Danny I have used differant clays from differant areas. Much of the clay that Vet Ed was using actually came from near the property he was residing on in the Village. He told me about another spot to get clay in the San Bernardino forest but its off the beaten path and not an easily definable location. I seek out the red clays because I like their natural color. All the red clays I have found have worked so far in making heads. For example I found some red clay on a trail in the hills above Claremont ( spelling? ) east of Upland. That clay when fired ended up with these golden shiney specks in it that sparkled. I found a unique spot in Granite Mountains where there was some reddish brown clay. I happened onto that by coming across an small area of wet ground with a white frosting on the surface which turned out to be natural salts. Interesting thing about that clay is that once you formed the head out of the wet clay as it dried a crystyline layer of white salt would form on its surface. Another clay I used I found near our property in Northern California which is a very volcanic area. That clay after being fired causes a slight glass like sound if the head is tapped against a hard object, and the head was noticeably lighter than heads made with other clays.

I have modified the process that Vet Ed told me about with a few differant steps that have improved the end product, with less cracking problems during firing. The finer the clay ( with less debris or small stones ) the more you are bald to imprint details into it and work it into finer shapes. I strain out the clays with a fine wire mesh. If you are interested I can tell you more about how I go about making my heads the next time I see you. You probably have seen the various examples of some I have done at my Flickr photo site, the Wizard's pictures link below. And you remember I showed you one of them when we were at DCHS on Thursday :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2010 05:09PM by Wizard.