This afternoon we drove across the lake to Tzintsuntsan, hoping to meet with a well known potter there, buy some clay, and have her access a dirt sample from the land here at the Bosque.
We asked around and quickly found Ophelia, who welcomed us into her studio where 3 or 4 generations were busy working with clay and handpainting bowls and plates.
Ophelia sold us a large bag of clay, but also recommended buying the clay in dirt form from a man down the road. He will sell us two costales (large bags – about the size of a large bag of dog food) for 70 pesos.
The dirt we brought was passed around for the whole family to test, and the quick consensus was that we need to mix with a dirt of higher plasticity. We will test samples from different areas of the land. Ophelia mixed up some clay using a combination of our dirt and what she uses – we will try making coil pots and masks and see how it fires.
Thinking possibly building a kiln… unsure. We will pit fire some pots first to see how well it works. There are some decent plans online for brick kilns, which might be a good option if we start working with clay during events and retreats.
Leave a Reply