More than thirty years ago, I taught junior high during the day and threw pottery from the time I got home at about four in the afternoon until late at night. Since I have an addictive personality, I spent every moment of every summer immersed in throwing, glazing and firing my pottery. I loved every second of pottery making.
However, I wasn't walking with the Lord at the time, so I didn't realize until years later all the ways clay and the potter symbolize God and his Creation. But as I read my Bible daily and God gave me many Ah-ha! moments, a book emerged. The publisher that I signed a contract with didn't like the title Living Clay and could never come up with an alternative. Though my editor fought valiantly, the book was never published. I never submitted it to another publisher.
In these blogs I will share some of the insights God gave me. Most came from actual hands-on work with clay. Other information and insights came from books. I found the chemical composition chart below from Rhodes, Clay and Glazes for the Potter: Chilton Book Company, 1957, pg 5.
"As one might expect, the usual chemical composition of clay is quite similar to the average composition of the surface of the earth as a whole. Compare, for example, an analysis of a common, red clay with the approximate percentages of oxides on the surface of the earth as a whole:"
Earth as Common red
a whole clay
SiO2 59.14 57.02
Al2O3 15.34 19.15
Fe2O3 6.88 6.70
MgO 3.49
3.08
CaO 5.08 4.26
Na2O 3.84 2.38
K2O 3.13
2.03
H2O 1.15 3.45
TiO2 1.05 .91
