At the end of the day I had around 40 pounds of dirty clay containing shells, stone, roots and spiders. I placed the clay in a bucket in the sink and started screening to remove the particles of what ever I could. I made a screen out of hardware mesh and two plastic bowls which fit in the buckets and worked like a charm, eliminating the flat screen which didn't really work at all.
I rescreened using a window screen mesh and I was able to get out most of the other particles. Once this process was completed I had a nice "clean" soup which I decanted when I could. I then put it in my plaster dryer/recycle.
The mess and the desire to get to the clay was overwhelming. I tend to work without cleaning and I was barley over the plumbing issues of the Christmas freeze, but I wanted that clay.
As of now, the clay is drying. It is a dark, rich brown. The field test indicated that it was a nice and plastic. I plan to fire a test cylinder at 06 and then judge to see if I should fire up or down. I will use shale from the creek to use as a colorant, and tests are coming.
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