clay cracking. need a lil help

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

thanks so much guys.  I don't have any cattails around here close to me, so I will have to keep my eyes open in my future ventures.  I figured my pot cracked bad, after reading through other articles, because my base was flat and thick and had thinner walls meeting it....cracked all the way around the inside. and some of the edges..     then as Richardzane mentioned..i rubbed more water on it to fill it in..which I think made it crack worse as it dried.    My clay is not super clean..something I may have to work on later, but saturday I re-wedged it and made 2 new round bottom pinch pots, get them as uniform as possible and I have had them air drying with an old t-shirt over them...the shirt seems to have slowed the drying considerably...so hopefully these will air dry better this time...we shall see.  But cattail fluff is high on my list next time I see some.

[bigpapa]

Dang it!!! That's the problem with this forum, too many neat ideas to try! Yall have succrsfully made me want to try making my own pottery!!! If my wife complains I'm gonna blame it on Yall! Haha!!!! Good luck and keep us posted on how the firing goes.

[richardzane]

no cattails? its ok
soak down a roll of toilet paper in water and then add clay slip to create your fiber mix... the fibers are even finer than cattail, and they don't sprout!
but again I wouldn't use it straight, take pinches from it when you need it to mix with your clay until you can see the fibers when you pull clay apart.

here's a lesson on preparing clay. I drew these up when teaching a workshop on the Wendat Reservation in Quebec. (Huron of Lorette) our cousins.
they were mostly french speakers (Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Innu students)  so I figured drawings might help. 

try to save all the woodash from fireplaces you can. I keep a garbage can full...Its a great "resist" for keeping paddled pots from sticking to the forms.
and it's the best insurance against cracking pots in a pit-fire, but remember it IS a resist..if you add coils,make sure to scrape off any wood ash or the coil won't bond.

yeah bigpapa I hear ya!
man, I wanna try it all too!

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

very nice layout, thanks Richard... all this will come in quite handy later. Of course I am stubborn and will want to do everything totally abo and wont want to use any plastic buckets or modern materials to aid in my pottery making..... or at least until I know I can do it without the aid of modern tools and materials

[richardzane]

thats not necessarily stubborn...its the best way to start,for sure ...connect with your ancient ancestors.

you CAN use clay directly from the side of a bank,without the soaking process, it just will have more bits of stuff burn out, leaving little pits
- those little burnouts from organic stuff show up on ancient pots all the time.

you can also burnish it "leather-hard" (when its the consistancy of hard dark chocolate) with a smooth stone or a bone tool.
its alot easier to clean a clay pot out when the interior is stone burnished.