We have clay, you bring the play, we’ll have a beautiful day!
Suitable for all ages. No pottery experience required. All welcome.
Clay Play Day
Messy, creative, beautiful, experimental
Friday 21 August
1pm – 4pm
Venue: Rocky River HQ (approx 30 min from Drake Village)
Address sent upon registration.
Cost: $15 for participants
rockystars price: $10 for participants
Unders 3s free.
ABOUT THE DAY
What happens when you mix 180kg of wild clay with a group of curious humans?
We’re about to find out…
No pottery experience is required to join the session, and we’re not working towards creating a specific clay item.
There is no teacher at the front of the group showing us what to do; rather, we’ll be sharing ideas and knowledge between ourselves, as well as just exploring and discovering as we play.
All are welcome, whether you’re inspired to create something specific, functional or artistic; or you want to simply enjoy the hands-on experience of manipulating soft clay into amazing shapes (and probably some funny sounds).
We also have some unprocessed clay if you want to try your hand at mixing, cleaning, and sieving.
What is ‘wild clay’?
It’s not refined clay bought from a shop.This clay has been dug from outside Tabulam. It’s been mixed with water to create a slurry, sieved and picked over to remove grass, rocks and other debris. We then poured the smooth liquid clay into pillowcases and allowed them to dry to a solid but malleable consistency.
Wild clay is exciting because it’s local to our area (it feels like a friend with backstory!) and we have a closer involvement in the process of getting it ready to use.
It’s also exciting because, until we really test it, we don’t know how it will react. How it will fire? what colour will it come out as? what mix-ins best suit it?
This clay play day will be the first in a series of experiments to discover the nature of this particular clay.
No facilitator? Will we learn anything?
We absolutely will! With a mix of participants, we will be able to pool our knowledge and learn together.
Until we gather we won’t know exactly what we’ll learn and teach each other, but that’s part of the joy of a collaborative workshop. Every session can be different depending on the mix of people and their experiences.
Your host Jess — while by no means a pottery expert — has had her time experimenting and working with wild clay in Finland. For several years her bathroom was a seasonal clay slurry science lab, and she played a lot with leaf pressings and other natural materials. (Did you know? Clay from the Helsinki region fires red… beautiful!)
If you’d like to prepare in advance, you might watch YouTube videos or read some books or websites about clay work, but this is not essential.
What to bring?
clothes that are okay to get grubby
water bottle + hat
any interesting tools, or items with shapes or textures that you’d like to experiment with
if you’d like to arrive early, bring a picnic lunch to enjoy by the creek before the session
Provided
a large shaded area by the creek to work
tables, chairs and floor mats
hand washing station nearby
toilets nearby
plenty of clay
variety of tools and implements to use with the clay
welcome to forage for rocks, sticks, leaves, casuarina nuts and other interesting natural items
End of the session
At the end of the day, there are three main options:
take your creations home (to use unfired indoors/out of the weather, or to arrange firing yourself)
leave unwanted creations behind to melt back into the slurry once more
keep your creations at Rocky River HQ to dry in a safe place (for group firing or primitive/pit firing)
Want more?
Make your visit to Rocky River more than just a day trip, with camping and accommodation options.
Join other workshop guests for Friday or Saturday nights (or both!), with a communal dinner cook-up and time to explore the Timbarra River, trek to Mad Wally’s Boulders, feed the friendly cows, or just kick back and enjoy the peace of the bush.
Unpowered camping: $15 per person, or $30 for 2–5 in a family / night
Don’t have camping gear, or prefer a real bed? Ask Jess about indoor options.
Ready to play?
Places are limited. Book early to secure your spot.