Get Your "Art" Geek Shoes on for: Albany Slip Clay

When I first took a ceramics class many years ago, there was a plastic one gallon jug sitting on the shelf with an ancient tattered paper label titled: ALBANY SLIP. Curious, I asked the instructor what it was, and he informed me it was a rare slip clay from a pit that no longer produced it. (In other words: No, You Can't Use It.) Through my time at a different school students would sometimes speak of the magical Albany Slip as if it were made from the dust gently shaken from faerie wings, and many dreamed of a day when they'd actually find some and create the World's Greatest Art Piece, or some such nonsense.

It was actually very commonly used for 250 years, and in the days when clay was king it was used as a glaze for practically every utilitarian piece ever made of clay. It fires to medium to dark chocolate brown at cone 9-10 and creates a nice glassy glaze.

Albany Slip Glaze

Last night curiosity got the better of me and I decided to look on Google Earth to see if I could locate where it was mined. I'd heard houses had been built over the pit so it was unavailable, and I assumed I'd see rows of ticky tacky instead of a clay mine. After reading a little about it on the internets I'd discovered it was mined just a few blocks from the State Capitol in Albany New York, so I fired up Google Earth and within seconds was hovering over the city. After scrutinizing the area immediately surrounding the Capitol, I thought maybe the people were right; the place was lousy with buildings and no sign of disturbance. I slowly looked around the area and then something caught my eye: Across the Hudson River I could see what looked like excavation activity near what appears to be a high school. A closer look confirmed it was indeed a recent excavation, and looking even closer, I could clearly see a large backhoe filling the back of a truck! According to the information available the clay was originally dug from the west side of the river in the area known as Tivoli park, and I see no reason why the deposit couldn't be slightly to the east of the river also. After spending some time looking at Google Earth, it appears there are many small pits dug over the entire area, so who knows?

Albany Slip Pit?

Mining Albany Slip?

As some might imagine, this was somewhat a shock. Does this mean Albany Slip will be available for sale again? I spent more time than I'll admit searching for the answer to that question, and eventually discovered this page from 2007: Ceramic Industry Pottery Production Practices

After reading the entire piece (which was fascinating to a clay geek like me), I came upon this gem at the bottom of the page:

A 10-ton stockpile of original raw Albany slip clay is available and can be purchased in small or large quantities from The Great American Wheel Works, N.Y. The clay comes with an instruction sheet on how to screen the small pebbles that constitute approximately 1% of the total clay content.

(contact information at the link.)

I found a few more references to the Albany Slip Clay on a few other pages, and they inform me the raw clay sells for a whopping $5 a pound. It used to sell for less than that for a 50 lb bag! I'm considering buying a few pounds, though due to the fact I do only primitive, non-glazed pieces these days it'd likely never be used.

So all you people looking for Albany Slip, there you are. And if you clay turds out there do create the greatest work of art ever made using it, remember: You owe me.

Retro? Nah...

These are pictures from 6 or 7 years ago.

I was getting a spot ready for planting garlic in September when I dug these little critters straight up out of the ground.

Great Plains Narrow Mouthed Frog (Gastrophryne olivacea)

This is a young narrow mouthed frog, and I say "young" because it was maybe 1/2 an inch in length. I've seen a few that were bigger, but these guys are usually on the small side. It amazed me that it came out of the dry, dusty soil looking like it had swam out of the water! They're not uncommon in Kansas, yet few people see them, mainly because of their nocturnal habits. Oddly, most of the sites on the internets call this animal a toad, but I'll stick by my trusty Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians.

Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus)

This little guy was a hatchling, being only 4-5 inches in length. This one is a result of implantation of a few adults into my back yard many years ago.

Lovely plumage!

Drill here, drill NOW!

Did you feel the earthquake last night?

I didn't, but Derek did. He hit me on messenger shortly after it happened asking if I'd felt it. I said no, and then proceeded to look online to see if there was any updated information.

Here's what I found. (PDF)

Though no definite conclusions were reached, the USGS clearly believes that fracking is responsible. With the addition of several, even more powerful earthquakes in the same area in recent days, it is clear to me that hydraulic fracking in the area is what caused them.

The quake last night was a 5.6, the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma.

Damned Kansas Liberals!

Louis Vieux Elm Vandalized (For the Last Time)

It was once the largest American Elm in the world, and now thanks to vandals the remains of this giant are no more.

Jeremy told me about this magnificent tree he'd discovered while attending KSU in the early 00's. It was more than 300 years old and stood 100 feet tall with a canopy that spread nearly that far. Some years ago it was damaged by lightning, then in 1998 a couple of morons blew it up with a pipe bomb which eventually caused its death. Thankfully they were caught, and sadly their "punishment" was a few hours of community service. Tuesday it was discovered that over the weekend (most likely) someone had torched the stump, leaving only a pile of ashes beneath the arbor which was recently built to protect it.



I've heard someone at KSU had saved some of the branches of the tree after it was bombed, which were then cloned, ensuring this gargantuan tree would live on in a much smaller version(s). What would be fantastic is if someone at the University would plant one or more of the clones in this vicinity.

Does anyone out there have a good picture of the actual tree? I found a few on the internets but they are tiny as well as blurry. If you do, and could send them to us at stevelafrench at gmail dot com it would be greatly appreciated!