Intro: Why?

2011-09-26T19:24:00.001-04:00

Though I'm a resident of Pennsylvania, it wasn't until I started working on a project in the Catskills that the practice of fracking became a common topic. The part of the Catskills where we are working is full of shale. It wasn't clear what type it was, leaving me to wonder: is that the Marcellus? What is this stuff? Is it safe? What makes Marcellus so different from other rock formations?

Dusty red and pink shale-bed roads and driveways are common in that part of Sullivan County. Outcroppings line the highways. After one particularly wet week, I recognized that the fine creamy silt settling in puddles and along the roadside was clay. Shale, I learned, makes excellent clay.

Questions resurfaced and I still had no answers. Is this Marcellus? Is it hazardous to use? How do you made into a usable ceramic clay? Would the final product be foodsafe? What could I make with it?

This site documents the experiments, information, stories and lessons I've learned through this ongoing investigation into the use of Marcellus Shale as a material.

Chapter 1: Catskill Red Shale

2011-09-25T20:04:00.001-04:00

This is typical of the part of Fallsburg I've been working in for the past year. Roads and driveways often sit directly on top of the bedrock stone.

The most common rock types in the area are bluestone and a reddish shale.

When side-by-side, the blue sandstone takes on a bright green.

The shale - it's violet, pink, maroon, brick, brown and orange.

Puddles after a storm are blood red. As they evaporate, a dark red clay silt remains.

Shale = silt stone. These puddles were the prime places to hunt for clay. It was a frustrating process - there just were too few puddles. Instead, I decided to try to refine mud collected by red shale outcrops . Three 5-gallon buckets of mud traveled back to Philly with me.

This was the beginning. The next step: refining.

The Marcellus Clay Experiment

Intro: Why?

Chapter 1: Catskill Red Shale