Wild Clay with Rupert Brakspear

This is a "pay what you can" session to ensure access for all. To do this, just select an amount on the booking page. All profits will contribute to increasing the impact of this festival in years to come.

Wild Clay, Interactive Demonstration

What is Wild Clay? For the purposes of this outline, it is a naturally occurring clay, that has been found and dug by-hand in the landscape, leaving minimal & ideally no trace at all of our actions; with all of the research and the many connections with place, people, wildlife and the elements that this involves…..

Using both a slide show presentation and live demonstration Rupert will introduce the five key stages of working with Wild Clay:

1. An introduction to tracking down clay; finding and digging

2. The eight steps in preparing and processing

3. Testing for use as either earthenware or stoneware

4. Assessing wild clay as potential glaze material

5. Introduction to issues relating to food safety if the ceramics are to be used domestically.

The session will give opportunities to discuss the ethics, practicalities and narratives when engaging with this exciting approach and will introduce the key equipment needed to process and prepare wild clays at home. Health and safety will be introduced as an integral priority throughout.