We have been playing around with various permutations of natural ingredients like pure powdered clay which we got from near here and processed, blow in cellulose,horse poop,shredded paper a la Ed Raduazo,mica from Philadelphia,wheat paste, sand with nice little mica bits from across the river at a sand pit, prickly pear cactus juice, chopped straw and probably a couple other things. I am trying to get a handle on the properties of these ingredients and come up with an idiot proof mix. Not quite there yet but getting close. My latest plaything is clay paint, I am using just the colored clay we have and wheat paste along with a bit of mica. I paint it on then while it is just leather tough I give it a wipe with an almost dry sponge to smooth it. Otherwise it dries kind of rough and airy. Thanks to Carole Crews who has been a sounding board for some of my ideas. No need to re-invent gunpowder as they say. Georgie Donais was down to help a couple weeks ago, she had some good ideas also, along with a nice touch with a trowel. With some luck she'll be back. Next plaster will have shredded paper, horse crap , clay and sand. Perhaps more blow in cellulose which is awful nice to work with.
