Local mud turned into fabulous sculptures

I'm so excited! It took me two days to work the 'MUD' clean it and work it so that I could model it. But wow! Just look at what I have made!

You cannot get more local than being able to create using material literally dug from your own backyard.

Showing the process from ground to kiln

I hope you enjoyed my little video. If it went too fast, below, I have laid out the process.

The clay came in raw. Little mud, and lots of large and small stones with veins of iron throughout!

Breaking it up, I removed many large stones and some of the small ones. I added water to break it down. It looks not unlike what you find in a baby's nappy!

I poured off the excess water, and left it to dry on newspaper and cardboard, and then on plaster batts.

I chopped it with wire, and banged and slapped it into large lumps. This took some time! Cutting into it, I could start to see the clay coming together.

Then I started wedging it, and now the poo colour is uniform throughout! At this stage, I was picking out small stones - and was concerned there may be more.

After wedging again, I was still finding stones - so each lump was squeezed to pancake size, and I then felt for and removed individual stones, and then wedged again.

It was important to pick out all those small stones. These would be a problem when fired, as the clay may crack.

Hey, look! Wonderful poo-coloured, beautifully smooth (if not a little gritty) pliable balls of clay!