Pottery and CeramicsMore Recycling of the Pottery ClayWhen working with clay either throwing on a potters wheel, sculpting or pouring greenware there is always going to be clay scraps. |
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Here are some ideas.Dry out all your old clay scraps and keep them it in a bag for recycling until you are ready.Put the dried clay into a bucket and fill up to the top level with water. Let soak overnight. The clay should be soft and slushy. If not, add more water if necessary and mix the soft clay with a stick or a drill with a mixer attachment. Put the soft clay onto a large plaster of paris block for drying out. When the bottom half has dried a bit, turn it over. When the clay has the right overall consistency, cut up into small chunks and wedge. The soft clay will actually harden on the underside faster than the top, because the plaster is soaking up the moisture. Be sure and keep track of what kinds of clays are going into the mix too, because this will determine the firing temperature. This would be an excellent time to make paperclay. Here is a link to paper clay that will take you to a page which will tell you how to make paperclay. When throwing on a pottery wheel, always have two separate buckets, one for clean water and one empty one for wiping the clay from your hands into.
Note:Clay processed from throwing slurry is very plastic and nice to work with!There is a less messy way to recycle your pile of scraps, dip them in water and place them in a plastic bag. Wrap tight, leave a couple days, then wedge and use it. Another way to recycle scraps of clay is to throw them in a pillowcase and dunk the pillowcase in water until the clay is evenly wet. Hang the pillowcase from a tree or fence or lay it on a grate for the water to drip out. Note:When recycling like this, it is actually better to let the scraps dry out first rather than using leatherhard clay.You can use a hammer to break the dry clay inside the pillowcase into smaller pieces to help even more. If you are storing slurry for later processing and it gets moldy or starts to smell, add a little bleach, it won't affect the clay. Remember that the clay is hard on your hands, so cover them with petroleum jelly or lotion before wedging. If the clay gets a little too hard, put it in the freezer until thoroughly frozen. Take out and defrost, the clay will soften up. If it gets too mushy make the arches like above or spread on a wedging table.
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