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