clay for rmh

I am building a pebble style rmh next week and have all the supplies except for the clay. I had a source lined up but it fell through.

My soil is a black clay and I am not sure it will work.

Any advice would be great. Or even someone in the Dallas area that has red clay I could have or buy.

Curt Hettman : We are asking every one to please list their location, look at your name and at mine ! you can goto> the Permies Toolbx above your First Post and find
and clickon> My Profile Which will allow you to list a general location, and the Correct number for your local growing season if you Know it .

A liitle pre-planning, a couple of Clone falls er phone calls and a little flattery will quickly get you some good answers, possibly enuff .

you are Looking for a local Arts/Artists Council, How it is listed depends on the imagination of the Lister, if you have to, try the Chamber of Commerce,

The idea is to end up talking to a local potter whether connected to a school or not, we are looking for someone who has tried all of the local clays, plead ignorance, you
don't want him/her to think someone is poaching on their patch of local clay, depending on region be prepared to tell them you want to make Cob or Adobe, also you
can expect to get an earful, you may be told that your black clay fires blue or green or ? hopefully you will be told the correct name for that type of clay and then you can
determine its % of Alumina silicates (SP) and that was what you started out to find out, they may or may not volunteer to share locations of other Local Clays Big AL

Kurt; Check with the county road crew, rather than the boss, try to talk to the guys running the equipment. They should know if their are any clay pockets in the area. If the dallas area is to suburban than try a more rural area where they have gravel roads, also try rural farms that may have a clay pocket near a stock pond. Good luck Tom

Curt Hettman : Thomas Rubino went of in a different direction than I did, as a good clay for Cob has a high % of Alumino-Silicates (sp?) I was trying to help you find a Rock Star
in the pottery game that might have the answers, While T.R. just wanted to help you find more/different clay, as the next two steps with any clay is doing a soil sediment test,
and making a few test bricks, the opinion of the experts is really not that important, though it is nice to be told you are on the right track !

Besides the local highway departments who will know where the local water soaked clay soils turn road cuts into landslides, you can also try a local excavation contractor, if there
is any clay in your area he will know about it, again your next step is a soil sedimentation test, if it looks promising tell him you will swing by to pick up what you want, as he has
to pay to have it hauled away you don't want him to deliver a tri-axle dump truck load while you are not home ! Let us know if we have actually answered the question(s) you
wanted answers to ! I hope this helped and was Timely For the good of the Craft ! Big AL

Thanks for the replies everyone. I did finally get clay from a pottery supplier. I picked up fire clay and silica to mix for my project. I still wish I had a better source of free clay as I underestimated the amount I would need. Since I ran out of clay the project is on hold till next Monday when I can get to the supplier and get more fire clay.