Indian Pottery

                                      

I began watching this guy on YouTube who does pottery on the cheap.  I found that the less equipment that you have, the harder that you must work.  So, I tried to make a pot like the Indians would have done … although they didn’t have YouTube.  I found a newly excavated site on Battlefield Parkway that had a sediment pond and collected … sediment.  I got two bucketfuls.  Back at home, I divided them into four buckets, added water, and mixed them (by hand, of course).  Then I poured the slurry through a strainer to get out sticks and rocks.  I let the four buckets sit overnight.  The next day, the sediment had settled to the bottom allowing me to pour off the clear water on the top (like vinegar and oil dressing).  I strained the thicker slurry again and let it sit overnight.  The next morning, I poured off the water again and had four quarter-full buckets of mud.  I scooped out the mud into an old pillowcase (bought for a dollar at Goodwill) and hung it under my shed roof.  I don’t think that the Indians had a pillowcase either.  After 3 days of dripping, I had some decent red clay.  I used a plastic bowl as a form to mold the base of my pot in and then began making coils working my way up.  I went to Rossville Blvd behind the Kawasaki Bike shop for some white clay to use as paint.  It worked well.  I dried my pot in the oven for an hour.  I made a kiln out of 55 red pavers from Lowe’s.  The Indians may have used Home Depot, but whatever.  I cut an old Freon tank to cover my pot and arranged wood around the tank.  I used several recycled hardwood pallets, cut and split, to stoke my kiln.  The fire quickly got hot.  As the wood burned into charcoal, I added more wood on top until I reached 1300°F, hot enough to fire the red clay.  After 4 hours of cooling, my final pot was done!  I now have extreme admiration for the Indians who made pottery without modern conveniences … without even the rudimentary advantages that were available to me!  Solomon said in Proverbs 12:24, “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.”  Truly, hard work does pay.  But laziness is fun at times too.