Little Brown Jug 

In the Fall 2024, The Art Center of Capital Region in Troy, NY will host an exhibition titled, Dig Deeper: [some] Art, Science and History of Troy Clay which features work and research of a group of artists using local clays. The exhibit will include a range of programming created for both professional and recreational audiences.

Residing within the larger exhibition is the Little Brown Jug show. For over 150 years, Albany Slip was one of the most important materials in colonial American ceramics, and the little brown jug bearing this glaze was ubiquitous. The last mine where it was manufactured closed for good in the 1980's, but geologically, the material was still there. We found a cousin material in the nearby town of Schaghticoke. Having gotten permission from the town to share some with you, Broken Mold Studio and friends invite you to join us in experimenting and creating work for this exhibition. We want to learn more about clays in the landscape; to learn more about the history of pottery in New York State's Capital District and Upper Hudson Region, both during and before the colonial era; to test materials and share glaze chemistry and firing results; and to consider artists' responsibility for extractive practice. The Little Brown Jug show invites ceramists to submit in the categories of historic form, contemporary form, miniature or glaze kitchen. 

Jurors Mary Barringer, potter and former editor of Studio Potter magazine, and Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of the New York State Museum, will select some of the exhibited pots to travel (post-exhibition) to the Museum and be displayed alongside their historic counterparts in the Weitsman Collection.

Join us!

Phase 1:  9/1/23- 5/1/24. Request for Material. 

Phase 2:  4/7-7/31/24. Upload Finished Work Images and Details to the Call for Entry. (Let us know if you need another couple of days... message @schaghticoke_slip )

Follow on Instagram at @schaghticoke_slip and tag us or collaborate to share your results and join the conversation!

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The Little Brown Jug project and archive reside at the Broken Mold Studio, a community pottery in Troy, NY.  The studio claims its place in a long  line of historic Troy potteries, possibly dating back to 1799 and Branch Green who may have been the first documented potter working in the city, at least of the colonial era. Broken Mold is the steward of a small clay deposit that yields a close relative of (commercially unavailable) Albany Slip. Broken Mold does not seek to make this material commercially available, but would like to share some material and what we are learning about it with you. Follow on Instagram at @schaghticoke_slip to learn more, request material, and to tag to share your results!

Resources

Img 44:  Clay exposure along River Rd., across from Lock No. 1, Champlain Canal, Lansingburgh, NY.  I just scraped a little away at the base of the clay scarp.  Mapped Hudson. Varved clays (thinly bedded sediments representing low energy, low volume sediments from winter alternating with high energy sedimentation from spring, summer, fall). I am uncertain as to the meaning of the gray layer, but I suspect it might be a little tighter. 

"As Tom Sanford [Rensselaer County Soil and Water Conservation District] indicated in our virtual meeting, the clays are lacustrine deposits from Lake Albany. When high energy streams and meltwaters disgorged into the streams rapidly dissipating energy could no longer carry larger particles and they dropped out of suspension.  Hence the gravel and sand deposits around Sand Lake, Averill Park and Wynantskill. Further out in Lake Albany where there was little energy to keep particles suspended the colloidal particles (clays) gradually wafted down to the lake bed.  Surges in stream energy, summer versus winter, explain the layers or varves seen in the image where I scraped off some of the slough on the one photo. Lake Albany was dammed by the Harbor Hill Moraine which stretched from Staten Island to Brooklyn and Queens. When that moraine was breached Lake Albany drained, possibly in a cataclysmic fashion, and in its wake left the Hudson River and the narrows separating Staten Island from Queens."

-Steve Carlisle, retired soil scientist USDA-NRCS, 5/17/2021

From Jeff Zamek
Info on Albany Slip

No More Albany Slip -

The depleted stockpiles of Albany slip clay are an unfortunate event, but in many ways it was predictable in the history of raw materials used by potters. There are still geologic deposits of Albany slip clay, but it is no longer mined. Looking through any ceramics book or magazine reveals many glaze and clay body formulas that contain the low fire, high iron content slip clay. Many potters’ glaze notebooks will show one or more Albany Slip glaze formulas.

Locations of Albany Slip Clay -

Albany slip clay is an alluvial deposit formed by the transportation of material by glacial action in the Albany Hudson River region of New York State. Records indicate that two mine sites operated at different times. One was located near Livingston Avenue and North Lake Avenue beside Highway 1-90 in the city of Albany NY, on the edge of residential housing and industrial areas. Landfill from the Empire State Plaza project is now deposited throughout the site. The other mine was located off of North Lake Avenue, adjacent to the Tivoli Lake wildlife preserve.    

At the site the over burden was stripped away, yielding four beds of clay that tested for uniform properties suitable for removal. The beds of clay were of variable thickness, with two layers measuring 8 ft. thick of select clay separated by sandy layers. The two beds of clay mined were similar to deposits under the Empire State Plaza in the center of the city.  

Short History of Albany Slip Clay-

Albany slip clay has a complex mineralogy with high levels of alkalis and irons. This hydrous alumino-silicate clay is dark brown and non-plastic, having a silty texture. Potters used this once common but now scarce clay for over 250 years. The northern Hudson Valley of New York State was an active pottery-making region; by the 1840’s almost sixty potters produced ware in and around the city of Albany. The records of Albany slip clay, commonly called “Albany mud”, date back to the Revolutionary war period.    

At higher temperature ranges, above c/9 (23000 F.), Albany slip clay is almost a glaze by itself and is characterized by a glossy flowing surface ranging in color from light yellow/green to dark brown/black in reduction kiln atmospheres. Due to its high iron content Albany slip was used in “Temmoku” iron crystal glazes, producing a wide range of effects such as “hare’s fur” (light streaks in the glaze), to “tea dust” (small crystals formed in the glaze upon cooling). .  

The last stockpile of Hammill & Gillespie’s Albany slip clay was depleted in 1987. The clay was shipped in 50 lb. brown bags with black side lettering, and some bags were not marked with production lot numbers. The subsequent variations in chemical analysis of the slip and the variation in kiln firing atmospheres, clay bodies and glaze application methods can account for the variations in the fired glaze. Remember, just because the name on the bag stays the same what’s inside may not be the same.   

Albany Slip Substitutions -

Due to its unique natural mineral content, which changed at various times in its availability, Albany slip clay has proven somewhat difficult to reproduce either by using other slip clays or building a substitute by duplicating its oxide content. As with other naturally occurring ores such as Gerstley borate and Barnard slip clay there are no definitive chemical analyses of the materials to use as a baseline when considering a substitution. Additionally, trace materials found in the deposit can contribute to unique firing qualities that often do not lend themselves to duplication. In the past, Michigan slip clay was an acceptable substitute for Albany, but it was discontinued in the 1970s.

When a raw material is no longer available and potters exhaust their own supply there is always a rush to find adequate substitutes. Unfortunately, many raw materials are unique in chemical composition, trace elements, particle size distribution, handling characteristics and organic content and do not lend themselves to a one-to-one substitution suitable for every temperature range and kiln atmosphere. In the past, ceramics supply companies have hurried to sell substitutes, which sometimes did not yield the desired results. Potters have often stockpiled reserves of the original raw material which can tie up money and studio storage space. Sadly, this story does not seem to have a happy ending for most potters.