Pound Ridge Clay Pt. I

Finally dug some clay from our backyard.

We live on land belonging to the Siwanoy and Kitchawong Tribes. Interestingly, a few Native American artifacts have been found on our property before we moved here. Mostly arrow heads and other artifacts, but not pottery, to my knowledge. I hope to find one myself one day. While there isn’t much history registered about pottery making and use within the tribes specific to Pound Ridge, I’m sure it existed.

I recently come across a 1988 New York Times article interviewing Ethel Scofield, Pound Ridge Museum’s director and Town Historian at the time, about the museum’s exhibition ‘Woodland Paths and Silent Steps’ which featured “Indian life in Pound Ridge and its immediate surrounding areas(…)”. I read the interview excitedly hoping to find something about pottery but nothing was mentioned. <Link to article>

While I continue to research about Native American pottery in Pound Ridge back when it was their home, in parallel, I’m researching to become familiar with the geology of the town to learn if the clay found in the soil here is viable now for pottery making (and if it was then). I am a complete novice in this area as for the many years I’ve been working in clay, I’ve only used commercial clay. Wrapping my head around sourcing my own clay was too difficult, but now, it only makes sense! (go figure…) While I’m under no illusion that I will 100% source and process my own clay, I will make an effort to try. Even if I can use some percentage of local clay and conjointly use less electric kiln, I will be on a good path.

“Geologically, in Pound Ridge, most surficial materials were deposited in processes relating to the Laurentide Ice Sheet, part of the Wisconsin glaciation. This mass of ice, which covered much of North America for two million years, reached heights of more than 1000 ft. in the northeast. It receded roughly 15,000-30,000 years ago, leaving behind glacial scour and till: an unsorted mixture of sand, clay, silt, rocks, and boulders.” From this <source>. Can someone decipher <this> for me?

After 4.5 years of living here, I finally had the urge to test the clay in the soil of our property. Here’s my first try.

Processed it in the simplest way I knew how to.

Here’s pure Poundridge clay!

There wasn’t much plasticity to it so I had to mix in a little bit of commercial clay.

I mad little bowls, each having different ratio of mined clay : commercial clay.

Burnished.

After bisque firing they went straight into our makeshift pit fire…

… and after a while, covered it to be left alone overnight.

This one has the most wild clay in the blend.

Feels very pure…

I didn’t know if it was going to work at all.

… a Kadai firebowl fire!

Let the fire rage…

The next morning…

The clay blend worked!

Result of smoke from dried nuts fallen from trees on our property.

Beautiful smoke marks.

To be continued…