Clay- Heartbreaker & Heartthrob

 I remember a moment when I was with a group of fellow art teachers visiting the Seattle studio of internationally celebrated ceramic artist and professor of ceramic arts, Patti Warashina. She made us all laugh when she suggested to us in her opening remarks that as far as working with clay is concerned, “we shouldn’t even get started. It warps, it cracks, it breaks your heart.” It was hilarious because anyone who has worked with clay has had that moment when all his/her best effort is dashed by a slip of the hand while the clay is in the fragile state of drying, or by an overaggressive temperature climb in the firing, or by some shortcoming in the construction technique that only shows up when the piece is subject to the fire. All who have taught the ceramic arts have had to explain to disappointed students that the kiln gods do not favor one’s good intentions or outstanding personality and character traits. Bad news comes to the worthy and unworthy just the same. So there we were, a group of teachers eager to inspire our students to greatness and expecting to hear encouraging words from an expert who instead, reminded us of what we already knew...ceramics is a hard taskmaster.

So, we ceramic artists and teachers live with a resignation that failures and disappointments come with the territory. I came to Zambia with a plan to use the local clay to work with my own art and the art of the students. When I found out I had access to clay from the banks of a local river, I was thrilled. I immediately began the process of drying, pounding, watering and squishing the clay (using the old-fashioned grape stomping method) into usable form and setting it out in the sun to dry to a workable moisture content.

How we dry clay in Zambia

Several days of intense labor later, after picking out small stones and chunks of organic material, I managed to work up a sizable quantity and was ready to make some art. I was very impressed with the color, texture and workability of this unique Zambian clay. It had just the right amount of plasticity, stickiness and structure to sculpt and throw on the wheel. I created several pieces that first day and set them to dry. I noticed they dried quickly, and as they hardened they seemed to set up like concrete. Very tough and solid. What a find. I loved this clay!

I checked on them regularly that next day and was pleased with the progress right up to the point when they were in the final drying state. Within minutes, they transformed from blissful potentiality to cracked ruin! The love affair was over. I hated this clay.

*#!!Zambian clay

Over the next few days I experimented with a number of techniques to try to make it work, but all ended with the same disastrous results in the final drying state. Then, while preparing for a class, Agness reminded me that I had promised to work up a batch of paper clay to demonstrate, and it hit me…paper clay…I had brought a book on the subject but had forgotten about how impressed I had been with how adding paper pulp to clay gave it unique working qualities. Agness produced a batch of paper pulp (from recycled paper) which I added in varying quantities to the clay mix. And voila! The magic worked…the next batch dried perfectly without a crack….
                                                            I love this clay.

Everybody gets into it

Zambian clay transformed /w paper