Alie Ward

And when I say I went down a hole, it's because I found one video where a guy's on a day hike and is walking around the rim of a quarry lake.

And what he thinks is the earth is really just a thin crust over a slurry of like quicksand texture.

mineral slop.

And he gets sucked in with one foot, and then he scrambles up the granite.

He almost dies, but he lives to tell the tale.

And he posted this video to be like, heads up, be careful when you're in an abandoned clay quarry, lest you be suctioned into Mother Earth's wet grasp once again.

But yeah, this clay can be moved around the Earth's surface by water flows or even ice sheets over time.

And it can get finer or it can pick up

like the rock equivalent of lint as it goes, sort of.

So the pure clay picks up other stuff.

So it may vary in mineral or metal content and strength and have different color or texture.

So the rougher clays may be used for like earthenware, which is fired at a lowish temperature.

It's a bit porous, not usually glazed.

It is certainly not coffee mug material, but it's good for planters or roof tiles.

Now stoneware is kind of a step up.

And it's fired a little hotter, making it less porous, and it's better for dishes and things.

But weird to think, whenever you handle ceramics, not only are you using a product of just innumerable generations passing down techniques one by one, but also from the very terra of a place you maybe have never been or never will be with minerals gathered through the eons,

I plan to sit outside tomorrow morning over a cup of something hot and cry about it.

Are there places that are clayless?

Are there regions that just were not blessed with stashes of clay?