Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: clay, process, studio

As a productive studio artist, I use a lot of clay.
And with that, comes a LOT of scraps & trimmings to be reclaimed.
I work hard to reclaim as much clay as I can. I put all of the dried scraps into
a large orange container in my studio, and fill it with water. As the clay absorbs
the water, it slakes down to become clay once again. When it feels & looks like clay
again, and much of the water has been absorbed, it’s time to scoop out the clay mix
and place it on a large plaster bat. So that’s what I did tonight… I scooped & scooped!
I scooped until my reclaim bin was empty and the bat was overflowing with clay.

And there it will sit until the overly-gooshey clay stiffens up and can be wedged up.
And when it’s ready… it’s a LOT of wedging, and wedging, and wedging…

And just in time… as my Northwoods potter friend Amy Higgason got “a little behind”
in her studio reclaiming and brought some of her scraps for me! Just a couple boxes…
okay, like twelve!!! That’s a lot of scraps!

So Amy’s scraps have now been placed in my reclaim tub. Add water. And wait…
Soon enough, it’s going to be  another huge batch of FREE CLAY!!!

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