A handful of the curious and those who pay attention to local happenings were fortunate enough to get their hands dirty with Mad River Valley Arts and Friends of the Mad River’s Luke Foley who offered a glimpse into The Valley and The Mad River’s clay deposits and how to play with them last weekend.
Foley’s July 26 Wild Clay event started out at the Lareau Swim Hole in Waitsfield where he showed folks various different types of local clay, explaining how to forage wild clay from the landscapes of The Valley and how to test local clay sources. He walked participants through the process of preparing and tempering clay to make pottery.
There are several steps to make the clay pliable for creating. One of the steps is tempering. Tempering, according to participant Susie Conrad, Warren, involves preparing the clay by adding an organic ground material like sand. The temper acts to open up the clay body, allowing moisture to escape more evenly during firing. Fun fact, the clay on the ovens at American Flatbread is harvested from clay deposits sourced on the property.
Once the clay was ready, participants created a variety of pieces using both modern and traditional ancestral techniques, Conrad said. She created a pollinator cup, snail, and rattle.
Because clay needs to dry slowly, the pieces were not fired last Saturday, but participants were offered the opportunity to fire their pieces at a fire at Mad River Valley Arts on August 3 or at Foley’s Waitsfield home – where he has a fire pit.
