So my girlfriend I recently made a mud pit for my birthday to play around in, and while it was lots of fun, we simply used topsoil from Home Depot and water, and it wasn't all that comfortable compared to "natural" mud-pits I've found.

Does anyone have any advice or tips? I'm not trying to build a permanent pit, we just used an inflatable pool and trashed it afterwards. I found a powdered clay on a messy sfx site that looked interesting.

I also really like the mud in videos from Messygirl, the dunk tanks, and Mostwam. Does anyone happen to know how these creators make their mud?

Thanks!

Don't use any store bought soil. It's often got crap in it.

Go to an art or ceramic supply store and get three 20kg bags of pottery clay. It makes a bathtub or more of clay. If you have a decent drill you can get a paint paddle for that to stir the stuff. Mix it in a bucket to whatever consistency you want and dump that in your pool to desired depth. Enjoy.

The "crap" in the topsoil is often literally crap. It's what makes the plants grow!

I mud bath in any mud I can find. I've been doing it forever. My favorite mud is mud that has been sitting Michigan farm field mud that has not been treated with feces. My other favorite mud is mud from mud bogs because it is generally blended to a point of spa mud. My two personal mud pits, one is a rototillled area behind the house that is a blend and f top soil and clay. My other area is a dried up river bed with basically pudding mud

What I would recommend to you is powdered clay. You can call the wholesale art supply store and tell them you need to make an artificial mud pit as part of a prop. They will guide you somewhat on the color. I would stick to powdered bentonite clay especially if your girl is going to join you. I have thought about a permanent mud vat forever.... I have even thought about turning it into a business.... the question I have is if a person could have a private permanent mud bath in their home what would they pay for such a thing???

Recommendation:

https://www.theceramicshop.com/store/category/7/5/dry-clay-material/

Blackbird Clay / New Barnard if you went the clay dark
RedArt Clay, Cedar Heights if you want the clay reddish
etc.

I suggest 20 pounds minimum.

Ohhh this is good. Just what I've been looking for!

Ditto the thoughts on not using topsoil from a Garden Center. We have no natural mud (clay) where we live so I dug a mudpit in my backyard and lined it with brown color plastic tarps, then I bought a dozen 40lb bags of Bentonite Clay (that comes from Wyoming). However this clay is grey in color so in order to make it go brown or reddish in color you buy a bag of red iron oxide and mix that in your pit or arena.

This is not my recipe. I simply followed instructions given to me by the maestro of mud videos, Rob Blaine of Messy Fun who was visiting me at my Florida ranch.

When the truck showed up at my house with so many bags of clay, the truck driver was curious why I needed so many bags of clay and why there were all these pretty models staying at my house -- Rob and I told the guy we were hosting an international pottery convention.

Your first time of using the clay you will need to have a mud mixing party, which is something like the grape stomping party in "I Love Lucy"....because the clay will be too difficult to mix by hand, so unless you have a heavy duty electric mixer the simplest thing to do is mix it with your feet, so ask for a couple of volunteer to participate in a mud stomping scene until the clay is the right consistency you want.

Have fun.

MK

This was about half the first load at Camp MPV. We just told the guy in town we were making mud wrasslin' videos. The real trick was explaining 2,000 pounds of corn starch to the FEDEX guy.