Lily Krakowski on sat 6 sep 03
Ah the New Jersey clays of Yore. But they bulldozed Yore, and Jordan,
Monmouth are gone the way so many lovely clays went....However.
I have done a good deal of surface clay digging--because I do a lot with
slip glazes.... BUT
I think that if you are up against deadline you should reconsider and not
try to find/make a body clay, unless someone who has been there/done that
can lead you to a source. Just as around Albany one can find Albany slip,
your Extension Service, historical society, or similar might be able to
tell you where the Jordan and others were mined and around there you might
find what you need. A town historian might know where a brickworks once
was.....
Otherwise you have a lot of testing to do, and that does not help with
deadlines.
HOWEVER if you find a clay --esp. a nice rich red or black one--try it in a
slip glaze. Dry, mix with frit, ash....depends on temp you are firing to.
Just about any recipe for Albany, Red Art, Fremington based glaze would be a
good starting point. And a quicker way....
AND- (Is Vince gone? Would one of you take him out for a soda/beer, so we
can talk?) THE ALARMIST says: Are your tetanus shots up to date? And will
you be sure to remember that surface clays are NOT respected by Nature, and
that animals with worms and parasites do use them as bathrooms; and that on
the shores of polluted waters, you might expose yourself to lead, and
godknowswhatelse in the clay?
Lili Krakowski
Constableville, N.Y.
Be of good courage....
Snail Scott on sat 6 sep 03
At 11:33 AM 9/6/03 -0400, you wrote:
>And will
>you be sure to remember that surface clays are NOT respected by Nature, and
>that animals with worms and parasites do use them as bathrooms; and that on
>the shores of polluted waters, you might expose yourself to lead...
Now that is not alarmist, Lili, but sensible
advice and a call for reasonable prudence.
A pair of rubber dishwashing gloves might
be a suitable fashion accessory for natural-
clay handling, especially for surface clays
dug from areas with lots of people and
critters and industry.
-Snail
wayneinkeywest on sun 7 sep 03
I have no access here to natural clays, just marl, which is composed of
shell (calcium) and
limestone from the coral growth that helped build these islands.
Were i to consider what is written below,
I would be loathe to use any of it, had I to wear "rubber dishwashing
gloves" in
order to handle it. How can one throw wearing rubber dishwwashing gloves,
how can one handbuild??!! You're gonna get dirty, people...comes with the
territory.
Underground (dug) clays are no more appreciated by the creatures of the
earth than the
surface clays. Ground water permeates it all, and carries with it whatever
happens
to be on or near the surface, including worm castings, industrial and
agricultural
pollutants. A test made a decade ago by seeding radioactive isotopes on the
surface dirt of the
western coast of Africa showed that the dirt is picked up, carried across
the ocean,
and deposited on (among other places no doubt) my tiny little island off the
coast of Florida!
Nowhere is immune to detritus from other places. This is how we impact our
planet, for better
or worse...and Nature does a much more efficient job of it than we do.
Who is to say that the clay now mined in the midwest, or Israel, or Africa
(wherever) wasn't the
toilet for wooly mammoths, cave creatures, or native peoples at some point
through time?
Just a reminder...we're talking about DIRT here . "It's everywhere you want
to be" :>)
Wayne In Key West
> At 11:33 AM 9/6/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >And will
> >you be sure to remember that surface clays are NOT respected by Nature,
and
> >that animals with worms and parasites do use them as bathrooms; and that
on
> >the shores of polluted waters, you might expose yourself to lead...
>
>
> Now that is not alarmist, Lili, but sensible
> advice and a call for reasonable prudence.
> A pair of rubber dishwashing gloves might
> be a suitable fashion accessory for natural-
> clay handling, especially for surface clays
> dug from areas with lots of people and
> critters and industry.
>
> -Snail
>
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