“Today we usually think of clay as being used for pottery but in truth the uses are almost endless.
For thousands of years man has used this substance for a whole host of things, from pigments to medicines. One of the most abundant materials on earth, clay can be found almost anywhere — just look for areas where the ground has broken into a bark like pattern (as on a tree) or areas where water tends sit longer after a heavy rain.
Clay can be extracted from many of these sources quite easily, and whether you plan to use it for pottery or one of the multitude of other traditional uses, the goal is to remove as many impurities as possible and the process is the same.
While some clay deposits are pure enough to be used raw straight out of the ground, these are the exception; most clay is found in conjunction with sand…”
