Primitive pottery 2: Refining natural clay ⚱️
Channel: Make It Primitive
Date: 2020-04-13

How does one use the "water method" to refine clay if one doesn't have a vessel yet? I needed a solution to this problem, because the clay I have found in my area so far isn't the cleanest, it contains a lot of grit and biological particles.

So I turned to my trusty limestone slabs again, this time to reinforce a hole in the ground next to the creek. These walls prevent mud from getting into the clay slurry. Rough grit collects at the bottom, while fine clay settles out last. Biological material floats to the surface and can easily be skimmed off. The water drains over the course of a week, allowing me to harvest the top layer while leaving the still wet material further down to dry some more. In the end, I reach the grit layer at the bottom, which is discarded.

The refined clay looks and feels much finer and more homogenous than the untreated material. I haven't had the opportunity to fire any of it yet, so it remains to be tested whether there is an actual improvement in real-life performance.

I wasn't in the mood for pottery this time, so I decided to do something else with the clay for a change: Cuneiform writing. For the stylus, I used limestone yet again, by grinding a small, flat piece into shape so it has three straight edges that form a nicely defined 90 degree corner. The signs shown are Sumerian cuneiform, the oldest known form of writing (2.600 BC):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language#Writing_system

#primitivetechnology #pottery #wetprocessingclay