Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas
The clay body is a necessary component of pottery. Clay must be mined and purified in an often laborious process, and certain tribes have ceremonial protocols to gathering clay. Different tribes have different processes for processing clay, which can include drying in the sun, soaking in water for days, and repeatedly running through a screen or sieve. Acoma and other Pueblo pottery traditionally pound dry clay into a powder and then remove impurities by hand, then running the dry powder through a screen, mixing it with a dry temper, and then mixing water to create a plastic paste. In preparing the clay, potters spend hours wedging it to remove air pockets and humidity that could easily cause it to explode during firing. The clay then needs to "cure" over time.
Dungworth
Load Brook was developed from a farm to a minor industrial site in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A "pot clay" mine (pot clay – a type of fireclay from the Stannington pot clay bed) was developed to the southwest in the 1850s by William Trickett, a local farmer. Trickett obtained rights to mine pot clay from the landowner, the Duke of Norfolk in 1852 and was mentioned in the Sheffield Trade Directory of 1862 as a clay merchant. William Trickett died in 1890 and the business was continued by his three sons, William, Benjamin and Matthew under the name of B. Trickett & Co.