Alie Ward

So gossiping about clay types...

Do you have, you can admit it here, but do you have favorite clays to work with or any that you don't?

Yes.

I had never heard of Blu-Tack.

And in fact, checking this aside, I spelled it a number of different ways, thinking it was some kind of clay or maybe a medical substance.

And then realized that Blu-Tack is the sticky putty that you can use to adhere posters on walls because it kind of heats up when it's in your hands and then it peels off when you need it to.

Do we lack this Blu-Tack in America?

Like we do healthcare?

I don't know.

Anyway, imagine trying to sculpt gum fresh from a mouth.

And yes, this is well documented, such as the 2022 study, An Experimental Approach to Assessing the Tempering and Firing of Local Pottery Production in Nubia During the New Kingdom Period, which notes that the addition of organics, for example, plant fibers and animal dung, and I'm assuming the plant fibers in animal dung,

increases the plasticity of the clay, and that these organic-tempered vessels, if you will, were often lighter in weight and more portable.

Now, what about Murdicotta, you ask?

Oh, you haven't heard of it.

You must not have visited the Italian Museum of Shit, known as the Museo della Murda, which in 2016 presented ceramics made from cow dung, Tuscan clay, straw, and other farm waste in Murdicotta.

Variable quantities, they say.

But from the creations of a horse to the creation of a horse.

Well, a technical question.

If it's sculptured, is it still pottery or is pottery only something that's thrown on a wheel or like a pinch pot?

And one thing I love about what you do is just how much history you put into your pieces with making so many replicas, too.