SCORE....My favorite homemade scoring tool

Here is a video showing my scoring tool. The "Outtake" video is what happens when Princess, the pottery cat, tries  to help. Notice the loud purr.

Now with princess's help.
"Outtake"

SPECK-ulation... Cone six glaze speckles

This is how I  use steel wool to make glaze speckles in cone six glazes

CLAY.....Can You Dig It?

Here is part one of what will be three videos explaining how I prospect, prepare and test found clays.
This part is about digging and preparing. The next video will be about testing and the third will be firing. I haven't finished the second and third videos yet but should have them in the next two weeks.

PART ONE

A couple of things I did not mention in the video: 1..Finding a cut or trench in the surface allows you to examine the strata and more easily identify veins of clay. This site has about 18" of sand on top of the clay and the clay layer, being buried that deep, had very little organic material to deal with.

2....Drying the dug clay completely before mixing with water makes mixing a lot easier. Dry clay "slakes"  (absorbs water and breaks down to a slip almost effortlessly). Damp or wet clay won't readily absorb water and is harder to make into slip without more work on your part.. WORK is a four letter word, let natural forces do it for you.

 PART TWO

PART THREE