Discovering methods and researching techniques for creating clay native to the Caddo people, I set out to create my own. I started in my own backyard, gathering dirt and mud. I quickly discovered my land's earth was different than anything I was used to. I was used to the red earth so common in Oklahoma everywhere you go. However, my dirt was thick and black and full of organic material. It got extremely sticky in the rains and would cake on your feet until you couldn't walk. It was solid black and moldable into any shape it seemed, straight from the ground. It was even a little stinky, I presume from the decaying organic matter. I live directly in the wash bed of a small creek so I assumed this is how this soil came to be. I picked some up out of my creak bed and made the small cup right there, pictured below. I thought that this might be some very unique clay to make pottery out of, thought I'm not sure how close to the original clay mud my ancestors used. From what I have read and seen of the ancient pottery, it tends to fire yellowish, some grays, and even what appears to be a reduction brown. Mine fired to a brick red as you can see in the pictures to the left. The black or dark gray parts were because of smoke and reduction. I processed it without any temper material or filler and recorded the results of my firing below:

8" shrinks to 7-2/10ths " as greenware and -- when fired NO FILLER
7" shrinks to 6-3/10ths " as greenware and -- when fired NO FILLER
2" shrinks to 1-6/8ths " as greenware and -- when fired NO FILLER

I feel like I do need to get a soil sample to understand specifically what type of soil I am dealing with. A professor at ECU, Wayneth, explained that it might be more like silt, then clay. Though I have found records describing some cultures clay paste a a categorical silt.


Clay collected on my property in raw form and a pot made right from the ground.

I wanted to quickly document the process by which I created my clay. This definitely needs to be tweaked and revised, but hey, gotta start somewhere.

1. Dig up BLACK clay dirt 2 inches under soil around property or on the banks of Chase's creek.
   1.  Keep in mind you will end up with HALF of what you dig up. The rest won't sift.
   2. Remind yourself that we used split wood and stone pickaxes to dig up the clay from inside the ground. Our pick-axes have been documented as black walnut hoes, conch shell hoes, and buffalo scapula shovels.
   3. Put the dug up dirt into a woven basket or clay vessel. Or just put it in a cardboard box for keeping. It dries it a little.
   4. 6 cups of dirt will make a medium sized pot before grinding and sifting.
2. Break up the clay dirt as much as possible and place on a canvas to dry out in the sun.
   1. Obviously you need dry sunny weather to do this. As a substitute I place the broken up dirt on a canvas on a table under a heat lamp for a few days.
   2. Think about how we used to have to wait for dry sunny days. It is recorded that we used to store the clay, as it became more plastic and workable with age.
3. Grind and crush up the dried dirt as fine as possible then sift in a 40 MESH screen. Records show we used to make very fine sieves out of reeds and rivercane. We also used manos and metates along with black walnut grinding hollows.
   1. You can almost eyeball the fineness after doing it only once.
   2. Here you need 3 cups to make a medium sized pot. Look at how much dirt that is and remember it. A good 2 handfuls.
4. Just add water. For 3 cups of dirt, add 1 cup of water, and slowly add more until you have the right consistency of clay.
   1. It will be wet. Ball it and kneed it into a workable thickness, then ball it. It will be sticky.
   2. This method describes the wet and use method. To age the clay, you can add twice as much water, squeeze through a canvas, lay it out to dry, then bag, store, and age the clay for later use.
5. Once you ball it, flatten it out on a cloth and let dry to the right consistency.
6. The fresh clay is more sticky, tacky, and softer than normal processed gray clay. It sags more. It gives more to your finger's pressure.
7. Once the right consistency, make a coil pot by starting with the appropriate sized pinch pot and evening out.
   1. Make small coils larger than a pencil, and start laminating them on to the pot into the desired shape.
   2. All along the way make sure the size and shape is true.
   3. Wet and score the coils underneath before laying a new layer.
8. Once leather hard, take a wood or gourd rib, and shave the pot to the desired thickness and smoothness, and shape.
   1. Look for indentions to smooth out.
   2. This black clay, at green ware, it more easily burnished.
   3. Make sure you sand the pot. We would have used a rough rock, or roughened dry hide.
   4. Burnish the pot at the harder than leather hard stage, right before drying out completely.
9. Final burnish the pot 1 of 3 ways.
   1. Wet burnish.
      1. Lightly wet the outside part of the pot you want to burnish.
      2. Smooth hard with a spoon. We would have used a worn and polished burnishing stone.
      3. Make sure your final passes are light to remove burnish grooves.
      4. Repeat i, ii, and iii and work your way around the entire pot.
   2. Oil burnish.
      1. Lightly oil the outside part of the pot you want to burnish.
      2. Smooth hard with a spoon. We would have used a worn and polished burnishing stone.
      3. Make sure your final passes are light to remove burnish grooves.
      4. Repeat i, ii, and iii and work your way around the entire pot.
   3. Slip burnish.
      1. Apply many coats of very fine slip that is the same reaction clay as the pot.
         1. reaction meaning the slip will shrink, crack, and slump at the same temperature.
      2. Smooth hard with a spoon. We would have used a worn and polished burnishing stone.
      3. Make sure your final passes are light to remove burnish grooves.
      4. Repeat i, ii, and iii and work your way around the entire pot.
10. Let dry to bone dry 3 or 4 days.
11. Prep pit for traditional Caddo pit firing.
    1. See the Firing page.

I went out on a limb and contacted Vince Pitelka from Tennessee. He is a 20 year veteran of pit-firing and the Terra Sigillata process. I have found many posts by him on the internet when searching for slip solutions and information.  I write him letting him know of my search for knowledge about our ancestor's processes and specifically how I could achieve that chocolate brown color that a good majority of our ancestor's pots had. To my surprise he was most enthusiastic about helping. Right away he started explaining the process of using specific minerals that might aid in contributing to the brown color. He explained that most likely there were some naturally occurring dark brown clays that they could make a slip from that would be put on the pots to make them deep dark brown. He talked about iron oxides and manganese.  Vince also offered up an alternative explanation stemming from the fact that our ancestors used to have large fine red ochre resources that they no doubt used in their pottery. He explained that the red slip could actually turn a dark chocolate brown if reduced in a pit -fire "appropriately." He offered that his experience with getting brown results were from insufficient reduction of pottery using saw dust and dirt. Normally a piece will turn black to jet black with a sufficient reduction; when all the air is snuffed out and the clay absorbs the carbon. From an accident Vince explained that they didn't sufficiently smother the fire with enough material and that the dirt they used to cover the pit resulted in introducing enough air that it turned the pots dark brown instead of all the way black. The pots were slipped with Redart. This sparked a solution within me. This was most likely the answer in that the pots that archeologist have found that are brown are called "red slipped." If the slip was indeed red instead of dark brown to begin with than something about the firing, the smoke or otherwise turned the red clay deep dark brown.  It seemed more likely to me that this is what our ancestors did than always having specially mined or refined clay on hand that would always produce the chocolate color. Jeri Redcorn said we "used the clay that was around us. " This to me seemed more reasonable in that a "reduced" reduction you could most probably always get a brown or "less-than-black" result no matter what specific clay you happen to find around you. This was also particularly exciting because the specific "Caddo" clay that I make seemed to want to fire to chocolate brown or brick red in an oxidation. With the use of this method that Vince suggested I think that my clay and any red-slipped clay might be able to be turned brown. I had to try it right away. My results posted on the Firing pages.

In and around my property I have managed to find many different sources of clay. In my backyard around by creeks I find a gumbo type silty black clay, and 2 feet under that in some areas I find a buckshot light gray gumbo clay. Across the street on my property I find a yellow/orange extremely buckshot clay. The black gumbo clay poperties are explored above. I am in the process of testing out the properties of the gray clay. The yellow buckshot was very hard to process. It took 10 hours to sieve a bucket of clay, which resulted in a pan full of manganese and lime pieces. After processed, the silty yellow stuff was smooth and limp, but I was able to make a pot out of it, and burnish it to only a medium burnish. The resulting kiln fire made a very intense deep orange brown color. I have not tested the shrinkage on it, but I was surprised that while drying, the untempered yellow buckshot did not split or crack or warp. I half expected it to crack. I will have to test it out in a pit firing next.

I want to take some time to refine the clay making process. The process outlined above was my very first attempts. I have learned a lot more about the mechanics of pit firing.

1. The best way to aquire clay is from the pure source on a river bank or on an open "quarry" or exposed spot. Sometimes it can be dug up, but unless it is close to its original location of geologic creating , it wil be mixed with many impurities. Scooping or digging it from teh river bank walls or eroded areas is the best wy to get "pure" clay. It might still have organics in it, but that is ok.
2. If the clay is very hard and unworkable, put the clay in a bucket until it is half full. Fill it to the top with water and let it sit. Mix it by hand a little for a day or 2. If it is easily workable, skip to step 4.
3. When the clay is thoroughly saturated with water and is a muddy consistency, let it sit until it settles. Pour off the top of the water that has the organics in it.
4. Spread the clay out on a drying surface, like canvas, plaster, or even plywood. Spread it thin so it dries out easily and exposes the organics.
5. Let the clay dry hard and dry out the organics for a day or 2. It will most likely crack up as it dries and shrinks.
6. Take the thin dried clay slabs and crush them up with a tree trunk mortar and pestle. It doesnt have to be fine at all.
7. Put the clay back in the bucket and fill with water again. Mix it thoroughly.
8. Let the clay settled and pour off the top organics.
9. Spread the clay out again in a thin layer and let it dry.
10. Take the dried clay slabs and crush them up in a mortar and pestle until it is coarse grained with no particle larger than 3 millimeters.
11. Mix the crushed clay with your temper (like crushed mussel shell) at the right ratio. (more on this later).
12. Add water slowly to the clay until it is workable in your hands. Wedge the clay and store it for plasticity.

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