As promised, here is an update on our wild clay ventures. Over the past weeks leading up to our Open Studios with Leonardo@Djerassi, a group of us processed the collected materials from the riverside cliffs. This was an exercise in patience. The raw clay material had a significant amount of redwood tree detritus mixed into it, so we added water to bring everything to a slurry. This took several days and many buckets! We then filtered all of the material through a 60 mesh screen. We then let the clay settle to the bottom and poured off excess water. And finally wrapped the watery processed clay into cotton muslin packages and sat these packages out to dry under a shady tree. The results were excellent and we were left with a wonderful clay body that cooked to a bright orangish red in the bisque and to a rich reddish brown in the final fire. The elements of discovery and surprise along the way imbued the clay with the spirit of adventure. I also collected some mugwort which Danny Goldberg had previously explained to us could be used for inducing dreams. I had some thoughts on ways that I could use this dream botanical in my clay project...

More soon on what I made from the clay...

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