Oops, I did a thing again. Bayou La Batre paste. #ceramics #archaeology

While I didn't like the Pleistocene upland clay from southwest Louisiana while working it because it was stiff & kept cracking, I can't deny the results. Wet = 15.0 cm dia. 5.6 cm hgt. Dry = 13.75 cm dia. 5.15 cm hgt. Original bowl had a width/height ratio of 1:2.68 or 37.33% My reproduction is 1:2.67 or 37.45% Damn! I'm good! 😏 I'm also modest. #ceramics #archaeology

Firing the natural colored clays to use for slips did almost as expected. The gray glauconite wasn't neutral. It fired tan to pinkish tan. The ferromanganese (brown ochre) mixed with the glauconite fired brown. The red & the white are two I've used for slips many times. I figured the ferromanganese would turn out brown & am ecstatic that it did. Somewhat disappointed that the glauconite didn't stay gray, but tan is useable. #ceramics #archaeology #RealArchaeology

I found this flattened, dry, cord-marked clay containing fine shell temper in a plastic bag. Since the only shell-tempered pottery in the Lower Mississippi Valley is Cahokia Cord Marked & I haven't made any of that, I must've been explaining something to someone & this clay was handy. #ceramics #archaeology

A must for any archaeologist's or geologist's field kit. #archaeology #geology

Weeden Island Punctated (ca. 200-700 CE) sherds, Northwest Florida. These are from either 8GD106 or 8WL81. #ceramics #archaeology

Today, Louisiana politicians killed a very important $3B coastal restoration project funded by BP oil spill money, even though they were told they might have to pay back the almost $700M already spent. They killed it to protect fishermen over objections from scientists & coastal experts. The project would divert Mississippi River sediments into the Barataria Bay region, building ~20 sq mi of land & combatting subsidence & erosion. This project was the cornerstone for saving Louisiana's coast.1/

Ann asked what I was going to make next. Good question. Will try to answer that tomorrow. #ceramics

Finishing the Evansville Punctated bowl rim, floating the surface & finger-punctating the upper body. #ceramics #archaeology

Somebody recently asked about the natural clay we use to make our reproductions of Indigenous pottery. As I noted to them, we collected clay from many of the archaeological projects we conducted throughout the Southeast. Here are a few of the clays we still have in inventory. #ceramics #archaeology