Pinch pot with wild clay
If you can find clay of reasonably good quality, you can shape it into a pinch pot as shown below.
For your first pinch pot, I suggest starting out with a clay ball about the size of your fist. Once you are able to reliably shape this much clay into an even-walled pot comparable to the one shown, you should start gradually working with more clay, and making larger pots.
Each video below is about 1 minute long.
For your first pinch pot, I suggest starting out with a clay ball about the size of your fist. Once you are able to reliably shape this much clay into an even-walled pot comparable to the one shown, you should start gradually working with more clay, and making larger pots.
Each video below is about 1 minute long.
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Prepping the clay - removing rocks, achieving uniform color & consistency.
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Uniform clay consistency - good moisture level.
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Wedging your clay.
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How to start shaping your pot, and coping with cracks.
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Smoothing out cracks.
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Evening out the walls and fixing the rim.
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Removing fine cracks.
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Setting finished pot to dry a bit.
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Sanding and burnishing
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Primitive pottery allows for limitless artistic expression and the creation of incredible works of art with zero expenditures needed - other then time and practice!
Here we present to simple techniques that allow even young children to make quite beautiful, delightful works of primitive pottery. |
Sanding
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Caution: avoid breathing the dust, and watch that the dust from your sanding is not going in anyone else's face.
Many early young potters are discouraged by the lumpy results of their first efforts. But with a little sandpaper and elbow grease pots can be made quite smooth, and then burnished beautifully. If the pot needs lots of sanding, start with a very rough/coarse/low grit sandpaper. Then gradually shift to higher grit/finer sandpaper to make the pot extra smooth. Caution: avoid breathing the dust, and watch that the dust from your sanding is not going in anyone else's face. |
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Burnishing
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After the pot has been sanded down, you can begin the burnishing process.
You might be able to get a good burnish by rubbing your dry pot with a polished stone, some smooth hardened steel, or other hard smooth object. But usually potters will first apply a little water and then rub down the outside of the pot to smooth it out and soften it slightly, in the minutes before burnishing it. Don't add too much water, or you can weaken the pot and break it. And it should not be wet enough that clay sticks to the burnishing stone. |
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In the example shown above I did not use a very fine sand-paper, and I did not wet and smooth it out enough; so some of the scratches from sanding are still visible. There are also rough spots where there were small rocks in the wild-harvested clay. Still a beautiful little pot though!
Survival Pottery
How to quickly make a functional pot with marginal clay
Most sources I've seen on pottery advise laborious and time-consuming methods for creating pottery. Usually the focus is to make beautiful pottery of high quality, and relies on finding high quality clay or on refining low quality clay. No doubt these techniques are generally effective.
But having experienced acute thirst in the wilderness, I've been trying to develop a way to quickly make functional pottery with low grade clay.
For a long time I thought pottery can only be made with clay that is of high quality, that can be easily worked, and can hold it's shape well. But I've found that saggy clay which seems unworkable can in fact be shaped in a form, dried and hardened with heat, and fired into serviceable pottery.
That said, my research is still in the early stages, and results vary...
The videos below run about 1.5 - 3 minutes long and show you the basics of the process, which is actually quite simple.
I would love to know about your successes or failures with these methods, or your own. Also, email me with any questions that come up.
I will continue to update this page with more videos on additional steps, including the firing process.
How to quickly make a functional pot with marginal clay
Most sources I've seen on pottery advise laborious and time-consuming methods for creating pottery. Usually the focus is to make beautiful pottery of high quality, and relies on finding high quality clay or on refining low quality clay. No doubt these techniques are generally effective.
But having experienced acute thirst in the wilderness, I've been trying to develop a way to quickly make functional pottery with low grade clay.
For a long time I thought pottery can only be made with clay that is of high quality, that can be easily worked, and can hold it's shape well. But I've found that saggy clay which seems unworkable can in fact be shaped in a form, dried and hardened with heat, and fired into serviceable pottery.
That said, my research is still in the early stages, and results vary...
The videos below run about 1.5 - 3 minutes long and show you the basics of the process, which is actually quite simple.
I would love to know about your successes or failures with these methods, or your own. Also, email me with any questions that come up.
I will continue to update this page with more videos on additional steps, including the firing process.
DIRECTIONS
Choose your pot form. A pot form can be a small bowl, or a depression made in dirt or sand. Anything that will hold your clay in a desirable shape until it hardens.
For this project, find something that has a rounded bottom and a capacity of about .5 – 1 cup. If you have an orange-sized piece of clay, that should make a bowl about as big as you can make by cupping your hands together like you would to drink out of them.
Line your form. Line your form with something (like paper, plastic wrap, foil, cloth, leaves etc.) so that your clay won’t stick to the pot form and will be easy to remove when it hardens sufficiently.
Prepare your clay. [Video #1] Before you make your pot, you should make the clay an even consistency. Work the clay in your hands, pushing your thumb through the clay, feeling for areas that feel different. If you feel areas that are sandier or less sandy, denser, drier, wetter, etc, you should spread these areas out and blend them in with the rest of the clay. If you feel rocks, remove them. If you feel hard lumps, you need to crush them with your hands or with rocks. Observe the clay, and if you see different colors, make sure you continue to blend the clay until it is a uniform color.
Wedge. [Videos #3&4] When you decide that the clay is clean and uniform enough, wedge it for a little bit.
Mold your pot. [Videos #5,9,10] Now you will line your form with your prepared clay. The goal is to make the walls an even thickness, usually about pencil thick. To begin, make a little clay patty of this thickness and place it in the bottom of the mold. Then create a new patty and overlap it slightly with the first patty. Smear the two patties together.
Continue to assemble the pot in this manner with most of your available clay, saving a little bit for patching at a later step.
Allow pot to stiffen. Let your pot dry until it is hard enough to hold its own shape, but still moist enough to move the clay around. This is known by potters at “leather hard.” The clay should feel firm but still cool and damp. This can take from a few hours to overnight or longer depending on your clay and how warm, dry and ventilated the drying environment is.
Smooth out the bottom of the pot. [Videos #6,7] Remove your leather hard pot very carefully from the form. It is very delicate and fragile at this stage. Rest the pot gently on your lap or other surface, and use a small stick, pencil, fingernail or other suitable tool to smush together and fill in any seams (where two patties were combined) on the underside of the pot. In the same way, eliminate any cracks you find.
Even out the thickness of the pot. [Video #11] Carefully feel your whole pot between your thumb and pointer finger, noting any areas that feel too thin or too thick. If it’s still moist enough, you may be able to drag clay from thick areas onto thin areas. Otherwise, add some of your extra leftover clay to the thin spots, or over cracks.
Label the pot. [Video #8] Use something sharp like a thumbtack or pencil to write your name, the date, and a description of the clay (e.g. “Sandy GB White” for sandy Greenbelt white clay)
Dry your pot. Allow your pot to gradually dry, somewhere it won’t get damaged.
Choose your pot form. A pot form can be a small bowl, or a depression made in dirt or sand. Anything that will hold your clay in a desirable shape until it hardens.
For this project, find something that has a rounded bottom and a capacity of about .5 – 1 cup. If you have an orange-sized piece of clay, that should make a bowl about as big as you can make by cupping your hands together like you would to drink out of them.
Line your form. Line your form with something (like paper, plastic wrap, foil, cloth, leaves etc.) so that your clay won’t stick to the pot form and will be easy to remove when it hardens sufficiently.
Prepare your clay. [Video #1] Before you make your pot, you should make the clay an even consistency. Work the clay in your hands, pushing your thumb through the clay, feeling for areas that feel different. If you feel areas that are sandier or less sandy, denser, drier, wetter, etc, you should spread these areas out and blend them in with the rest of the clay. If you feel rocks, remove them. If you feel hard lumps, you need to crush them with your hands or with rocks. Observe the clay, and if you see different colors, make sure you continue to blend the clay until it is a uniform color.
Wedge. [Videos #3&4] When you decide that the clay is clean and uniform enough, wedge it for a little bit.
Mold your pot. [Videos #5,9,10] Now you will line your form with your prepared clay. The goal is to make the walls an even thickness, usually about pencil thick. To begin, make a little clay patty of this thickness and place it in the bottom of the mold. Then create a new patty and overlap it slightly with the first patty. Smear the two patties together.
Continue to assemble the pot in this manner with most of your available clay, saving a little bit for patching at a later step.
Allow pot to stiffen. Let your pot dry until it is hard enough to hold its own shape, but still moist enough to move the clay around. This is known by potters at “leather hard.” The clay should feel firm but still cool and damp. This can take from a few hours to overnight or longer depending on your clay and how warm, dry and ventilated the drying environment is.
Smooth out the bottom of the pot. [Videos #6,7] Remove your leather hard pot very carefully from the form. It is very delicate and fragile at this stage. Rest the pot gently on your lap or other surface, and use a small stick, pencil, fingernail or other suitable tool to smush together and fill in any seams (where two patties were combined) on the underside of the pot. In the same way, eliminate any cracks you find.
Even out the thickness of the pot. [Video #11] Carefully feel your whole pot between your thumb and pointer finger, noting any areas that feel too thin or too thick. If it’s still moist enough, you may be able to drag clay from thick areas onto thin areas. Otherwise, add some of your extra leftover clay to the thin spots, or over cracks.
Label the pot. [Video #8] Use something sharp like a thumbtack or pencil to write your name, the date, and a description of the clay (e.g. “Sandy GB White” for sandy Greenbelt white clay)
Dry your pot. Allow your pot to gradually dry, somewhere it won’t get damaged.
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1. Cleaning and blending wild clay
Removing rocks and debris. Making the consistency uniform. |
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2. Intro to temper
What is temper? When does clay need it? |
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3. Wedging method 1
The handsmack technique |
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4. Wedging method 2
The kneading technique |
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5. Making a potform pot with saggy clay.
This clay is not sticky like in the earlier video. |
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6. Removing a pot from its form, and smoothing out the bottom.
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7. Smoothing out the bottom - more tips.
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7.4 Fixing cracks
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8. Two potform pots removed from the forms and mostly dried.
The seams were smoothed out on one pot, but not on the other. |
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Working with super sticky clay
The videos below show some of the challenges of working with some clay that is a little over-hydrated, and really sticky.
The videos below show some of the challenges of working with some clay that is a little over-hydrated, and really sticky.
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9. Using a form to make a pot with saggy sticky-clay
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10. Finishing touches on molding a sticky-clay potform pot.
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10.4 Removing sticky-clay pot from its form.
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10.6 Smoothing out seams pt. 2
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10.8 Smoothing out seams pt. 3
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11. Evening out the wall thickness.
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