Looking to make a mud pit in my house; planning on using a blowup pool But just having a hard time finding bulk mud; does anyone know a place that would carry bulk bags of dried clay/mud in the USA? Would like to find a store in person but just looking for some suggestions in general
Their are a few folks here who have mud pits I don't remember their user names off hand but I know they may be able to help. Two come to mind but I don't remember their umd handles
It's difficult to be of much help as you don't give your location. What you are looking for is a pottery supply company that deals in bulk clay. Prices for clay per ton are roughly in the $400 to $800 per ton range...
Depending on what your budget is and the size of your mud holding area (bath / shower / bucket), look for sources of Sodium Bentonite Clay.
There are two types of this health clay - Sodium Bentonite and Calcium Bentonite. Sodium bentonite is a super absorbent mud that should make about 8 litres of mud from just 700 grams of clay powder, added to water and leaving overnight.
Calcium Bentonite is "not" super absorbent and will remain looking like sand and sink to the bottom of your bucket, so maybe has just a 1:1 or 1:0.5 mixing ratio, which will make it a lot more expensive to use.
The Japanese use CMC (Tylose powder) to make Fake mud for their photo shoots, 200 grams makes 15 litres of slime. You will need twice the amount of sugar (to help dissolve the powder), brown / umber red acrylic paint (or food colouring) for texture or maybe even cocoa powder. (Look up Route207 . net)
But I believe for real clay shoots, they also source Kaolin Clay as well. But CMC is lightweight and easier to order than mud or clay. 5 kg of CMC makes an entire bath full with 140 litres of water (the Route 207 website says).
I buy my clay from this seller on eBay and it is great. It is an expanding clay so it goes a long way. 30lbs made about 40 gallons and that was just about perfect for what I was going for. I have pictures on my profile of what you can expect to get. You definitely get your moneys worth. Hope this helps.