Stephani Stephenson on wed 1 jun 11
i made some adobe blocks with mine, just dirt mixed with a little straw,=
=3D
to
see what they did. then i stuck a 1X1.5 X 3" little block in a cone 2 fir=
=3D
ing.=3D20
wow, it made a lovely little brick with red to dark taupe coloration,
strong, not overfired, not underfired. shrinkage about 12%.painted some s=
=3D
lip
on other clay and it too is a nice color and seems to be well fired on.
well, hmm, this could be interesting! my soil is definitely in the clayey=
=3D
silt, silty clay, clayey loam, clay, clay family.... seemed to handle the=
=3D
firing with no additive at all.=3D20
but it just made me wonder who else has fired their dirt!?
Stephani Stephenson
Snail Scott on wed 1 jun 11
On Jun 1, 2011, at 9:41 AM, Stephani Stephenson wrote:
> ...who else has fired their dirt!?
My dirt is very short... sticks like clay, but too much fine
sand. Makes a wonderful oatmeal true-matte glaze
when sieved and mixed 50/50 with my firepit ash. Got
to dig deep here, to avoid topsoil. My old place in Reno
was just uphill from an old brickworks - serious clay,
almost impossible to grow anything in it, dire warnings
about letting the yard go unwatered as dry shrinkage
would (and had) destroyed house foundations. Dug up
some dirt from under the house - chocolaty glaze at ^6.
-Snail
Gayle Bair on wed 1 jun 11
Hi Steph,
I found some in 2000 when we were building our home here in the Great
Northwet. I test fired a wee amount to ^6. it was mustard yellow raw and
fired to a rich brown. Don't know about shrinkage. I had sieved the sand,
stones and organics out of it. Since it was brown I gave up on it as I use
white clay bodies but it was a fun experiment. I have that tiny thumb nail
sized piece laying around in my studio somewhere!
Gayle
www.claybair.com
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 7:41 AM, Stephani Stephenson
wrote:
> i made some adobe blocks with mine, just dirt mixed with a little straw,
> to
> see what they did. then i stuck a 1X1.5 X 3" little block in a cone 2
> firing.
> wow, it made a lovely little brick with red to dark taupe coloration,
> strong, not overfired, not underfired. shrinkage about 12%.painted some
> slip
> on other clay and it too is a nice color and seems to be well fired on.
> well, hmm, this could be interesting! my soil is definitely in the clayey
> silt, silty clay, clayey loam, clay, clay family.... seemed to handle the
> firing with no additive at all.
>
> but it just made me wonder who else has fired their dirt!?
>
> Stephani Stephenson
>
John Goode on wed 1 jun 11
Nice post! Im makin some trim tile @ cone 6 with the silt from the hill of
clay I dug fop a lake, it leaves the lil rocks behind and makes the nicest
slip or if hardenes into the best clay Ive worked in years! I will post som=
e
pics once I get a grip on a new camera! I better get some out of there an=
d
in storage before the rains come and fill it up.Steph try some at cone 6 an=
d
see what happens.....
John Goode
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Stephani Stephenson
wrote:
> i made some adobe blocks with mine, just dirt mixed with a little straw,
> to
> see what they did. then i stuck a 1X1.5 X 3" little block in a cone 2
> firing.
> wow, it made a lovely little brick with red to dark taupe coloration,
> strong, not overfired, not underfired. shrinkage about 12%.painted some
> slip
> on other clay and it too is a nice color and seems to be well fired on.
> well, hmm, this could be interesting! my soil is definitely in the clayey
> silt, silty clay, clayey loam, clay, clay family.... seemed to handle the
> firing with no additive at all.
>
> but it just made me wonder who else has fired their dirt!?
>
> Stephani Stephenson
>
Fredrick Paget on wed 1 jun 11
I love the local clay here. I call it Mill Valley Gold.
It fires out to a golden orange and will go out to cone 9 in some
cases. The whole neighborhood sits on a beautiful deep layer of it.
Only trouble is I can rarely get it as the whole neighborhood is
covered in two million dollar homes.
A few years back they were tearing down a lot of the older homes from
the 1920's and building these mansions. Mine unfortunatly is an older
one . When they carry us out feet first I am sure that mine will be
torn down too.
Anyway up the street they tore down the old house and brought in an
enormous sort of diesel powered "steam shovel" that dug a very deep
hole for a cellar and then they dug even deeper for what I think is
a swimming pool in the basement. . The clay from that hole was carted
off to be dumped and they said to me "take all you want" as they had
to pay to dump it.
I still have a couple of hundred pounds of that Mill Valley Gold. It
needs to be made into slip and screened as there is some sand and
small amount of gravel in it.
The same clay is under my land but it is about 6 feet down and there
is no place to dig. When my neighbor did a teardown about ten years
ago we got some of it out of the fence post holes they dug for a new
fence at the edge of my property.
I made a bowl of some of it and gave it to the new home owner to let
him know what he was sitting on.
Fred Paget
--
Twin Dragon Studio
Mill Valley, CA, USA
Paul Herman on wed 1 jun 11
Hi Stephani,
I have fired my dirt, which is decomposed granodiorite. At cone 06, it
just changes color to a redder hue and doesn't seem any different from
raw. at cone 10 it melts to a kaki colored glaze, reddish orange. I
use it a lot, trailed over my celadons, with no additions. 100% dirt
from the yard. Well really from the RR tracks above my place. I don't
think the Union Pacific cares if I get a little dirt.
Lucky you, you've got clay. I wish clay were more common around here,
but I guess I should just be satisfied with what I've got, which is
lots of igneous rock. It's fun figuring out the best way to use these
local materials.
Best wishes,
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
www.greatbasinpottery.com/
On Jun 1, 2011, at 7:41 AM, Stephani Stephenson wrote:
> i made some adobe blocks with mine, just dirt mixed with a little
> straw, to
> see what they did. then i stuck a 1X1.5 X 3" little block in a cone
> 2 firing.
> wow, it made a lovely little brick with red to dark taupe coloration,
> strong, not overfired, not underfired. shrinkage about 12%.painted
> some slip
> on other clay and it too is a nice color and seems to be well fired
> on.
> well, hmm, this could be interesting! my soil is definitely in the
> clayey
> silt, silty clay, clayey loam, clay, clay family.... seemed to
> handle the
> firing with no additive at all.
>
> but it just made me wonder who else has fired their dirt!?
>
> Stephani Stephenson
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