A square fired slab in bright brick orange, its surface slightly rough with small white flecks and a hairline crack near the top.
  • A close view of the slab's corner, its brick-orange surface cracked and grainy above a thick, coarse edge.

Many wild clays contain impurities that, when fired, may exhibit unexpected but beautiful results. This fired clay slab is comprised of wild clays dug in Western North Carolina and contains no additives.

Composition

Clay minerals, iron compounds

Handling Notes

  • Screen, blunge, and test wild clay before using
  • If wild clay is not plastic (bends without cracking) enough to throw on a pottery wheel or cannot be used for forming pottery, it can be used for hand-building, slab-building, clay slip, or as a glaze ingredient
  • Screening is the process of passing the liquid clay mixture through a mesh screen to remove rocks, twigs, roots, and sand.
  • Blunging is the process of mixing clay with water to create a uniform liquid mixture.

Applications in Craft

Keywords

Provenance

Motyl Pottery, Weaverville, North Carolina. Acquired 2024.

Sources

  • Levy, Matt, Takuro Shibata, and Hitomi Shibata. Wild Clay: Creating Ceramics and Glazes from Natural and Found Resources. London: Herbert Press, 2022.

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