Anyone have a good mud recipe? I love thick creamy mud similar to river mud. not sure if I can buy something in bulk that's safe to play in.

Appreciate the help!

I've used pure kaolin clay, aka china clay, there's also bentonite clay mixed with ball clay, aim for clays that are more fine, not coarse, and have more plasticity

I usually go into a pond with both that turns into mud as well but let me check some sources art wise and dm you still waking up

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Bentonite provides the oily creaminess - but it's not got the opacity to produce 'mud' on its own. Potters' and china clays can provide the solid, impermeable colour. It's common practice to add powder paint pigments, too - especially for darker muds. This will give you that depth.

my absolute favourite mess to play with has been powdered pottery clay ordered from a pottery store. i always make sure that there's never any grog/chamotte in the stuff i buy (smashed up bits of pottery, which usually helps with firing but makes it more coarse). with big amounts it's usually nice to use a powered mixer, but i've found it equally rewarding and fun to mix up clay with my hands and legs. powder mixes up so much more evenly and consistently than clay blocks in terms of preparation, so it's just a matter of having adequate breathing protection, gently folding in some water (i rly heating up water on the stove to mix in) into a containter/tub and clay powder, until u have the perfect consistently of gooey, warm, heavenly thick muck to smear on and indulge in.

i prefer redder shades, although it's always fun to mix and match~

To get the river mud darker color you should include in your mix some Red Art clay. Like 20% and the remaining could be Kaolin, those 2 combined will make similar mud that mudmadphil and messygirls are using in their pit.
Bentonite in a bit transparent used alone, however it has the very cool characteristic of soaking water and expand over a day. A 50lbs bag will make a huge amount if you let it rest over night. People use Bentonite as a natural way to seal a pond that is losing water. Make sure you have a way to dispose the clay not using your drain..