This video will help you to learn to identify and find wild clay but if you already have some wild clay and need to know how to process it into a good, workable material check out this video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q5yCn6uErJrHiWg.html

This channel is incredible. I absolutely adore the quality of videos you put out! Thank you SO much for all the work you do and for sharing your knowledge. May the force be with you and your loved ones my friend!

Like Wes said. I look forward to Wednesday mornings. I have a metric butt ton of clay on my property in Judith Gap MT. When I fired it and then let the test tiles sit, about 3 weeks later I noticed loose parts and some of the clay broke or was let loose. I hadn’t done anything with it. So I talked to our friend in Helena and decided to make a trip to see him. I took some dried and ground clay to him. He poured a little vinegar and low and behold it fizzed. Calcium carbonate. Hahaha. Then on the broken areas of my test tiles I saw these white dots. Calcium carbonate. Now I am levigating most of it out. So, your comment about testing when you get home sure paid a dividend before I made projects that would fall apart over time. It should be noted that the test tiles that broke up were all cone 04 up to cone 3. At cone 4 my clay began to loose form. Too hot. Lol Thanks Andy!!

After watching so many of your videos, I decided to find some clay and just found a lot of red clay just meters away from my house. I made some small coil pots but I haven't fired them yet because its been raining all week.

I always look forward to Wednesday mornings. Thanks

Yesterday I fired my first ever pot! After being inspired by yourself and Tony Soares to have a go at finding wild clay and making something. I really must thank you for making all of these videos Andy. From the level of detail you go into to the editing, I really love what you do here. You have made pottery accessible to someone that otherwise would never have tried it, I don't have the words to express how grateful I am for the time and knowledge you have shared. I will never be a master potter, but the satisfaction one can get from making something with your own hands - and from DIRT no less - is hard to explain. All the best to you.

I like wild clay hunting videos 😁

That David Az. clay and the caliche look to be the only ones I wouldn't use,... the rest of them look like winners! Thanks again! Love this stuff!!!

Andy thank you so much for this video! I wish I’d known about your wild clay expedition; I’d have loved to join you and learn😊. I’ll keep on hunting and learning! Thank you again!

Thank you so much for making these videos about finding wild clay and making pottery. I just found out that the earth here where I live in Germany contains a bunch of Clay, and so I will soon start to experiment with it. I haven't made anything with clay in quite a while, besides from digging a hole in the ground and planting some new berrie bushes, but now it's really itching in my fingers to try making some pottery with the wild clay from my garden.

Great video, just the update I needed; I've been binging your content for the past few days, and I never thought clay was just so ubiquitous! I love crafting all sorts of stuff, and seeing how simple pottery can be, I'll surely give it a shot the upcoming spring; I can already tell where to find clay just by memory, recalling those tyre tracks and crackled puddle beds I have often seen cycling around!

Hello Andy, maybe one day you should try firing pieces in a profesional kiln, just to see what happens. I've tried it and my clay isn't good enough, it shrinks a lot and it acquires a light reddish color, like a building brick.

Thank you so much. I've been doing some experiments with my native soil to see if it would be useful. Partially out of expedience I have taken several samples from crayfish mounds in flooded areas and this seems to work very well for this process. So far I haven't fired anything but it seems to be a very fine clay with just a little bit of grit that falls out with levigation. The deposit is a thick alluvial clay which rests on a base of limestone material called Austin Chalk. In more recent times, geologically speaking, this area was a grassland prairie which would regularly be swept by wildfires. I find a pretty substantial amount of very fine black matter after levigation that seems to be burned organic matter, carbon or charcoal. After I remove this charcoal material the product is substantially lighter on the order of a chocolate milk color where it started off as a very dark brown sometimes approaching a blue-black color depending on the sample. I've been using a piece of window screen to screen out this carbon material. I plan on getting a paint filter bag like you mentioned in another video. That would help a lot. If a slip like coating of this material is allowed to dry on the side of a smooth surface like the inside of a bucket it has a buttery smooth texture like a soap or wax like you describe. It is almost like beeswax. On problem that I have had is that it seems to be VERY sticky until nearly leather hard. I think this may be the result of a high magnesium content. Even if the sticky nature makes it too difficult to hand work, I'm new at this, I think it might still be really useful for slip molds. I'm actually really surprised that I haven't had more shrinkage cracking. I also have a pecan orchard and therefore an endless supply of pecan stick wood that I can use to do some primitive firing. I'm encouraged to see that I can literally walk out in my front yard and make something with nothing but materials I can pick up. Again, thank you so much for doing these videos.

If I lived close by I would have signed up for your class! Thanks for all your videos!

Merry Christmas🎄❣️

I go through Benson twice a year. I can't wait to check it out!

im glad you posted this! I'm going to Nogales in a week to visit family and I think it would be cool to take my nieces clay-hunting and hopefully fire some stuff. i got a short timeline so i'll have to get creative with the cleaning rehydration & drying processes to have it ready in two weeks, but I think we will enjoy it whatever the results

I living in Hongkong, and I will try to look for clay when I go to hiking.

Haha! Those images of cracked ruts are spitting duplicates of the ones I drive by everyday. I’m all fired up to give it a try now thanks to your excellent KZfaq vids. Thank you so much!

its very interesting seeing the difference between where you harvest clay and where i do. The main difference is that my clay all comes from active river banks and it never dried out. I can tell what is going to be a workable plastic clay just by looking at it

Your video are great, keep them coming

Nice video. Happy Holidays, Andy!

Another amazing learning experience. Damn man..thank you!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Andy have you ever searched for clay in Mohave County along the river? As kids try to dig to the other side of the world 😁, on a river beach, we would get so deep we hit clay. Not sure how good it was.

amazing 🤩

National geology servay maps show clay deposits. Thay are very easy to find online

Jut found you! I would have joined your hunt for clay, but sadly I am in the North East! Enjoying your channel! Looking forward to getting started!

I like that Benson clay. Ran out, gotta get more.

I like your red car song - giggle :D

Hi there, I just stumbled across your channel. Needless to say I'm addicted, planning to head out and look for some clay this weekend! I'm a geologist up in Phoenix, I'd love to chat sometime about your favorite clay spots in the state. I'm very familiar with the geology of the state, but never thought of it in regards to pottery and wild clay. Anyways, love the videos!

You said it best, no matter where you live, ypu just need to know how and what to look for with clay.

Any plans on making plates or other modern kitchen pottery?

If I lived in AZ I'd love to go wild clay hunting here in ky I'm going clay hunting tomorrow. Your tips will help. 😊

This was really interesting but one thing you said has puzzled me and that was when you said that sometimes age can improve the clay. But as both the clay and the water are both already ancient, how can they be made more aged? I apologise if this is a really dumb question

Thank you for the video. Do you think i would have any luck doing this in Florida? It’s always wet here

Pretty excited finding your videos. I have a question on clay layers found at the beach (specifically Long Beach California). After severe erosion a layer of clay is revealed at low tide lines. As a metal detectorist it excites me because the clay layer stops the sinking of heavy gold and silver that we hunt. BUT now I am thinking of harvesting that clay at my next opportunity. It appears to be pure clay gray in color. Is this suitable for use? Would it need special treatment because of the immersion in sea water? Any further info would be appreciated. Thanks!

I like this one clay

There's a road in southern new mexico that runs through barren land. We found these weird mounds as we drove through. Looked like we were on another planet. The mounds had this powdery red clay. My husband said it was clay at least. Have you ever seen that?

Do you know where would be a good place for clay up north? It's densely wooded area with chernozem (lot's of humus). Oh and rivers never get dry.

Any tips on finding clay in areas that are constantly wet? It has rained here at least every other day for months... we would have to be in a serious drought for me to see the crackled dry surfaces of clay here right now.

👍

Hey Andy! Im brand new to the pottery world and have been having some trouble extracting clay from the soil near me, I live in New Englnd where there is very little clay anywhere near me, what are your sudgestions to getting quality clay from dirt with low amounts of clay? Any clay I do get ends up really hard to work with, it breaks up really easily no matter how much water you give it, no stretch at all.

Can you show us in a video how find green clay and separate from mud for face mask

Andy, what would you suggest for beginners who may want to use wild clay but we’re not in ideal spots to find it? I live in the city of Chicago and there are some great parks, beaches and forest preserves by my home but it’s already snowing here. Any tips?

Andy here in my zone almost all clay have some caliche content. How can i remove it by levigation? Is the same process that you make for separate clay from sand, silt etc, or you have to do something special? Please excuse my English. Greetings from Argentina!!

I had to pause this vid at the calichy clay part because I want to ask a question before I forget it. Since its calcium content is so high, is it a good source of lime, lime wash, or something like that?

This is great!!! I’ve been planning on making some bricks for my outdoor kitchen, but I needed better than “mud” bricks. This channel is super helpful! And on a side note, it was really cool to see an informative, well explained tutorial coming from my little area of Az! Most of the time I’m cursing the native soil (won’t grow anything but mesquite trees and cactus), but being able to make use of the soil to make better bricks is going to be cool! Andy- if you ever want another hand harvesting, let me know!

i see you talking about fireing clay that has coliechee in it at a low temp. what is the lowest temp to fire clay and have a soound piece?

I live in Florida know any where I can legally acquire clay in nature?

Hey Andy I had a question for ya buddy. I am on the hunt for paints and flux for my clay. Now, the plan I talked to said to use acrylic paint and hodgepodge. Is this true, or is it Walmart nonsense?

Red car 🚗