Does anyone know how to make clay out of mud?

-does anyone know how to make clay out of mud??go to a river bank or ditch ,where the earth has been exposed, under the top layer of soil where the grass and plants are growing , dig out from the deeper layers, they will be yellow or reddish,this is the clay layers, I have found good clay there , the classic method is to dry the clay in the sun, Crush and clean the clay of sticks and roots or any foreign objects, then re wet or slake the clay in to a wet slurry and let it sit for a few days to reabsorb the water , then as the water evaporates you will need to wedge the clay to align particles and eliminate the air bubbles, this how the book says to do it, I have found that the clay usually is workable from the digging and only needs some wedging, i have performed this action at summer camps with great success, this is earthen ware grade clay or low fire, it will fire out a light reddish orange we fired little clay animals in a camp fire, i used the thick bark from fallen oak trees to form a quickie kilnBelow are some links with information on digging up local clay and the whole process of preparing the clay to use and fire.



This is not an easy task. It is also extremely time consuming. Commercial clay bodies are made from a variety of clays and other chemicals to produce something that will fire at a particular temperature. Digging your own means you will have to go through testing to discover what temperature you can fire the clay to and if it is indeed workable or if other chemicals will need to be added to make it workable. So most people will buy a commercially made clay.



Hope this helps. Good luck.
If it isn't obvious from the first good answer, you don't make clay from mud

You find clay and dig it up and clean it

Clay is small flat platelets

Mud is round pieces of soil and organic material.