{"id":7144,"date":"2026-03-22T08:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=7144"},"modified":"2026-03-22T08:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:07:52","slug":"mixing-the-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=7144","title":{"rendered":"Mixing the Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;6a01b0555f33c&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on-async--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_swamp_1.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge image\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve been experimenting with some clay that came with some fill dirt I had delivered to my home, recently. The clay is dark gray with a slight bluish tint. The blue is lost once I start mixing it, and it&#8217;s just gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t really care about the color, although darker colors are easier to photograph in sunlight. The challenge is going to be getting the clumps out of the clay. It doesn&#8217;t just absorb water on it&#8217;s own. I think I&#8217;m going to try drying it out and pulverizing it into fine powder before I add water. That should give me a nice, consistent slurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-21_clay-mixing.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This video shows the result of 3 days of mixing and soaking. Not continuously, of course. The video is a little large, so, if you like it, you might want to save it to your computer. I might replace it with a lower quality version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mix you see here will probably end up in my mud pit, today. I think it will enhance my mud, which is still a little on the sandy side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On an unrelated note: Clips4Sale is taking some disturbing steps that are alienating some veteran producers. They want us to do customs exclusively through their site. I guess they can&#8217;t stand the idea that some of us get revenue that doesn&#8217;t go through them, letting them take their cut. I never expected them to turn on producers who advertise customs on their web-sites, but they have. I refuse to do my customs through C4S because their censorship makes it impossible to even negotiate the details. Also, I&#8217;d have to abide by all of their content restrictions and let them have 40% of the purchase price. If you want a custom, you should contact me, directly. At the moment, you&#8217;d have to use X, Bluesky, or deviantArt to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been experimenting with some clay that came with some fill dirt I had delivered to my home, recently. The clay is dark gray with a slight bluish tint. The blue is lost once I start mixing it, and it&#8217;s just gray. I don&#8217;t really care about the color, although darker colors are easier to &hellip; <a class=\"read-excerpt\" href=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=7144\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,29,53,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clay-pit","category-mud-pit","category-production-issues","category-the-back-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7147,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144\/revisions\/7147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}