In December 2006 in the midst of drought, my dad had a great number of his dams excavated when they were dry. Obviously to remove silt etc. and allow more water storage when it eventually rained again. I was curious about the clays that could be 'found' this way. In one dam in particular we found 'white stuff', as my dad called it, I was instantly intrigued.
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| Drought and empty dam December 2006 |
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| 2006 Clay deposit on the sides and bottom of the dam |
I am not a geologist or potter with vast experience so I found myself on a steep learning curve!!
Could I make things from this clay? and what else could I use from the farm (same location) to create art and would this art reflect its location? - developing a sense or impression of place. I wanted to learn more about ceramics so I applied to do post-graduate study at the ANU in 2007.
So I was off, looking for what I could use. Initially I looked in the pile of dirt/silt/clay that was excavated from the dam. Fortunately for me I had a conversation with my dad during the excavation and he was able to move the bulk of the 'white stuff' off the bottom of the dam, to a large pile on one side (2.5 m x 5 m approx). Here is where I started looking, I found: Clay that looked primary in nature (marbled with iron), a curious red rock (sedimentary and quite sandy) and a hard whitish rock (quartzite). The photos of these first discoveries are below:
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| 2007 Large clay pile |
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Clay material
Red rock |
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| Quartzite |
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