PERRY STEARNS on fri 20 jul 01
As a good dictionary makes clear, mica is a basket word so inclusive as to
say little to a clay user beyond small and sparkly...carries no specific
color implication. And so those contributing to this thread are right to
emphasize the sites from which their clays come. I have seen sparkly- gold
clay big round pots in India, water jugs in New Mexico and as shards in digs
here and abroad. When you find some, dig and test for poppers before
investing time or energy.
Today's NYT(p.B33) carries some info new to me re G. Ohr's clay. Marjorie
Gowdy, Exec-dir. of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum says his very thin, much
manipulated pots were enabled by the clay he dug "from Holly Bluff on the
Tchoutacabouffa River near Biloxi...a special clay, very sandy, looser and
wetter than traditional clays. It comes in tan, gray, white and a greenish
blue. (It) fires up to an unusual tannish color, not terracotta. It has
almost no red to it."
If there are Mississippi Clayarters, could they look into this, please?
Fran Stearns
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