What To Do with Clay in Your Backyard

DIY Process Wild Clay for Pottery at Home
More tips on clay here: / tinkerandthink
benshane.com/
Processing the wild clay you dig yourself is straightforward. You can use the wet or dry method, and in either case the goal is the same--remove impurities like stones, sand, roots, and twigs to improve the working consistency of your wild clay.
You can use some unprocessed clays, too, but it introduces a whole host of new challenges to confront. Processed wild clays will have all the character of a non-commercial clay, but will be more consistent, workable, and straightforward.
#wildclay #pottery #ceramics
0:38 What You Need
0:54 Before You Start, Take Notes
1:16 Wet Method
4:07 Dry Method
4:36 Age Your Clay
5:14 Test Your Clay
5:55 Upcoming Videos
Music by @JakeShaneMusic

[@kevinkinal9557]

Great vid. Amazingly today I started harvest clay form my yard and came into watch vids on the process and you happened to post this on the day I needed it. That has never happened in my you tube experience. You vid on firing the clay was PHENOMENAL.. the info about the effects of firing at different temps was sooo cool and helpful!!!

[@tinkerandthink]

That's awesome! I hope you have fun experimenting with your backyard clay! Let me know if you have any questions as you go about it--I'll be happy to help if I can.

[@mr63dodge]

Great channel! I have been digging and processing found clay for 7 or 8 years now and it is so satisfying. If you are getting lumps when you try to hydrate, or slake it, make sure it is bone dry first. Sounds strange but if you try to rehydrate damp clay it just turns lumpy. My process is, add water to a 5 gallon bucket till half full, then add bone dry clay pieces, preferably egg sized or smaller, until the water level is 5-6 inches from the top, but covers the clay by at least two inches. DO NOT STIR or disturb for 8 hours or so. Give it a try!

[@tinkerandthink]

I've found the same thing to be true! Thanks for bringing it up

[@jakeshane]

Fantastic visuals, both informative and super relaxing to watch!

[@jenettemorganclassroom]

One thing in the wet-method's favor is the lack of dust produced, therefore it is safer. The dry method may be faster, but when you're hand-sieving all that dry clay you could be kicking up silica dust (very bad for the lungs).

[@wolfie1703]

Wearing a respirator would fix that!

[@davidlipovsky4026]

hey there! :) I found a way how to dry out clay much quicker. I just put clay in a pot and put it in on cooker, in about an hour I have beautiful clay without water because water evaporates

[@bendavanza]

II have some wild clay that was just kind of crumbling and splitting. I dry processed using a corn grinder (Andy Ward's guidance) and a 30 mesh sieve. The results were better but still cracking when worked. I left the wet clay alone in a bag for a couple weeks and then found it to be workable!

[@tinkerandthink]

This is an especially useful tip for dry processing, because it gives time for every clay particle to be hydrated, which really improves plasticity.

[@Havardfam5]

When you said wet clay. I’m assuming you meant you added water to the dry clay? I’m new at this and I know that sounds crazy to ask but… lol. How much water did you add? Just a little at a time? Thank you in advance. Your response spoke to me because we have an antique grist mill. If hubby will let me put clay in it that sounded like a fun project with the family. lol. I don’t know if he will want to risk clay, even though it’s dry in the mill though. Thank you!

[@dudukoc1832]

so lovely an helpful ! thank you so much sweet human

[@adelitaa3237]

Hi! Great video! I was wondering which is the video for testing your clay bodies?

[@horainzahra4802]

I like plantation and playing with dirt and soil. Unknowingly I have done both process 😹.

[@ingemiedema4332]

Thank you for this video, i am wondering which video is the next video, the one about how to determine the best uses of the clay? And how to test it?

[@danielestrada7852]

Thank you 🙏🏽 😊

[@Havardfam5]

Thank you for the video! I have some clay from our families creek/land. I REALLY wish I had processed it immediately. Because it’s been sitting for about 2 years & has dried into a big clump. Now I will have to start the aging process all over again. Uuggh lol. I plan on getting some more and just use that batch for immediate use for fun. We did make a few things unprocessed & it held up ok. It was just for fun & very small items. Thank you for the tutorial!

[@notyours1612]

I have researched and researched but cannot locate where to find Clay in North Dakota. 😞The Geologist Dept was no help. Love you video♥️

[@tinkerandthink]

Where in North Dakota? I just found maps of clay in southwest North Dakota.

[@kayonthomas7608]

Look so clean

[@runawhitley3277]

Thank you so much for this video, I have looked everywhere for this type of content. How long does the clay need to age?

[@mulugetayifru2352]

Thanks u have gd video, I appreciate u is u send me more details

[@khalidali-ns5hi]

I want to build a car body 4.5 meters long and 2 meters wide, How much the quantity of clay do i need and what kind of clay which is suitable for that job ? Thank you for sharing 😊

[@AnysZoghely]

Hello! Any Idea on mesh size needed for processing dry clay ?

[@tinkerandthink]

Window screen is like 8 mesh, I think. Gets out huge stuff that's problematic, but leaves grit for grog.

[@davidplatt8308]

Google said it needs 200 mesh to purity the clay.

[@tinfoilhatsarethenewblack8788]

Hi, thanks for sharing your process in detail ! :) I was researching on the aging time of naturally sourced clay and i found basically everything between a few months and 100 years. The most reliable source quoted an aging time of 10 years. How long do you (plan) to let your clay age or do you just check it now and then for plasticity and homogeneity ?

[@tinkerandthink]

One day (or decade) I want to try to test this for myself. But I've used wild clay immediately after processing. It's great, but of course that isn't compared to how much better it might be after aging it for a year. But also, the clays I've been digging don't suffer from a lack of plasticity.

[@tinfoilhatsarethenewblack8788]

@@tinkerandthink Yeah testing it might be the way to go. I felt inspired and went on a clay hunt in our local forests today and collected a few promising samples. The variety of clay in such a small area was amazing, I found grey and reddish/brownish clay, some had large iron oxide veins inside and others were heavily saturated with sand. In addition to looking close to rivers and landslides, I found that looking inside the roots of trees that fell over, was a promising technique. The rain washed the dirt and the sand out of the roots, leaving only the clay inside, which is not as soluble and sticks better to itself. It's also way more dry and less messy to handle then dug up clay. I'm not sure if this could be a valid technique in Idaho or elsewhere, but here in northern Germany where the root plates of fallen beech and oak trees, which are frequently defeated by the storms from the east and west coast, tower up as high as a man, it's a very reliable way of sourcing clay samples.

[@KohshinFinley]

Thanks for this video! I dug up some clay from under my family’s garden and my bucket sample has some dirt in it. What would you recommend to be the way to separate it all and extract the clay? Thank you!!!

[@tinkerandthink]

Try the wet method, and let it sit in the bucket long enough for things to start settling out. The heaviest stuff settles first, which is usually rocks and sand, and the organic stuff like twigs and leaves float. Skim the top off and discard, then pour out the middle section until you start to see large particles or stuff at the bottom, and leave that behind in the bucket. What you poured off will be mostly clay. Any dirt in it will burn out harmlessly, though if there's too much it will make the clay harder to work with. If that's the case, just try to get another sample with less dirt.

[@kayonthomas7608]

Am in Jamaica

[@phillipjackson2877]

Do you add anything extra to your clay such as sand to help temper it or is that not necessary?

[@tinkerandthink]

It really depends on the clay and the firing process. This particular clay has a good variety of particle sizes already, so I don't add anything. I also don't use this clay for pit-fires or raku, where sand would help reduce thermal shock issues.

[@RandomsFandom]

Make a plaster of paris table top like 6’’ think, and it will suck the water out of wet clay

[@brick247]

Hi, very interesting post I have a question, is there an additive to mix it with the clay to chance the color ? for example if it is too light make it more darker or if it is red make it a buff yellowish color I really appreciate your answer

[@tinkerandthink]

You can add stains to white porcelain to make it all kinds of colors. But a red clay can only get darker by adding materials. You can add a red clay to a buff clay to get a lighter red, but the iron oxide in red clay will always come through.

[@alaxeasfikas6299]

Hello. Is there a certain color of earth/dirt that tells us that that dirt we found is clay? And where would wild clay mostly be found?Thank you

[@tinkerandthink]

Check out this video! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHS5ZKNvhLeVrLs

[@jennyfranklin514]

Okay. I need advise. I have processed most of my clay via the wet method, but I have (for fun & educational purposes) processed some, dry. I used a corn grinder which was super challenging because it continuously needed to be cleaned out. Regardless, I got'er dun. The problem I have is, via the dry method. I ground it up into the finest powder I could. I managed to remove the heavier rocks & pebbles, but I still have inert material in the fine, dry clay. When I wet processed the other clay, I just kept playing in the mud until all the clay was broke up & the inert material floated to the top where I seived it out. Not so easy with dry processing. So how do I either get all the inert material out, ORRRR.... Does it even matter?

[@tinkerandthink]

By inert material do you mean organics, like grass and stuff? I've found that the wet method is better at removing those, like you said. The dry method is good for hydrating pure clay, but not as effective or efficient for filtering less pure clay. If you need to filter your clay, I'd just stick with the wet method. It also hydrates the clay better and more homogeneously, which improves plasticity. But the organic stuff won't hurt the clay. It'll just burn out. That will mean the fired clay has some texture and some voids, making it more porous that it would otherwise be. That may not be what you want, but it isn't bad.

[@AncientPottery]

Don't sweat the inert matter, grind it all up, you have to add temper anyway.

[@camilleglez6396]

How can I recycle it if I use it for my hair and body?

[@HelmetVanga]

What to do to prevent ckacking

[@tinkerandthink]

Dry evenly. Cover with cotton fabric or a paper bag to slow down and even out drying. Adding grog helps, too. Most wild clay I've found has some sand already because it isn't pure, and that helps. If a wild clay always cracks no matter what, and shrinks a lot while drying, it might be bentonite, which is great to add in small percentages to other clays but doesn't work by itself.

[@terryglenweaver]

How to make single, cylinder style chess pieces only larger

[@safachagra7940]

Hallo is there a video for testing clay?

[@tinkerandthink]

I'm working on one. Stay tuned!

[@safachagra7940]

@@tinkerandthink ❤

[@sandgrains3418]

Why is the video title translated, and inside the video there is no translation? Please answer

[@jennyfranklin514]

How long do we 'age' our wet clump of clay?

[@tinkerandthink]

As long as you have time to spare. Overnight can be acceptable, but more than a week is better. I've had some clay sit around for months, and it does seem to be noticeably improved, especially if you're using the dry method. The longer it sits, the more fully hydrated it becomes.

[@rzarabunting-williams1826]

How do you process clay for soap making?

[@tinkerandthink]

Same basic idea, I think. But definitely do a wet sieve process through a very fine mesh (100 mesh) so you don't end up with rocks in your soap. And use a white clay, not something with lots of color that would indicate iron or other minerals, which could leave that color behind on your skin.

[@kayonthomas7608]

Can I get some to eat

[@sacoope1]

Indian KZbin’s had a PICA channel where they eat clay and make paste out of it for eating .

[@yolinayang9453]

Termite house is good for clay

[@Chloe-zr9lk]

Ha! Just found this video. I guess you can disregard my other comment :)

[@addisonroubideaux2240]

Have you heard of asphalt clay it ain't very good it's not strong at all it's for beginners only have you heard of asphalt clay I made my own at once oh man it was not that strong at all it once I broke it up it's a lot of dust in my room and I had to escape now I wonder why asphalt clay isn't very strong so what they're using cat litter but it's not a very strong kind of clay and it's extremely soft when it's very wet

[@JoJoAcrylicArtwork]

So useful, thank you! The aging tip is great too, i had no idea how important it was. Great editing too 👌 @trinityjmg