very pure. There is a field test that you can do to determine how much silt is in a sample. Simply put a tiny amount of your 'clay' between your front teeth and feel for how gritty it is. A pure clay won't feel gritty at all, and a soil with lots of silt will feel like sand between the teeth, even if it feels super smooth in your hands.
Hi Andy! I made my clay using method 3, and it is VERY SOFT! but I am struggling to get the clay water to dry. It has been in the pillow case for 24 hours and is still really wet. What should I do?
I feel lucky to have found your channel today. Your message and your presentation are fabulous and I'm excited to share this with my wife and her students!
This video was suggested to me by youtube. I do share the view of the other commentators about how interestingly original this video is. God bless you. Greeting from Morocco.
Great vid! I always wondered if there's a way to recycle cement or bricks (just grind them fine to a powder and add water) Is this possible? Because it's an easy vommon resource and you could just find it out in the open lol.
I first watched this video months ago since then I bought a house with an average size yard. As we were preparing space to garden we realized we have way too much clay to grow in without amending the “soil”. So now I have endless buckets of clay that I am going to process into small pots for growing our garden out over the years to come. I didn’t know I needed this hobby but super excited to have randomly stumbled upon it.
Really cool stuff, I really wish you'd expand on this type or video format more where you explain nature fundamentals people don't nessesarily know much about
Thank you for posting this Andy, I had pretty much given up trying to get my clay right. Here where I live you find mostly red clay and then there's pink, white and a blue / grey clay and prairie soil clay. I've tried getting the ratios right over and over again with the ted clay making tiles to test for shrinkage then adjusting it only to carefully watch it dry and heat it up then have it explode again and again. I'll try it a couple more times after seeing this. I don't want to have the store bought clay and use an electric kiln, I want to do pottery the old ways. It just seems more pure like that. Thanks again
@@AncientPottery We have a family run pottery place over in another county that's been in business since the 1800's. I have flower pots their great grandfather made when I was real little that I still use today. I saw on their site how they dig out and process their clay and they even sell it to schools now. If I still can't get my clay right, I may just try buying it from them. But I'm going to try doing my own stuff first.
Great video. I don’t have to look far for clay. I only have to look as far as the soil that is pushing up my garage floor and making it difficult to grow things in my backyard. I once saw pottery shards in the Grand Canyon. There were two things that surprised me about them, the amount of sand in them and how thin they were. They weren’t large, decorated specimens one might imagine, more tiny shards that took the trained eye of the ranger friend I was hiking with.
Well done video, Andy! No hint of the production difficulties you alluded to elsewhere. On the subject of temper, I'm starting to suspect that the finer tempers such as diatomaceous earth and volcanic ash might need a bit higher proportion than the coarser materials such as sand in order to provide the same drying protection. I haven't completely confirmed it yet, but my experiences thus far seem to be leaning in that direction.
Thanks Dave! That sounds interesting and could be so, I will be interested in hearing if you do any experimentation in this area. When I used that tempered commercial clay recently, Laguna Redstone and NM Clay Super Sculpt, the tempers in these was very fine in texture. Or at least quite a bit finer than I am used to.
For the first time i actually processed my own clay after watching this video. So straight to the point and easy to understand!!! Thanks for the video.
Really cool video! I don't make pottery, I've never even watched any pottery or clay-related videos before, but RUclips evidently knew I would enjoy this one (: Super neat, I kinda wanna go find some dirt and make some clay now! 😊
I’m Hopi, however I was raised in Denver and away from my tribal community in Arizona. I am hoping to somehow learn more about our pottery practices and where to start, and I thank you for showing such a caring interest in prehistoric pottery. You taught me a lot!
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This guy is exactly the kind of fellow i expect to teach me how to make clay
"The clay guy"
I always imagined some blonde emo haired twink wearing black robes with red clouds on them, riding on a giant dragon made out of clay.
I love that he's straightforward and informative. Very helpful!!
So, you were all your life thinking in this moment...
Lol same
I remember digging up clay as a child, but I never really thought much about it. I honestly didn't know that clay is just dirt with a certain particle size. I thought it was a fundamentally different substance.
DUDE me and my cousin when we were kid we found out how to make clay by ourselves and started making so much of it we make pots, cakes a lot of stuff without even knowing taht it was clay! Today i asked her if she remembered how to do it and we have no idea how
To a certain extent, it *is* a fundamentally different substance. The reason clays behave so differently from other soils is because they have different electro-mechanical properties that are *related* to their size. I've never been entirely clear on the exact mechanism for why particles below that 2 micron threshold have different properties, but it's probably related to how they're formed as well as just size.
The reason clays behave so differently from silts, sands, gravels, or any other size of soil particle is that they have a tiny charge to the particles just enough to attract a little layer of water (water is a slightly polar molecule, so one end of the water is attracted towards the clay essentially). This is what gives them that plastic behaviour that other soils don't have, and can be both extremely useful and extraordinarily annoying, depending what you're using that soil for. Quite nice for pottery, typically much less so in foundations.
One more fun fact about clays, if a soil is made of ~30% clay, it will behave as though it's *all* clays (as far as engineering applications goes, anyways. I'm sure potters would disagree with that assessment)
@@NeptunesOrca nice information, thank you
It's not just dirt with a particular size - it's specifically minerals made of aluminum and silicon. "Dirt" includes organic materials, sand (silicon dioxide, aka quartz) and some other minerals. Clay is present in most dirt, but it's not "just dirt" any more than chocolate chips are "just trail mix" even though trail mix includes chocolate chips.
@@arcaearscorrect. "Dirt," even very fine dirt (more properly called soil) is full of organic matter that would burn off in a kiln, leaving voids. Further, "dirt" would not fuse. That requires a very high proportion of silica.
This is what RUclips was invented for good honest content. It was the first time I have seen your videos but I have to say It was a really really interesting video. The amount of clay you got from the one with all the grit actually shocked me. Thanks for this video it was really good
Thanks a lot.
I call him the Bob Ross of Pottery. My husband will ask me, "Is that your Pottery Bob Ross?" :D
youtube was invented as a dating site lmao
There should be a comma in between for and good.
Yup
I wasn't expecting to randomly stop and spend ten minutes learning about clay, but I am very happy that I did.
Glad I could provide a few minutes of diversion
RUclips FINALLY suggests a video I actually want to see. I've been toying with the idea of trying my hand at some primitive pottery using local clay, and up pops this video. A very nice to watch, wholesome, easy to listen to, and educational video. THIS kind of quality content is hard to find. Thank you.
You are most welcome
They Greys are doing that to you!
There’s clay in my backyard
ooo pottery! hope you dont make you pot accidentally go flying across your room!
I have also considered making clay as well because of how much of it is naturally in my local soil. like, when I squeeze wet dirt from my yard it stays in shape. It even feels like clay when I mess with it when wet.
i love that you show even the "boring" and tedious work, and that you even tripped and feel. it makes these videos really authentic
Thanks!
All part of the adventure, thank you for a great demonstration!
I love that part. So wholesome. I’ve been so scared to go outside and just have an adventure.
Even though I'll more than likely never have the need to follow this guide, there is something about watching a passionate and experienced person describe how to carry out a task. I find it inspiring to listen to this.
Thanks for watching
Agreed
My man is straight up advocating for mental health while showing how to dig for clay. ❤
truth
Brick making used to be pretty common in my area (in England, UK) There are local disused Victorian kilns and places called Brickhill and Clay Hill, so I'm pretty sure it should be a good place to find clay soil. Thanks for all the tips!
Interesting, I often use abandoned brick clay quarries in my area to collect clay.
To be honest, I think most of the dirt in the UK is clay.
Yeah, I live on a hill made of clay, abandoned brick pits all over the place
@@AncientPottery ججد ة//ضج
@@PythonPlusPlus very true a lot of dirt under the topsoil is clay
I like how he seals the ziplock bag very neatly like he’s trying to protect the dirt from spoiling
Clay particles are really tiny so if it's dry and in an open top container it's gonna go airborne and coat everything, including the inside of your car
100% efficiency
0 limitations
I was thinking "did he put it in the bed of his oversized truck?" though I did enjoy the video
Its probably to prevent it from getting out not air from getting in....
Though I guess with hindsight he didn't want to get dirt in his car.
This man's videos are priceless! He shows even poor people how to do things without having to buy stuff. He's not pushing us to buy a bunch of junk and teaching us skills,not only to make as gifts,but in a survival situation,could literally save your life
Thanks glad to help
Me who was disappointed on how i prob didnt have clay but after hearing the clay “how to find” part I learned i have the equivalent of a gold mine but in clay
Very cool. Reminded me of about 65 years ago when I would collect clay from dried river bottoms. At school they told us where to get it. We did not process it other than getting it wet, rolling into rope like strings and then spiraling them to make pottery.
awesome, thanks for sharing.
the river has processed it for you!
@@jessehunter362 Exactly but it may need temper if the river processed it too well
The coil method I remember it well
I use to get this red clay in Greensburg Louisiana on the old CC roads
I have never been interested in pottery in my life. But you have such a beautiful narration that I couldn't stop myself from watching the video.
Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it
Now THIS is original RUclips content. So satisfying.
Glad you liked it.
We are making Christmas presents this year. We also had to dig up a ton of red clay soil in our yard. My kids wanted to make gifts out of clay. Since we are broke, I looked up videos on how to utilize what we had in our yard.
Your video was the BEST one! It is SO good that I was able to use it for homeschooling. We took notes and everything. The layout and instructions are so great.
We are about to drain the water to see if there is any clay at the bottom. Wish us luck!
I hope it all comes out great
How is it this was never taught in pottery class? We really need to keep all ties to the past. I always thought you had to find a creek bed or dig deep for clay. This was very informative
Thanks
I am thankful we had the clay recycling thing happening at our studio. I loved to grab the white and black porcelain out of the buckets. I didnt know these tips so I had a lot more trouble with it though.
You have to dig for clay or find a river bank in many regions
That's what big clay wants you to think!
@@annasolovyeva1013 Indeed. I suspect it also has something to do with the quantity you are looking for
Fortunately, my mother knew how to do this, as she learned from her grandparents, how to make vessels from clay taken from the river. When I was a child, I would wade in the river and then sit up on the bank in the middle of the river where other people had taken clay and made structures drying in the sun. It was a rich blue-grey colored clay and was excellent for hand building, and probably would've done well on a wheel too.
That's awesome ,thanks for sharing your story.
i realize there's so much love in parenting when i heard your story
For pounding/grinding on your countertop: Consider a molcajete. It's basically a gigantic mortar and pestle, literally designed for pounding things into a powder/paste.
I was watching this the whole time thinking “hey…that landscape looks familiar”
And that’s how I realized that I’ve been to some of these exact locations with my dad as a kid
I was going to go to sleep but this video drew me in because it’s not just art, it’s science AND an adventure; i love it so much
We have a powwow at the onigum native reservation every year, and there's all kinds of vendors selling blankets, hoodies, poncho's, drums, artwork, and especially clay pottery, there was a traveller who comes to the powwow every year selling handcrafted artwork that a group of Navajo women made out in Montana, I bought a jewelry box with The End of the Trail painted on it. I loved buying from this guy because he wasn't just selling it to make a buck, he was selling it so he could feed his people back home and make a living. Thank you for sharing your trades with the internet man, people could really learn a lot from you.
Thanks, I also love supporting artists like that. I never buy Native art from dealers or shops but always buy from the artists themselves.
You know, I've never dabbled into pottery whatsoever but I felt very compelled to watch this and was not disappointed.
I'm familiar with soil and clay because of my background on civil engineering and I love seeing how different compositions that are no good for construction can be used in other ways.
I love how you say that it’s not good to stare at the internet all day and have an adventure! Really excited for you and your channel 😄
My videos are supposed to inspire people to get outdoors. Thanks
watched this last evening, ran out with shovel and pail at 10pm in full moonlight, got a pail of our dirt, sifted and left in water overnight. This morning added diatomaceous and wow, I have really beautiful clay. So excited to to go to the next step. Thank you so much for your channel!
That's awesome
I love this! This is 100% me. My husband will come out after he & my son lay down for bed & he “catches” me playing in the dirt hahahah. He just looks at me like…wow. It’s my dirty little secret aye!
I was on a horizontal drilling site this week and the soil was 20 feet deep of layers of red and yellow claw. There was one inch that was a very fine homogeneous waxy clay, too. Made me think about pottery. I couldn't stop picking up chunks and squeezing them.
Wow, could be awesome pottery clay there
As someone living in Arizona, I've wondered where I could go to get my own clay for personal projects since everything is just sandy dirt around me. This video was just what I needed.
Awesome, I am glad it helped you out.
Lucky. I live in Florida and we just have sand
@@syvvieon same! This makes me so sad lol. Our dirt isn't even dirt even inland, its mostly brownish sand
I live in Florida too. If you want clay just go down to your local river or stream with a shovel. Take some of the dirt hear the edge of the water. You should get loads of clay. I've done this with my son at the St. Johns River and Lake Monroe.
@@mathew00 I can see! I live pretty close to the shore so a lot of waterways around here are either sandy creeks or beaches, but I think I have a few ideas of less sandy spots
One of the relatively few positives about living in rural Iowa is that the soil is so rich, we don't have to amend it to use it and you can see and feel the pure, light brown clay if you do any amount of digging. I'll be using your method today though! And I very much appreciate the video!! 😁❤
I'm having a lot of fun exploring native clays in my area. And it costs little to do so. Thanks Andy for the inspiration and knowledge about this process.
Definitely, have fun!
Andy, thank you so much for all your efforts in creating these videos. They are so informative and easy to follow, as well such an asset in learning about primitive pottery. I just harvested my first batch of wild clay and will be using the sample #1 method. I really appreciate you sharing your years of experience that aid in me having great results the first time. I fired a pot yesterday and the process was effortless thanks to your videos.
So glad that you are able to learn something from my videos. Thanks!
I just came back by to say I've just done my first clay-finding excursion and it was a success! I admit, I had geography very much on my side, as clay is literally everywhere in my area of Tennessee, but it was such a thrill! I tried just dry processing by hand and made a kindergarten quality pinch pot right there on the spot. I'm trying the levigating process now, to see if it yields a better, more useable clay.
Thanks so much! This video was a fantastic motivation to get me to try something I can really feel proud of, whether my first attempt yields success or failure.
That's awesome, I am glad I could help. Have fun with that Tennessee clay!
Orthodox Tennessee when?
“Go Outside And Touch Dirt”
dude please I’m just trying to enjoy watching this
@@Kodiak77058i had the same thought, like bro just let me chill for a MINUTE without being called out for being chronically online hahaha
@@maylawson6520 2:32
Tru
@@maylawson6520it doesn’t mean that, he was talking about clay
Another note is that because clay sticks to itself so well, it can become a little hydrophobic-- it's not shown a lot in the video but when the water is mixed with dirt #1 it doesn't absorb the water as much or as fast as sandy or silty dirt would. This is why where I live in Northern California, we go from blazing wildfire to high floods in a matter of months-- the baked dirt, which is high in clay, doesn't absorb the heavy rainfall in the winter.
Yes I am familiar with hydrophobic soils. Some clays are like that and sone aren’t. I used to fight forest fires and we often dealt with that problem.
This isn't quite "hydrophobic" behaviour, but rather the result of clays having very small pore sizes between the soil particles. This means that water takes a really long time to travel through the pore network of clayey soils, and also a really long time to absorb into it. Larger soil particles, such as sands, have much larger pore sizes, and can move water around much more quickly as a result.
This has some really interesting consequences in civil engineering applications. For instance, if you lay a foundation or concrete slab on only sand, any water pressure changes happen almost instantly (I forget if it's measured in minutes or just under a day, but in either case, pretty negligible in terms of the lifespan of most foundations). On the other hand, if you lay the same foundation on a more clayey soil, the soil beneath might experience changes in pore water pressure over the course of months or even years. This then has to be accounted for with all kinds of lovely equations, and can cause a lot of problems with settling, which might not happen until it's long past the ability to change anything about the foundations.
Have you tried making clay and had trouble getting it to a good, workable texture? Then you need to watch this video where I give you the best advice for improving your clay. ruclips.net/video/VdkjntdO4G0/видео.html
Have you ever tried to kneed dough as well as you kneed clay? I wonder what your cooking skills baking bread looks like!
What an extremely well done video. This was everything I had questions about, and so many other things that are completely tied into this process that I never even thought of. I feel my clay finding will now be easy and successful! Thanks for the informative and interesting video
I have a horrible attention span. Often, I don't retain information well because I can't seem to get intrigued enough. You should have your own network tv show or a college class or something because you literally made dirt interesting. I love the way you explain things, it kept me engaged the whole time. You earned a new subscriber!!
@@silverfoenix No, not sure it would have enough horsepower as clay is a lot heavier and stiffer than dough.
@@Joe-nu4rm You are welcome
I'm gonna do this. I'm in the US south, there's so much red clay here, I can't even grow a garden without heavy amendments. But I'd be happy to find some use for the soil we have.
Also, literally every step here are the same steps we'd use to make bread or tofu in the kitchen. It's shockingly similar, down to the muslin bag, or in your case, a pillowcase.
There are many parallels between baking and ceramics.
So nice to hear you wanting to share the rather simplistic side of pottery that was never properly addressed
when taking Pottery A-levels. A very important part of a process that becomes your own from the very start.
Thank you ☺
You're welcome
I love this man SO much. He is whole heartedly human still and that is sadly hard to come by these days.
🤭
As an artist, I really appreciate raw passion without material or superficial motivation.
Yeah, probably was easier in the middle ages or in WWII, right?
Once when I was a kid I dug a deep hole and found clay. As a city kid it blew my mind, I thought of clay as something people make. My Mom didnt even believe me lol.
Cool, kids are great explorers
I work at an adult day program, and our art director pays through the nose for clay that looks just like yours, every month. Like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month.
No doubt.
The clay you pay for probably doesn't have chemical runoff in it from the vehicles driving over it.
@@celebratedeth362 unless you plan on eating the clay, that really isn't a problem. Unfortunatly the bacteria hosted by the moisture and organic bits mixed in could kill you faster.
Sounds like the answer is to start making your own and sell it to him for a little less
Thank you so much ! I managed two batches of clay already with dirt from my garden with little effort ! Your video changed how I see the ground/soil
Awesome
Watched you for the first time . 8 am and subscribed 2 mins in . Grew up beside a gravel pit and forgot how important those little adventures were to for self fulfilment and personal wealth of knowledge . You have a gift to educator and inspire young sir
Thank you, kids know it but we often forget as we grow up.
I've been having a weird breakdown for the past hour or so but watching this has calmed me and it's been fun learning about clay
So thanks ♥
Glad I could help.
4:14 Watches a dude play with dirt for 10 minutes. I enjoyed every minute of it!
the end results in 8:50 looks so much like the clay my granny used to make (still alive, just stopped doing it)
it makes me rly inspired to make clay myself. im actually thinking of making it in school for the pottery workshop near the woodworking workshop (special ed)
itll be rly cool to do a clay making day with the people from school from dirt in the school :D
As a kid I often played with friends on cliff like hill side near our homes. It was 5 meters or more high and pure clay in 50% easy. Dough like consistence at times. Gonna take my kids for a clay hunt I guess. Great content!
So many of us played with wild clay as kids. Thanks
buddys got the perfect amount of the tism to be informative, concise, and really endearing
Andy, after you mix up your clay, do you let it sit for 24 hours or so?
I constantly refer to your videos as I learn this wonderfully tactile art. ❤
Sometimes but not as a general rule. In my experience 2 or 3 hours will do most of the work, after that the returns diminish.
I love this guy. He told us to get off the platform he was making money from. He is true to his viewers
In agronomy we have a test called "black pudding / cylindrical object" (boudin in french) that enable us to estimate if the clay level is under or above 20%.
Take a hand of soil, put lot of water, malaxe it and try to make a ring with that. If the ring break soon that mostly sand (you can feel the grains cripsy), if you cant close the ring but only an half moon and there is cracks that limon mostly (the texture is soft and slidy) and if the ring can be closed that full of clay :)
Thanks good tips!
What does malaxe mean?
@@ilikeceral3 kneading, like dough
Thanks for this info Andy. I was out this week rockhounding with my son, looking for sapphires and other cool gems, but found myself also collecting bagfuls of different clays as it had just rained there. I've just started processing it now so this video is quite timely. (pillow case trick will save me heaps of time) I've got a lovely light tan clay which I'm hoping fires a nice pale colour as well. Cheers from Oz!
That sounds awesome, I'm glad my video was able to help you.
At first, I thought... yeah! clay stuff, but you have really opened up a whole new world to me!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!!🤩
Happy to help!
Heck yeah man! Good video! Im actually watching this to learn how to recognize clay so i can reduce the clay content of my garden.
You might like this one better ruclips.net/video/nqiJJDzR3vw/видео.htmlsi=DJ7jdvZwlLbMt5zk
The information from your channel is so amazing. I’ve grown a love for plants and wanted more pots but wanted them to be more sentimental and close to me. Making my own pots is something I’m working towards and you’re helping every step of the way!!!!!!
That’s awesome, I would love to see your plant pots when you get some done. I love plants too.
Man, living in Florida on a sandbar hasn't bummed me out until clayware became interesting
this is my first time watching this videos but as soon as I clicked on one of his videos I knew he was the type of guy I would like to watch he is kind and caring
Thankyou so so much for this, i was thinking of trying pottery but i just couldn't find the clay for it and frankly as a newbie i kept wondering why ordinary dirt wouldn't work, so thankyou so much for this ❤️❤️
You've been the best at explaining the whole process. Thanks for charing.
Glad it was helpful
Always a pleasure to watch a true craftsman teach the elements of the craft. Thank you, keep up the great work.
“Remember, being on the Internet all day is not good for you.”
Very glad you point this out. Also clay is like dough. I love seeing the chemical reactions in this world and learning all the different terminology for certain sciences.
I am so excited to have run across this video! I bought a farm in a town that was, at one time, well known for their red bricks that they made from the clay in the groundy Most of the old buildings still standing are made from those old red bricks and I love getting to see the few that remain. I find red clay everywhere on my farm so I am stoked!!!!
You are very blest, I hope you can find a good use for all your clay.
This is so fun and easy to make!
I love how he shows us how to make clay with cheap and accessible tools
You're definitely an authority on clay! Thank you for the great content! I'm starting to catch the bug for gardening and hope to create some (probably outdoor) planters by hand from clay sourced in the front/back yard (GAs finest). Your videos have been super helpful in making this feasible.
Thanks, glad to hear you are benefiting from my videos. I hear that Georgia has some really great clay.
I have seen some of the prettiest reds near Resaka or Calhoun Ga.
I love how you go out to dig for clay - and don't even bring a small gardening trowel. :D
Keeping it simple for the viewer. :)
Ha ha, if only it were that I was thinking of the viewer. In reality I forgot to bring something and it was a long way back or even to a hardware store where I could buy something so just make do.
Thanks for inspiring me to try this! I went o an adventure and found a spot with some “mud” which felt very moldable and plastic and started purifying it. I’ve seen your other videos and I’m excited to try making some pottery out of this! :) I had always thought pottery was super expensive to get into.
That is awesome!
This is exactly the kind of RUclips content I love. Clear, objective, thorough. Absolutely love it. Thank you for making this!
You are welcome.
This is the type of video appears on your reccomended you watch it and it was great
Thanks
Your vids are so informative and valuable, it's a wonder you don't have millions of followers !
I would love to have a million subs, maybe some day. Thanks!
i was truly impressed by the depth of knowledge and how easy he explained it!
Andy, just found your channel. Very interesting stuff as an outdoor survivalist. Never knew how to process my own clay for building, now i do. Absolutely, fantastic stuff.
Thanks, glad I could help.
aaa thank you!! ive been wanting to get into creating clay figures as a hobby, but i don’t have the money to constantly buy clay. this is really helpful and motivates me to get more into it!
You are welcome, glad to help. Pottery does not need to cost money
Great video! The clay I used was always VERY orange, arms length down as a kid.
I used to dig down to my shoulder with a spoon as a kid, pull out the clay and make things and let them dry out. Having your kids go out back and dig an arm length hole is a GREAT way to get your kids outside and keep them busy. Just make sure they learn the importance of burring the holes so no one breaks a leg.
Great job on talking about the clay content in different soils. This is definitely something to consider. I'd like to add that silt also forms that crackle texture in flat surfaces, however upon grabbing a sample it falls apart into fine powder, whereas clay would keep it shape, or break off in chunks. Best way to improve clay ID skills is to watch Andy's vids and go dirt hunting and testing! Keep up the great work Andy.
Hmm, I am skeptical. After 30+ years of looking for clay I can't say I have ever seen silt form cracks like that unless that silt had a small amount of clay in it, in which case it is easy to tell from the texture (as you say). Anyway thanks for watching and commenting.
Great video! Very informative and well paced. BTW, I love the part where you encouraged people to go outside.
Thank you, I hate to think of people sitting around all day watching my videos, hopefully I can encourage people to get outdoors.
Hi man .Super inspiring what you said about going on your own adventure to get some clay .
I showed my son this and his mind was blown ,now we collect different types to make nice clean clay using your methods
Mad props to yeh
Awesome, have fun on your adventure.
Your voice is just so soothing! I could literally sleep to it 😊
Oh I should start making ASMR videos!
Hey man, your vids have helped me out alot. I have been a primitive hunter, primitive bow and arrow maker and flint knapper for over 30 years. I dug some clay just outside Savannah GA. and made and fired a cool bowl. I wanted to get better working with clay and thanks for your videos. I going to make a clay oven to help with controlling heat or concentrate heat on my rivercane arrows and atlatl shafts. Think of an upside down clay funnel with open area on the side to feed the small fire with hickory nuts and clay cooking balls. I will sit it up so air comes in from the bottom. Hickory nuts burn and burn. Ancient charcoal. Using a fire pit to straighten cane shafts means sitting close to a hot fire. It works but has draw backs. I have pulled out small amount of coals/ embers but they don't last long and the wind can be a problem. This is my own idea and don't know if anything like this was used in the past. But I think it will work. I made my test pot to test the clay and decomposing granite for temper. I believe this granite contains mica. Worked very well. Thanks again for your RUclips channel
That sounds like a cool little stove. I have used decomposing granite for temper in the past and had good success with it. Thanks for watching.
If I knew this as a kid me and my friends would have our own homemade house 😂
As a geologist, there is a field test used to identify if a soil is 'plastic' or not. From dry you slowly add moisture and attempt to roll the soil in the palm of the hand to form a 6mm thick 'thread'. At too low a moisture content it will crack apart before getting to 6mm and at too high it will 'smear' without rolling into a thread.
A non-plastic soil will begin to smear before you are able to roll it into a 6mm thread (i.e. there is no moisture content where a 6mm thread will be able to be rolled). A more highly plastic soil will have a larger range or moisture contents where a 6mm thread can be rolled.
In practice though; if it feels like clay, it has a lot of clay content :D
I will say that the amount of silt content can be deceptive in hand sample. Even a small clay content of 10-15 percent is enough to make a soil highly plastic; because of this, I would levigate all the soil I collect unless very pure.
There is a field test that you can do to determine how much silt is in a sample. Simply put a tiny amount of your 'clay' between your front teeth and feel for how gritty it is. A pure clay won't feel gritty at all, and a soil with lots of silt will feel like sand between the teeth, even if it feels super smooth in your hands.
Thanks for the insider info on field soil tests. definitely appreciated.
Hi Andy! I made my clay using method 3, and it is VERY SOFT! but I am struggling to get the clay water to dry. It has been in the pillow case for 24 hours and is still really wet. What should I do?
Hey! I did this and it worked so well!! It was so funn
Awesome
@@AncientPottery is there anything I can substitute for the ground up sand at the end??
I feel lucky to have found your channel today. Your message and your presentation are fabulous and I'm excited to share this with my wife and her students!
Awesome, thanks
This video was suggested to me by youtube. I do share the view of the other commentators about how interestingly original this video is. God bless you. Greeting from Morocco.
Thanks
Great vid!
I always wondered if there's a way to recycle cement or bricks
(just grind them fine to a powder and add water)
Is this possible?
Because it's an easy vommon resource and you could just find it out in the open lol.
This is amazing. New favourite channel. I’ve always been intrigued by pottery. Also primitive creations. ❤️
Awesome! Thank you!
I've been studying Ancient cultures like the Hohokam, and this is something I've been wanting to know. Thank you. Well done.
Thanks, I hope this helps in your study.
Wow, this was amazing to watch. Thank you for educating us on how to make clay the right way!
You are so welcome!
I first watched this video months ago since then I bought a house with an average size yard. As we were preparing space to garden we realized we have way too much clay to grow in without amending the “soil”. So now I have endless buckets of clay that I am going to process into small pots for growing our garden out over the years to come. I didn’t know I needed this hobby but super excited to have randomly stumbled upon it.
I always wondered why Primitive Technology added pottery dust to his clay... now I know! Thanks for this detailed guide and explanations.
Yes, temper.
Really cool stuff, I really wish you'd expand on this type or video format more where you explain nature fundamentals people don't nessesarily know much about
Too many of us are far removed from nature. Thanks
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion!
You are so welcome!
Thanks man! Very informative and well spoken, no BS, no filler. I thought of the pillow case about a minute before it appeared, I is so smort!
Thanks, glad to help
Wholesome, outstanding effort, and honest work.
I'll definitely be watching more of this sort'a stuff.
Keep it up, my man.
Thanks, will do!
Thank you for posting this Andy, I had pretty much given up trying to get my clay right. Here where I live you find mostly red clay and then there's pink, white and a blue / grey clay and prairie soil clay.
I've tried getting the ratios right over and over again with the ted clay making tiles to test for shrinkage then adjusting it only to carefully watch it dry and heat it up then have it explode again and again.
I'll try it a couple more times after seeing this.
I don't want to have the store bought clay and use an electric kiln, I want to do pottery the old ways. It just seems more pure like that.
Thanks again
I'm sure if you have found all those different clays you should be able to get something to work for you. How frustrating though.
@@AncientPottery We have a family run pottery place over in another county that's been in business since the 1800's. I have flower pots their great grandfather made when I was real little that I still use today. I saw on their site how they dig out and process their clay and they even sell it to schools now. If I still can't get my clay right, I may just try buying it from them. But I'm going to try doing my own stuff first.
@@doodybird5766 This proves that there is good, usable clay in your area. Don't give up!
Maybe they will let you dig some or at least see what it looks like in the field?
Great video. I don’t have to look far for clay. I only have to look as far as the soil that is pushing up my garage floor and making it difficult to grow things in my backyard.
I once saw pottery shards in the Grand Canyon. There were two things that surprised me about them, the amount of sand in them and how thin they were. They weren’t large, decorated specimens one might imagine, more tiny shards that took the trained eye of the ranger friend I was hiking with.
Clay can be a blessing or a curse. It's hard to grow in and thought to build on.
Wow. Didn’t know it was that easy. Great video production by the way!
Thank you
Well done video, Andy! No hint of the production difficulties you alluded to elsewhere. On the subject of temper, I'm starting to suspect that the finer tempers such as diatomaceous earth and volcanic ash might need a bit higher proportion than the coarser materials such as sand in order to provide the same drying protection. I haven't completely confirmed it yet, but my experiences thus far seem to be leaning in that direction.
Thanks Dave! That sounds interesting and could be so, I will be interested in hearing if you do any experimentation in this area. When I used that tempered commercial clay recently, Laguna Redstone and NM Clay Super Sculpt, the tempers in these was very fine in texture. Or at least quite a bit finer than I am used to.
For the first time i actually processed my own clay after watching this video.
So straight to the point and easy to understand!!! Thanks for the video.
clay is just propaganda used by the clay industry to sell more clay
OMG 😮. I knew it!!! The claynspiracy Is real!!!
I bet the guy at the top of that clay pyramid is named Clayton Claymont III
That's hilarious 😂
😂😂😂
Clay is just propaganda from the dirt industry to sell more dirt.
I always knew the plates of clay from mud puddles could be turned into clay for crafts. I never knew regular soil could be used the same way.
Really cool video! I don't make pottery, I've never even watched any pottery or clay-related videos before, but RUclips evidently knew I would enjoy this one (: Super neat, I kinda wanna go find some dirt and make some clay now! 😊
Thanks for watching
I’m Hopi, however I was raised in Denver and away from my tribal community in Arizona. I am hoping to somehow learn more about our pottery practices and where to start, and I thank you for showing such a caring interest in prehistoric pottery. You taught me a lot!