Cooking in Wild Clay Pottery - Part 1 - Collecting & Refining Clay

This is part 1 of a series which I intend to conclude by cooking a meal in a pot made from clay I dug out of the ground. In this part, we'll look at collecting and refining the clay.
This playlist contains all of the episodes in this series: • Pottery & Ceramic Craft
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[@A-Flying-Brick]

I will use my time machine to return to my stone age tribe with the knowledge I have gained from this video.

[@jpaulc441]

Bring a lighter. They will think you're a fire wizard.

[@angryorifice3201]

I can see this scene now -behold! My brethren, please listen to me as I know how to make clay things - confused caveman noises

[@tammos.9832]

Your name suggests you will not use that knowledge peacefully...

[@rundattmedia2106]

@@tammos.9832 🤣🤣

[@othername1000]

It's real. A Flying Brick made this comment 10 or 11 days before the video came out.

[@miskee11]

As a child I lived in a pretty clay-rich area. Whenever there was construction of any sort and the ground was disturbed, I would go and carry bucketfuls of clay home. I remember this one occasion when I went into a construction site and found literal tons of natural clay and, wanting to bring a whole lot of it home, I sourced a wooden pallet and some rope from a skip, piled tens of kilograms of clay on to it, tied my rope onto the pallet and dragged it home with my little brother. We made all sorts of things from it, but what we loved doing the most was making marble tracks. We'd build these elaborate hilly systems where we would drop marbles into and we'd watch them swirl around the tracks we created. Some of the tracks were pretty ingenious, even if I say so myself, as they would work differently with different sized marbles. Of course we never fired them, but they did their job, and some are probably still intact in my mom's garage.

[@zchen27]

Ha. Where I grew up we collected clay, rolled them into balls, and threw them at each other in lieu of snow balls (Southern China had very little snow). The teachers had a very dim view of that since parents keep on complaining that we come home coated in mud. And then some bright kid decided to bake the clay balls until hard under the sun, to the point where getting hit will start leaving pretty bad bruising. The school shut us down very quickly after that.

[@TheMoojoo0]

That sounds like so much fun! My friends and I would absolutely have done something like that if the neighborhood I grew up in had anything but river rock in the dirt! I'm sure we tried more than once.

[@rundattmedia2106]

A very wholesome comment. I enjoyed reading that.

[@Sally4th_]

@@zchen27 we had a game called "pug sticks" (pug being a local name for raw clay). You get a wet blob of clay, push it on to a thin, whippy stick about as long as your arm then use the stick to flick it at your friends. We eventually got stopped when my brother and his friend decided to "decorate" the side of a neighbour's house with splats of wet clay. Happy days :)

[@disorder1111]

When I was a kid we used to scoop it up from the bottom of a lake here in Northern Europe. There was an endless supply of pretty much pure clay down there. Not that pleasant when swimming though, with your feet sinking in the clay and scraping against all kinds of sticks and mussels.

[@gregh378]

As a potter it warms my heart to see you make this type of content 🤠

[@patricialavery8270]

Looked surprisingly like pressing paneer cheese.

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

you're related to harry potter?

[@beeleo]

@@NonsensicalSpudz Actually, I know Greg H. He's related to Larry Potter, the boy who smelled.

[@remjoleea5560]

Oooh I’ve always been fascinated by this process as both a fan of geology and art. Hope it turns out well!!

[@ellaquin]

ayyy, nice pride flag PFP!

[@AncientPottery]

I kept getting comments on my "clay is just dirt" video from people saying "it's not dirt it's soil" which perplexed me because in my mind soil and dirt were different words for the same thing. Then I looked it up and found that that's more of an American thing. Anyway your thumbnail popped up in my feed today and it made perfect sense that you used "soil" to describe what I call "dirt". Excellent video.

[@AtomicShrimp]

Yeah, I think they are synonymous, but just used with different frequencies either side of the pond. In the UK if you get soil on your clothes, they're dirty. Makes me wonder if in the USA, when you get dirt on your clothes, are they soiled?

[@510newguy]

When you mentioned finding an alternative to digging up clay in your garden I thought for sure the camera was going to cut away to you at a ceramics shop buying clay from a vendor. haha This is a neat video idea, I'm excited to see the finished result.

[@GolosinasArgentinas]

Looking forward to the next part! (That mushroom house is the most credible depiction of Atomic Shrimp HQ so far :D)

[@CapitalLuke]

It's such a small detail but for some reason Atomic Shrimp HQ being a cartoony mushroom house made my day

[@GolosinasArgentinas]

@@CapitalLuke Indeed, it put a smile on my face :-)

[@brianartillery]

The randomness of subjects you cover in your videos, Mike, is simply astonishing, and brilliant. Furthermore, I always come away from watching your videos, and think: 'I did not know that.' That's my hallmark of a good video. Thank you. I look forward to the rest of this series. Nice one.

[@Christopher_Giustolisi]

You may have to add quite a lot sand, maybe 40-50%. Using the pure clay will likely crack. You can do that if you dry it slowly and use a proper kiln for firing but you want to use a pit fire, so it will likely fail. Clay without any grog (as potters call it) isn´t that easy to dry and fire even with the right equipment. What you also can do is to make some Terra sigilata and coat the almost dry pot with it like the romans did. It will help to get it near water tight and it can be polished to an almost glossy surface.

[@johanneswerner1140]

Yes, there is one mistake in the beginning of the video. The thermal shock to worry about is during the fiering of the pot. After the clay has turned into ceramic and the pot has survived that it can take cooking. Since you heat it up with stuff inside, this will increase the total heat capacity, and liquid will take up and transport heat quite efficiently... Good luck!

[@Christopher_Giustolisi]

@@johanneswerner1140 It´s not so much about heat capacity, more about thermal expansion.

[@physicalnova2965]

I'm in an engineering school, and currently studying materials. These courses completely changed my take on things as simple as clay, and I found this video twice as interesting ! I really like these videos where you try new things, it's both enjoyable and a way to learn neat stuff, love it !

[@yendub]

Great video! You know what people are going to want with this. Your next limited budget challenge will now require you to make your pot and cook over an open fire. I'd love to see it!

[@adrigl3371]

I’m in a bad place mentally right now, not depression or anything like that, just normal sadness, thanks for making this chill and informative video, I like your voice

[@adrigl3371]

@@bettysparkles4988 No, no, it’s ok, I have good family members and friends I will talk to, they have my back, but I appreciate the gesture, I hope you have a wonderful day

[@virginiaallisonpeck2517]

Blessings to you my friend ❤

[@Stooky_Person]

Hello I'm from the present, where the present is the past, while the past is the future. I'm here as a rePRESENTative to say that it was a stooky video, and knowing that the rest of the mini series will be stooky as well

[@AtomicShrimp]

Please stay inside the temporal incursion vehicle. Do not interact with wildlife, or grandparents, especially your own.

[@hug_bug]

When I first saw the thumbnail my mind immideatly jumped to countryballs, lol Edit: for those who don't know, clay is a term for soil in countryballs canon.

[@Dinkbass]

I love this real world content. People need to connect to our grandparents and learn about True survival.

[@StubbyPhillips]

I've seen a lot of things on KZbin, but this is the first time I've watched someone wash dirt. It was even more exciting than it sounds!

[@cesariojpn]

> hopefully short series > accidently turns into a 45 part series on the history of cooking pottery

[@jensgoerke3819]

I was astonished to see the differences between the batches in part 2.

[@SlippinJimmyJ]

Last time I was this early, dirt was still new!

[@flyingfish2205]

Hey, the Tardis worked!

[@tsume_akuma8321]

The Organic Silt like stuff you find on beaches is what's known as "KieselGur" in german. By filtering out the sand, drying and firing it, you can get an amazing multipurpose material. It works as an abrasive, filter and biocide. It's also mainly hydrophilic nitrogen salts, so you can use it as fertilizer and even as an additive in animal feed. Historically, it was mostly used for the second two things, but of course also as a primary resource of weapons manufacturing.

[@meristuart1838]

Coincidentally, in art class today we learned what clay was made out of and how it’s gathered so this is a nice little addition to my knowledge

[@jayman4566]

Always enjoy watching people making things out of history. Took a Living History class at University close to 30 years ago and my mother still gas the pot and plate I made. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this series. As always, thanks for the video!

[@foodndat]

great idea shrimp, really looking forward to see how the next parts come out! :)

[@jawjuk]

Sorry, "wild clay"?? You mean there's untamed clay out there? Is it dangerous? Does it bite? Can one purchase some kind of clay repellent???

[@Sybil_Detard]

Very exciting. I have been watching a person who makes unglazed clay pots from wild clay. Woohoo!!

[@jack_grylls]

Another brilliant video! Can't wait to try this one out when I head back to the future

[@Sally4th_]

Following with interest as I've been contemplating this myself. Apparently a chiminea can make an effective kiln for small pieces.

[@captainfancypants4933]

below the gravel sand and clay, is definitively monsters. Don't ask how I know.

[@Garking]

I'm so glad I mastered my Time Klusmux spell and watched this video!

[@gregh378]

wait... how did you comment 10 days ago?

[@ecospider5]

They have complete control of time and space. It’s a good skill to have.

[@k8eekatt]

Haha! I am getting ready to go to the Greek festival and food co- op but there is a new video! Drop everything! Time to learn about pottery!

[@Mervin-Bunter]

So happy to see you closing in on 1 mil subscribers. Still one of the most underrated channels on KZbin.

[@therealryan1329]

Atomic Shrimp - Primitive Technology crossover? I'm in

[@kjdude8765]

Cody's lab has done something similar. He had some trouble but it was interesting to watch.

[@michaelold6695]

I can't wait for the next installment. Although with the amount of work that the first one took, I need to temper my anticipation as it might be a week before your next installment on this topic drops. I am really looking forward to seeing the results and appreciate the time and effort to produce scientifically based results. Can't wait to see an exploding pot (hopefully in slow motion??)

[@jdhsjo]

AtomicShrimp primitive tech arc! Can't wait to see him building a hut in the forest

[@alaskansummertime]

Not as easy as it looks. I tried this in Anchorage near a place that is supposed to be some of the world's best clay deposits. Seeing how much time was involved I was not able to complete the project. Maybe next year.

[@digitalspecter]

In these trying times I come to your videos to see something interesting and maybe learn a thing or two but especially to focus my thoughts on something down-to-earth.. sometimes quite literally =) No clickbaits, no unnecessary drama, no overexcited yelling.. just relaxing and interesting videos. Thanks for doing what you do!

[@sarchlalaith8836]

Informative, instructional, useful and entertaining!

[@hopefullyexisting1531]

wow time travel has hit a bit of a stride now, or i guess, in the future, look at all these time travellers!

[@archiebatchelor4451]

Thanks for something to watch on the coach home, perfect timing

[@404qwerty]

Atomic shrimp always surprise me, looking forward to seeing the whole series! Recently got into pottery, fascinated with this ancient primal mix of art and hardware. Now I wonder what it would be like to make something out of local clay. In my classes, we use white clay from the uk.

[@azteclady]

I am super interested in the results of this series--and thank you for showing all your process!

[@SananaAnanas]

such a great project! I'm really excited about this series :D

[@Jess-nc4oy]

I hope he makes a medieval type pottage in his pot.

[@NeilDinsmore]

4:37 Spud’s bedding from Trainspotting

[@Legalize_Ranch]

Your videos spark joy, mr shrimp

[@maiyannah]

Got that Townsends itch, huh?

[@randomgoose]

He's a nice guy, isn't he?

[@DRakeTRofKBam]

This sounds like a really interesting idea for a series, cant wait for the next part!

[@YourFriendlyBarista]

As it turns out time traveling does exist.

[@benmakepeace5759]

Look forward to this

[@gafrers]

Another great series

[@myth-termoth1621]

Clay is mostly composed of Al2O3 and Si02 Which combine in the process of weathering into layered structures with quite a lot of water incorperated. These thin plates are able to slide when there is enough water present. This makes for a material that turns back into stone if you heat it enough to drive all the water off.

[@cliche_5860]

pottery moment

[@lindastone6868]

Will you be having a go at flint knapping anytime soon?

[@AtomicShrimp]

Maybe

[@beautybug1831]

You're TRULY the purest definition of a #Renaissance Man I just love & appreciate your videos so much! I wish more ppl woul know, and leart to appreciate the fact that KZbin can be an enriching & intelligent effects... #MayGodHaveMercyOnUS 🤣 So called, brainy geeks... Lol... Thank you so much for your wonderful, high-quality and varied content!

[@MickWoods13]

Luv it 👍🏼

[@applegal3058]

Ohhh...how suspenseful...a multi part clay pot making adventure!!

[@Eden894HisBiome]

Good example of how water your garden can be damaging to soil health

[@LyneaFlynn]

Not directly on topic but I'd love to draw everyone's attention to the amazing sturctural properties of Löss/Loess. Thank you, Mr Shrimp, for always opening up such incredibly diverse topics on your channel! :D

[@GIBBO4182]

Shrimp has gone full “Primitive Technology” making baskets, now clay pots! Next week he’s building an extension using mud and sticks!😂

[@beeleo]

I still remember art class for a half year back in my Jr. High School days (8th grade). My favorite part was pottery. We took raw clay and worked it into a state where we could make pots, vases and other items. We made some items by hand but the most fun was a foot-kicked potter's wheel. I still have some of the things I made almost 50 years ago. We mixed our own glazes and it was always amazing to see the changes in color after the pots and glazes were fired. As a class, we all carefully placed our 'objet d'art' in the kiln at the end of the day to let them fire and cool over night. Someone's pieces would inevitably have exploded during the process but most would survive and could turn out pretty nice. Anyway... LOL... GOOD LUCK!!!

[@nancycurtis7315]

Looking forward to seeing the next video. Greetings from Dimboola, in Victoria, Australia.

[@KyleRDent]

It's a shame the miseryguts at YT probably won't let you play Unchained Melody over your pottery making. That'd be amazing.

[@Sh0ckmaster]

"Probably monsters" That made me chuckle. Thanks for another great video Mike.

[@larryevans7669]

Thank you for producing this content. This is great. I enjoy your delivery, and thoroughness. Very easy to follow, and for me, just a pleasure.

[@strayling1]

I did this when I was a kid! Clay from the back garden, fired in the ash box of our living-room coal fire with a salt glaze. The firing and glazing didn't work all that well, probably because the temperature didn't get high enough. Still it was a memorable experiment - thanks, Mum :)

[@Shaun.Stephens]

I'm looking forward to more of this series. Great idea. I'm in the process of (re) watching all seasons / episodes of 'Time Team' and their various experts talk about the different types of ceramics from different eras so I'm already curious. Thanks A.S.

[@johannaverplank4858]

I've always wanted to try this. We have clay in your yard (garden), and I've thought about refining it. Thanks for your informative video. I'm curious to see how it works out.

[@Jawst]

Absolutely brilliant! I cant wait for the next video! I tried this a few years ago with carfully selected 2m deep clay and successfully made some 3mm thick delicate Xmas decorations, glazed with boric acid and salt, chucked them in a roaring fire after drying. 75% came out perfect!

[@argirismouroufas3854]

Hi again. Thank you for your answer. I want to make a wood stove for my home but the fireproof bricks cost a lot money. I found without money red hearth but I don't know how to make corect clay for this. Some peoples in youtube say no sand, dome others say need some sand.. some others say to put some cement inside, some others say no cement! I want please your opinion If you like. Aris from Sparta, Greece.

[@Charky_Creations]

Is this video kinda fucky for anyone else? Trying to watch it on the TV, and it's showing up all pixelated (like when a digital TV has bad reception) / crashing the Roku.

[@nickmurray4900]

Stanwick lakes is in my territory! Beautiful place with endless walks. The East Midlands have so much to discover!

[@solaufein1374]

Remarkably interesting, informative and almost documentary like video

[@scottbelcher9026]

Very cool!!! By the time you finish this series you may have just one upped the Townsends! Lol! :0)

[@joshuabuilds3051]

Very interesting subject and project. I only wish they were longer, maybe not broken into parts? Minority vote, probably.

[@telecorpse1957]

I don't know why I find the alpha channel checkerboard at 0:28 so hilarious. By the way, does anybody know where did the checkerboard pattern originate? I googled it but couldn't find anything relevant. Come to think it, it would be really cool if some graphics software had an option to represent the alpha channel as let's say Greek meanders, or houndstooth pattern, or grayscale tartan.

[@oberonpanopticon]

Anyone else trying to figure out how to do this all primitive technology style but rapidly discovering how little information there is on doing this from scratch? It’s pretty depressing tbh, you’d think if people could do it thousands of years ago it’d be relatively simple, but apparently not.

[@basilechatelain965]

Imagine an alternate reality where you would have an Atomic Shrimp TV channel 24/7

[@karenramnath9993]

“Maybe it will work; maybe it will just explode.” This is why we love Mr.Shrimp 🤗

[@Tate70444]

So I’m a ceramic student in University, something I would try if your first pots doesn’t survive firing is take the shards of it and grind it down into a fine powder, called grog and add it to your clay, this will also help a lot with workability and reduce shrinkage and help avoid cracking when heating to cook. It’s a technique used a lot in African earthenware pottery made for cooking. Also if you have time I would make a batch of clay wedge it, then age it as long as you can, aging the clay adds a lot of placisity and makes it more workable. Very excited for the series!

[@ashtonwoodturnings225]

What kind of monsters under ground?.........Looking forward to part two

[@sucyshi]

I had to basically do just this in high school... Except my class ended up being the first where basically nobody did the homework and I ended up being the only one with a stinky backpack

[@kora843]

Yay! I have clay and I get inspired watching you make things so maybe I will make some pottery

[@thomilo44]

Wait what the fuck How is nobody talking about the *actual time travel*?

[@raraavis7782]

Probably Patreon members, getting early access 😉

[@AtomicShrimp]

Discord members get early access for free. I don't use Patreon

[@mlmmt]

Ohey, you have soil like mine, its not too bad when well soaked, over a long time, but once its dry, its... basically impossible to dig through, with anything but heavy power tools.

[@collinmclaren6608]

"Wild clay" idk why I just find this terminology so funny, even if it might be correct. Its sounds like some elusive species you're hunting in the forest or something.

[@TheSumoosh]

I love these videos and will need to see the outcome. Not sure the reason I'm watching this at nearly 2AM on a Friday night/Saturday morning but thank you!

[@skyem5250]

I think it's cool that's you're using wild clay but I prefer to use farm-raised clay.

[@ByHerHand]

My garden here in Sydney is all clay. Makes it very hard to grow anything with deep roots, as they are always wet, all year round. Also -I have more slugs than I can deal with! The bastards slime their way inside looking for food, and their fave delicacy is cat biscuits.

[@yokeloeulci8001]

This is great! After digging the foundation for my greenhouse 2 years ago, I have a barrel of almost pure clay sitting in the garden waiting to be used for something like this. Now I'll just wait to see what goes wrong or right here before I finally get around to processing mine! Thanks,!

[@ecospider5]

Fantastic. I have never seen how to refine clay this was really interesting. Looking forward to seeing how the 3 mixtures act differently.

[@bittehiereinfugen7723]

This promises to be very interesting, looking forward to the next part! But apart from that - what a wonderful piece of music in the end! Something about this song touched my soul and I just had to listen to it in full.

[@Linnet09]

Fascinating. I assumed all children, like me, had ready access to some very sticky mud to make our little bowls out of. My mother rather disapproved of this activity, initially on the grounds of mess and destruction of clothing, but she really was annoyed when our father let us use the kitchen oven to bake our products. The fact that the "soil" was largely waste from an ore refining facility may have influenced her. We had to let the pots dry in the sun after that. Many years later I took an introductory course in pottery for adults, and that clay came already refined. I found the work hard on my hands and wrists, though.

[@gavinhammond1778]

Who's watching this channel questioning why you do what you do? Looking forward to this series.

[@seeblu]

When can we expect to see part 2? I have been checking your channel everyday. Edit: Nevermind just checked out your discord 😁 I'm so excited

[@silva7493]

This is way cool. My house is in a valley of adobe clay, it's the same stuff the Spanish made their missions and built houses from. All the soil was a light beige when we moved here 50 years ago, but we planted trees and other things in it that matured and fed the clay over time, and now the color is a few shades darker and looks more dirt like. It's still clay though. Funny, it loosens right up when it's wet. It's almost rock hard when dry, but if I want to dig in it I do what you do, and water will slowly soak in, and I can enlarge the hole so it will hold more volume. Then after some time it loosens up. We usually let it soak overnight, and by the next day it's less gloopy and more like soil. I really love this project! It looks like you could make a lot of ochre paint in the different ochre colors, too.

[@stefflus08]

I'd think marine clay could be refined. Another problem with it is the salt content, which lowers the melting point.

[@lunab541]

This project sounds like a lot of fun. I just don't understand how you separated the sand from the clay, could you elaborate on that? Is the grain size that different between the two?