McMinnville Mud Mugs FINAL RESULTS!

Final results of the experiment. See them below!



For those of you who may not know the whole story, we planted some trees in our backyard, and in doing so discovered that our ground was pretty much all clay. Mike (my Father-in-Law) made a little clay pinch bowl maybe 1" in diameter from the clay we had dug up. I took it and fired it with some of my pottery I was making. It turned out really cool. It fired fine. I decided to do an experiment with it. I took several big chunks of this clay from our back yard, put them in a bucket, and filled it with water. I spent the next several days smooshing it up with my hands and blending it with a paint mixer drill attachment. Then I filtered it through a screen to get any rocks, grass, or any other stuff I didn't need out of it. I was left with a smooth, dark brown liquid clay. I let it sit in a bucket for several weeks until it was congealed enough to pour onto a plaster slab to suck the moisture out. After that the clay was to a consistency that I could try to throw it on the wheel.
It threw pretty well. It had very little elasticity, so I could not push the limits too much with it, but I was able to make some mugs with it. I finished trimming them and attaching handles to them. I bisque fired them, and they turned out great. The glaze fire is next. I don’t know where this clay matures, so there may be trial and error happening here. We shall see.

Dan



My backyard that was harvested for clay



Discovery of clay in the ground



Clay breaking down into a muddy liquid




Clay broken down and ready to be filtered




Clay had been reconstituted and wedged




Mugs have been thrown and handles attached




Mugs have survived the bisque firing




First attempt at glaze firing (glazed mug on the right). This was less than cone 5. I can tell it was below because the glaze is not fully matured. I normally fire to cone 6. I will try them at that temurature to see what happens next.





The mud mugs did not do too well. Cone 6 is just too hot, and they melted a little. You can see where the clay melted and stuck to the kiln stands. That should not happen. The glaze also looks like it has small craters. That is from the clay beginning to melt. Looks like cone 5 is were they most likely mature. That's what these tests are for.




I fired at true cone 5. It worked perfectly. The clay is fully developed, and there was no melting or blistering. The next step will be trying to make the clay body more flexible. At the moment it is hard to work with. I may try mixing in some white stoneware to give it more versatility and to give it a marbleized effect. We'll see.





I love this look, and it makes the clay body much stronger and easier to use. I am very happy with this result. They are ready to be produced and sold.

Since this post I have been selling out of McMinnville Mud Mugs every time I make more. If you would like a mug or more please contact me. Mud Mugs are $15 a piece.