77 million-year-old mugs cataloged and exhibited

These mugs are made from clay mined from the Whitemud formation in southern Saskatchewan. Those layers date from the late cretaceous, the worlds largest T.Rex was found nearby. The errosive forces of nature during that period did a marvellous job of purifying and depositing this beautiful high temperature stoneware clay. It is basically complete right out of the ground, with just the right amount of feldspar and silica added to a ball clay and kaolin base. The glaze on these is G2571A bamboo, the engobe under it is L3954N black. They were fired at cone 10R. These are examples of mugs I make and catalog, each has its own pedigree web page that celebrates every detail about the materials and process used to make it (e.g. here is a pedigree page, it links to the mug's store URL). However please don't attempt to buy any, I am using the store as more of a gallery for now.

Related Pictures

Clay in "dinosaur country" of southern Saskatchewan

White clay layers visible on the steep side of the valley wall

This is a "badlands" slope in the Frenchman river valley. The valley exposes the "Whitemud Formation" in many places (clearly visible here half way down on the left). Two surface mines of Plainsman Clays are nearby (over the top and down the other side), in a place where lower-lying rolling hills leave much less over-burden to remove. These materials were laid down as marine sediments during the Cretaceous period. The skeleton of the world's largest T.Rex, dubbed "Scotty", was found 50km east of here (in the layers just above the Whitemuds). Where are the layers of Scotty's ancestors from the Jurassic period? Straight down until you hit the bed rock!

Mel Noble at Plainsman Clay's Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan quarry

Plainsman Clays extracts 6 different sedimentary clays from this quarry (Mel knows where the layers separate). The dried test bars on the right show them (top to bottom). The range of properties exhibited is astounding. The top-most layer is the most plastic and has the most iron concretion particles (used in our most speckled reduction bodies). The bottom one is the least plastic and most silty (the base for Ravenscrag Slip). The middle two are complete buff stonewares made by mother nature (e.g. M340 and H550). A2, the second one down, is a ball clay (similar to commercial products like OM#4, Bell). A2 is refractory and the base for Plainsman Fireclay. The second from the bottom fires the whitest and is the most refractory (it is the base for H441G).

The world's largest T.Rex could have walked on our clay!

Eastend, Saskatchewan is the location of the incredible T.rex Discovery Centre. It hosts Scotty, the world's largest T.rex. The building is an architectural marvel and the exhibits are on par with anything else where. The building is actually embedded into the hillside in the same geological layers in which the fossilized skeleton was found, the Battle Formation (just above the Whitemuds that are mined by Plainsman Clays). If you ever get a chance to drive from Ravenscrag to Eastend take the south road for the most dramatic views. Do it in the spring when the grass is green. The sheer scale of the valley, the land formations and the countless outcrops of the Whitemud clays will amaze. At Eastend, have lunch at Jack's Cafe and socialize with the locals, you won't be disappointed! Then go and see Scotty.

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