Dear brave fellow gardeners who invested in learning to hand-build ollas,

Hand-built olla

If you chose to make your olla with sculpture clay (white), congratulations!  I hope that your olla is still performing well.  For the majority of learners who made their olla out of the more luscious red art clay – I am sorry.  That clay body sucked.  Whether it was fired at too high a temperature, or just contained too much fines, it don’t work worth shite.

I also made two or three red ollas during the class and they lose water at a pitifully slow rate to the surrounding soil.  This is not how an olla should work.  Although I had previously found that some red clays worked, this one did not.

Please consider trying again.  I would be happy to host a hand-building event at my house, potluck-style.  You could pick up the clay yourself, or I could take orders at get them all at once. Let me know if you are interested and we will set up a date.