Hi All
I've managed to acquire a quantity of Kaolin clay for a bit of fun at home. I've tried Bentonite before and got on ok. Has anyone tried this and got any pointers? Apart from watching the dust when mixing....

IMO you need to mix it with a diff mud such and bentonite. Alone it's a bit meh. Also mine got a odd smell after 2 weeks, the bentonite did not.

Hmmm Ok I've got some ball clay and some pre mixed bentonite so may have to have an experiment.

Working on a mud pool heating pad now as even when its hot the mud is a bit cold for the wife...

We are mixing a large batch of mud in a tote a bucket at a time and pouring it into a tote. Going to try to keep it warm by circulating warm water through plastic pex pipe in the tote center with the outer walls insulated. So hard not to play in it while working on it

Time also seems to be a big key. I'm most familiar with bentonite, but it takes about 24 hours to fully hydrate and come up to 'maximum potential' - so you really need to mix it a day before and patiently wait Possibly kaolin is similar. The "ball clay's" seem to have a shorter hydration time, but still seems ideal if you can mix them several hours before use.

Also, I typically use bentonite for 'volume' though it tends to be a bit transparent for coverage, so I throw in some ball clay to get the actual 'muddy' look.