Local mud turned into fabulous sculptures

So excited : 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 can not get more local then being able to create using material literally dug from your own backyard.

Showing the process from ground to kiln

Hope you enjoyed my little video. If it went to fast, below I have layed out the process.

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

Breaking it up I removed many large stones and some small. Added water to break it down. Looks not unlike what you find in a child's nappy.

Poured off access water and left to dry on newspaper and cardboard and then on plaster batts.

Chopped it with wire and banged and slapped it into large lumps. This took some time. Cutting into it you can start to see the clay coming together.

Then I started wedging it and now that poo colour is uniform throughout. At this stage I was picking out small stones. But 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 and removed individual stones and then wedged again.

Picking out those small stones. These would be a problem when fired. The clay may crack.

Hey look wonderful poo coloured beautifully smooth ( if not a little gritty) pliable balls of clay.