We're continuing investigation to the performance issues, you can follow and react here: https://lemmy.world/c/friendicaworld

mastodon - Link to source
A guy emailed me saying he collected #WildClay from the beaches exposed by the series of hurricanes we had last year. He’d been trying to find someone to give it to who would appreciate it and found me online. I’m going to meet up with him in a few minutes. Yippee! He says it’s very pure marine clay with no sand. I haven’t found beach clay yet and all of the #Florida clays I’ve collected so far are sandy, so this is an exciting find.
#florida #wildclay
in reply to Pottery by Osa

mastodon - Link to source

Pottery by Osa

Okay, that was a very lovely encounter. The guy who contacted me is a surfer, born & raised in FL. He said the #clay had washed up in big balls onto the beach after the storms and that he’d never seen anything like it before. I told him that the hurricanes were such a material, psychological & spiritual upheaval for so many and that working with the clay would help me to continue to reflect on all that happened. More info in the #alttext
#alttext #clay
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to Pottery by Osa

mastodon - Link to source

Miah Johnson

@camless @MLE_online I will post some! My apprenticeship is kinda weird as it's not strictly "pottery". I mean I'm making things, but haven't done much wheel work or hand building this month. My apprenticeship is the "full package" 🤣 so I have spent the last weeks helping Peter glaze all of his production, prepping and firing our kiln, unloading both chambers, scraping all the shelves, and getting the studio ready for our show this weekend. I'm learning how to run this studio, maintain it, and pottery. It's a lot!

Maybe I should make a studio tour video. Peter hand built the entire studio so it's very interesting!

Yesterday I finished unloading our bisque chamber and helped Peter move a 3 piece sculpture (that had frozen into one piece) from our sculpture garden through the snow and into the studio glaze room to thaw, and so we could build a frame to install inside it and hang lights on. Today we're moving it back outside (in pieces this time).

@Emily Velasco @Cadmus 🌲
in reply to Pottery by Osa

mastodon - Link to source

Pottery by Osa

I tested the #clay the surfer gave me and it turns out to be very similar to many other samples I’ve found in #Florida. The gray-to-yellow/off-white transformation, the high porosity even when fired to high temps—this is the most common type of clay I’ve found, not just in SW FL, but even in central and NE FL. #WildClay
#florida #clay #wildclay

reshared this

in reply to Pottery by Osa

mastodon - Link to source

Pottery by Osa

It’s tough to make #pottery with this type of clay that we would deem functional. I’ve attempted to do so by combining it with commercially mined materials that help decrease porosity (or encourage vitrification.) In the end, I decided to honor its natural qualities instead of trying to force it to be something it isn’t. (Beautiful life lesson, right?) This is a sculptural vessel I made last year with minimally processed #Florida clay. #WildClay
#florida #pottery #wildclay
in reply to Jennifer Moore 😷

mastodon - Link to source

Pottery by Osa

@unchartedworlds Exactly. I fired this clay to a temperature much higher than Indigenous potters would have and it is still very porous so water would seep through. Maybe it would be useful to quickly carry water from point a to point b, but not to store. However, people throughout history have ingeniously devised so many different ways to seal surfaces. I've used beeswax to seal pots made with this clay and it works very well.
@Jennifer Moore 😷
⇧