Following the trip to Clee Hill, I have since dried, broken up, slaked and sieved the raw clay (through a 60 sieve). The result was a beautiful pond of yellow slip (see below), but the results were incredibly tacky and whilst highly plastic, impossible to work with for building / throwing. I then re-sieved the residue through a wire cooking sieve to remove the larger stones and organic debris and added the coarser slip to the earlier sieved clay (c 30%-70%). This made a highly workable clay, which threw well – and two thrown test cylinders are going through a biscuit firing as I write. I will test the slips capacity as a glaze material this weekend in my next glaze firing.

Clee Hill clay as a slip drying in the sun

Wheel thrown Clee Hill clay (fired to 1000 degrees)