A rough, irregular chunk of dry clay in pale blue-grey, its broken surface coarse and crumbly and scattered with rust-orange iron staining.
  • Another chunk seen from a lower angle, its layered crumbling profile and coarse grit standing out against the flatter view.

Blue clay is a naturally occurring clay often found in water-saturated or oxygen-poor environments where the clay’s minerals have remained unoxidized, giving it a blue-gray appearance when freshly dug. This wild clay was dug in Cherokee, North Carolina by Cherokee Potter Levi West.

Composition

Clay minerals, iron compounds

Handling Notes

  • Typically fired at cone 5
  • When fired, this clay turns to a terracotta red
  • It is often used for hand-building, coil-building, and various techniques to create pottery and sculpture objects

Applications in Craft

Keywords

Provenance

Levi West, Cherokee, North Carolina. Acquired 2024.

In Use

Have you used this material?

Please contact Mellanee Goodman, Program Director, Curator, and Materials Specialist, to start a conversation about submitting your work for inclusion on this site.

mgoodman@centerforcraft.org