Category: Wild Clay

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Table Settings

I’ve wanted to make a set of dishes for a long time. I finally did it! I hosted a table at a “Date Night” event. Hosting included making the menu and setting the table, contacting the other 3 couples at my table and request they bring items from the menu. Easy, peasy, right?!!! So, I set the table and make the main dish, everyone else brings the side dishes or dessert! Only, I had this “Amelia Bedelia” moment (a funny children’s book series where the main character, Amelia, takes everything her boss says literally) I thought, oh, I could “make the dishes” like all…make all the actual the plates we will put our food on.  I will preference this by saying, some hosts were going to use paper plates for the event. I thought, oh, I will make this extra special, I will make the main dish AND the dishes we eat from. ahahahhahha!!! Three weeks of insanity of planning and making, and continual use my pottery and glass kilns and woo hooo done! I completed a beautiful set of dishes for 8 people. Did I mention and ordering a tablecloth, napkins and fake succulents from Amazon.com helped. ahahahahah!!! 🙂 oh and Lindt Chocolate Truffles. Please, is there anything more delicious and readily available? Especially for Valentine’s?

Here is what I did!  I had a succulent texture tile and a fern texture tile from Creative Paradise Glass www.creativeparadiseglass.com and I was already making little succulent vases with my wild clay. I decided to making a theme of succulents and ferns and make dishes with glass and pottery. Using wood forms my husband made for me, I hand-built 9 12″ x 12″ wood grain texture hand-built plates. (always make an extra….) I used float glass from shelving I purchased from a department store that closed for the glassware. Wild clay from my property was used to make little vases. Yes, I used imitation succulents from Amazon, because it was winter. My die cut ferns were made with an older die cut from Spellbinders. The green and copper paper is from Recollections by Michaels.com. My color scheme as you can see was turquoise, wood, copper and white linens, turquoise napkins, turquoise organza overlay on a white tablecloth. The colors worked great because the chairs were a deep green.

Make every meal special! and invite friends to a pot luck date night dinner!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment! I will get back to you!

Next post—- my menu! It was delicious!

Happy Creating!

Eileen

IMG_3956[1]
12″ x 12″ wood grain texture clay plate, succulent texture 8 1/4″ x 8 1/4″ salad plate, succulent texture coaster for water glass, turquoise linen napkin, fern die cuts made from copper and green paper, wood grain and succulent name tags served for seating assignments, little trinket dishes for a sweet treat
IMG_3954[1]
Dessert Plates were made with float glass and a fern texture tile from creativeparadiseglass
IMG_3958[1]
Completed table setting
 

IMG_3960[1]
The little wooden pottery dish was used for lemon slices

 

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Wild Clay Process

soaking the clay
soaking the clay
the screened bottom for the box
the screened bottom for the box
the open bottom box for the final step
the open bottom box for the final step
final water drains out the bottom of box
final water drains out the bottom of box
final clay ready to cut and put in bags
final clay ready to cut and put in bags

I thought I would do a post about how we process our wild after we dig it up. We have it stored in our backyard under a tarp until we are ready to process it. We process it in small batches of about 100 lbs. which seems like a huge amount, but it really isn’t.

Here is what we do:

We wet the clay and let all the particles absorb water for a couple weeks. While it’s soaking, we screen it through a series of screens with smaller and smaller mesh size. This helps remove organic matter like leaves and small twigs that might be in it, but it also screens out small rocks and particles that we don’t want in it. Eventually, it makes a thick soup like mixture of pure clay.

As it settles, the water floats on top and the clay goes to the bottom of our mixing bin.  From there, we pour the water off as it settles, this takes another week. When the visible water is poured off the top, we now have a sludge like mixture, we pour it into a wooden box with an old sheet and a screen. This way, the water continues to be drained from the clay, but not on by floating to the top, instead it goes out the bottom. It sets for a couple more weeks to dry out more. When it’s ready, we cut it into blocks of about 25-30 lbs. and put into plastic bags to store it until I am ready to throw it on the wheel or hand-build with it.

When I am ready to throw, I wedge it a bit on my wedging table, this removes some more of the water and makes it easier to throw. If its too wet, it shrinks more 14% which is a huge percentage for pottery.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, below are the pictures of our process.

IMG_2032[1]
soaking the clay for a few weeks
IMG_2164[1]
the screened bottom for the box
IMG_2165[1]
the open bottom box sets on the screen
IMG_2110[1]
final water drains out the bottom of box through the sheet and the screen
DAFG8053[1]
final clay ready to cut and put in bags
soaking the clay
the screened bottom for the box
the open bottom box for the final step
final water drains out the bottom of box
final clay ready to cut and put in bags

Keep Creating!

Eileen

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Wild Clay Pottery

We are digging our own clay now! It’s been an interesting adventure! I have thrown a few things with it! The clay when raw looks like a yellow-y brown color. When we bisque fire it takes on a burnt orange hue, but glazed and fired, oh wow, it turns a dark chocolate color with a bit of a purple undertone. It’s amazing to throw! But it has a hard time being bent- needs more plasticity, so we are working on that. We tested it with a soil testing kit and are slowly altering it a bit to balance the ph . Meanwhile, it vitrifies to less than 2% which makes it fully vitrified when its fired to cone 5.5. This is an exciting development in our creative adventure of Hyde Park Hill!

Here are some of my pieces! More to come in the future!

IMG_2529[1]
My new Wisconsin Wild Clay from my backyard became the perfect vase for some coneflowers from my front yard. 
wildclay planter no 2 large
Large Carved Wild Clay Planter! Available on hydeparkhill.etsy.com
small wildclay planter front view2
a small carved planter 

Look for future posts about how we are processing our new found clay! Meanwhile, if you are interested in a piece, I have some available at my Etsy shop, hydeparkhill.etsy.com! or contact me on Instagram #hydeparkhill !

Keep creating!

Eileen