1. Finding Your Wild Clay

• Where to Look: Look for natural cutouts in the landscape where subsoil is exposed—creek banks, eroded hillsides, ditches, or holes left by overturned trees.
• The Test: Look past the topsoil (the dark, organic matter) until you hit the denser subsoil. Squeeze a handful of moist earth. If it holds its shape and doesn’t crumble when you poke it, you’ve likely found some clay.

2. Harvesting

• Digging: Scoop the clay into a bucket. Don’t worry about getting rocks, roots, or sand in it at this stage—the processing will take care of that.
• Variety: Take samples from a few different places if you can. Mixed clay is often better than just one type.

3. Wet Processing (Levigation)

This is the easiest traditional way to separate the pure clay from the debris:

• Dissolve and Suspend: Break the clay into small chunks, put it in a bucket, and cover it with water – 1 part clay to at least 5 parts water. Stir it vigorously (a drill mixer works great) until it looks like a thick, smooth milkshake.
• Strain: Pour the liquid slurry through a fine mesh strainer or window screen into a second bucket. The heavy rocks, roots, and large grit will stay behind in the screen, while the pure clay particles pass through suspended in the water.
• Settle: Let the strained bucket sit for at least several hours or up to a day or even longer. The heavy clay will settle to the bottom, leaving a layer of clear water on top. Siphon or pour off that excess water.

4. Drying & Wedging

• Drying: Pour the thick, pudding-like clay into a plaster bat to expedite the drying process. You can also use a canvas sheet, or even into an old pillowcase hung up to drip but you may lose some clay with those methods. Or you can just wait and allow evaporation to dry the clay, but this will take the longest.
• Wedging: Once it reaches a dough-like consistency, slam and knead the clay (like bread dough) on a hard surface to work out any trapped air bubbles.

5. Adding Temper

What it is: Pure clay shrinks drastically and will crack in a fire. To prevent this, you must mix in a temper—traditionally fine sand or old, fired pottery pieces crushed finely (grog). You can also use organic tempers such as straw/grass, seashells/eggshells, sawdust, or even manure (from herbivores). These things can also be foraged (i.e. sand can often be found in the same areas as clay and processed using sieves and water).

The Mix: Knead about 10% to 20% or sometimes up to 30% temper into your purified clay by volume. Mix in as much temper as possible while keeping the clay useable. You want your tempered clay to pass the coil test (roll the clay into a coil and wrap around your finger without cracking). This gives the clay the structural strength it needs to survive the shock of the fire. Knead it well until it is completely homogenized and passing the coil test. It is then ready for shaping.

6. Shaping the Vessel (Puki Style)

• Hand-Building: Traditional puki pottery doesn’t use a potter’s wheel. Instead, it relies on ancient hand-building techniques. You can use the slab method (use a rolling pin to flatten the clay into a slab and then shape into a bowl) or the coiling method (coil the clay into a bowl shape and then scrape the sides smooth).
• Painting (optional): Traditional paints use different minerals such as iron oxide or different colors of clays diluted in water (slips) to create designs. Painting can be done once the pot is firm but not fully dry (leather-hard).
• Burnishing (optional): Once leather-hard and painted, if desired, use a smooth stone or the back of a spoon to rub the surface vigorously. This compresses the clay particles, creating a beautiful, natural sheen and making the pot more water-resistant without needing modern glaze.

7. Drying (The Critical Stage)

• Slow and Steady: This is where patience is key. If clay dries too fast, it will warp or crack. Keep the pieces out of direct sunlight and drafts. Many artisans loosely cover them with a cloth or plastic for the first few days to slow down the evaporation.
• Bone Dry: The pottery must be absolutely, 100% dry before it ever touches a flame. Any trapped moisture inside the clay walls will turn to steam during firing and cause the pot to literally explode. You know it’s ready when it feels completely room-temperature to the touch (not cool or damp) and looks chalky and pale.

8. Firing (The Traditional Method)

• Primary Fire: Build a fire that is big enough to fit the pieces you will be firing and allow it to burn down to ashes. This will warm the ground in preparation for firing.
• Pre-Heating: To prevent thermal shock, place the bone-dry pots near the edge of your primary fire for a few hours. This gently bakes out any microscopic residual moisture and warms the clay up before the intense heat hits. Rotate the pots occasionally and gradually move them closer to the fire over time.
• Secondary Fire: Once your primary fire is down to ashes, you can carefully arrange your pottery in the middle of your primary fire ashes. Pots do best upside down and elevated on firing bricks for the best heat circulation. You will then arrange large sticks over your pottery and then pack increasingly small kindling in a teepee shape over your pottery until it is completely buried in a mound of wood and kindling. Ignite the fire if the primary coals don’t do it for you. You want the fire to burn hot and fast and evenly on all sides, creating a roaring bed of coals that wraps the pottery in intense heat. It needs to reach at least 1200*F to permanently alter the chemical structure of the clay. Add sticks as needed to keep the pottery covered until firing temperature is reached. It only needs to stay at firing temperature for about 10-15 minutes to successfully fire.
• The Cooling: Once your pieces have fired, allow the fire to die down naturally and your pottery to gradually cool before handling.

9. The Moment of Truth

Unearthing: Once the fire has died down and things are cool enough to handle, carefully brush away the ashes to reveal your pottery. Because this method of firing is alive and unpredictable, the smoke and flames leave beautiful, unique patterns on the clay—giving each piece its own wild story. You can get some very unexpected results!