Wild-harvested clay from Mount Jerusalem, Northern Rivers NSW
Wild Clay from the Ground Up — Sat 31 October
Sat, Oct 31
|Wild Nature Clay
Saturday 31 October 2026, 10am to 3pm. A day in the forest finding clay, then back to the shed to turn it into something you can fire. Three dig sites, buckets, bare hands. You make test tiles from the clay you dug yourself — I fire them afterwards. Fifteen people, no experience needed, $300. Adults only.
Time & Location
Oct 31, 2026, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Wild Nature Clay, Pearson's Road, Upper Main Arm
About the workshop
Wild Clay from the Ground Up
This workshop begins with a walk. We head out through old forest — tree ferns, big trunks, birds overhead — with a bucket each, and stop at three separate dig sites, each holding clay of a different character. Along the way you learn to read the ground: where clay is likely to sit, and how to tell it from soil with your hands rather than a textbook. I'll show you the wet-clay handprint test, and by the second site most people are spotting it before I do. The buckets come home labelled — Tomato Red, and whatever else the day turns up.
Back at the open air studio the clay goes through the whole process. Slaked down, filtered, dried back to something workable. Then tempered — sand and bentonite weighed out on old kitchen scales at different percentages, each blend pressed into its own…