After a few days of drying on a large plaster bat, my reclaimed porcelain slurry has set-up enough to start wedging. After a bit of manual labor, I now have a few more bags of porcelain. A few more bags of potential.

Every Thursday during a typical Wheelthrowing Camp is Terra Cotta Day!
I try to tell them in advance that it’s going to be messy. A lot messier than stoneware.
Generally they scoff at it. And think that I’m exaggerating. And then THIS happens…

Gooey-gloppy messy hands… and arguably the dirtiest wheel EVER!!!
Good thing we have Rule #3… “Whatever mess you make, YOU will be cleaning up.”
And she did.

My reclaim bucket was full of slaked down porcelain scraps. Pulverized porcelain scraps soaked in water, and then evaporated until it was gooey, but not puddley. So I thought today would be a good day to glop it all out onto a large plaster bat to get it to start setting up. After a few days of drying, I will be able to start wedging. You gotta love free clay!!! Especially when it’s porcelain… Thanks again Emily!

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After a full day in Evanston, I swung by the studio last night to do some last minute throwing. I’m teaching a Soda-Firing Workshop next weekend and I need to make some more pots quick to help fill the kiln… and replenish some of the pieces that went to good homes during the art fair!

It’s another week of Summer Camp!!! This week I’m teaching Wheelthrowing again….
and the mud-covered shenanigans have started already!!!

Spent the afternoon making some more FREE clay. My reclaim was turned out onto a large plaster bat a few days ago. The gooey clay has firmed up a bit… so it was a day full of “fast-drying” with slices in front of the fan, and a LOT of wedging!!! But still… five bags of FREE CLAY!!! And you know how I like free clay!

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And then today after Summer Camp, I decided to re-fill my “recently-emptied” reclaim bucket. So I washed it down and started filling it with porcelain scraps. A potter friend in Minneapolis gives me ALL of her reclaim scraps… so I have a lot of dried porcelain to process. This afternoon I started pulverizing, filling my bin and then adding water to help slake it down. A little bit of work to get a whole lot of FREE clay!!!

Yesterday, after summer camp, I turned out a huge pile of reclaimed clay. These are all of my scraps & trimmings from my weeks of art fair production. I broke down the scraps and soaked them in water for a few weeks. The trimmings are nice & gooey. So I mixed it up and turned it out onto a large plaster bat to help absorb the excess moisture. When it stiffens up a bit, I’ve going to have a LOT of wedging to do!!!

Today was another messy day in Wheelthrowing Camp. The kids were throwing with terra cotta clay… and found it to be a LOT dirtier & sloppier than regular stoneware. Messy… but so much FUN!!!

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After sitting on my plaster bat for a few days, the pile of reclaim clay has stiffened up enough to start working with it. So I take off chunks of clay and pound them loosely in to squared blocks. And then I slice them into thin slices and alternately layer them into different stack. As you can see, I am more than willing to mix several different clay bodies into my reclaim. As long as they’re all a cone 10 high-fire clay body. It’s just clay, right?

So I take the layered stacks and pound them down on themselves.
Cut it in half and stack one stack on top of the other half. So if you started with 10 layers, you now have 20 stacked. Pound it down, then cut it in half and stack them again. Now you have 40 layers. Repeat, 80 layers. Repeat. 160 layers. Repeat. 320 layers. Repeat. 640 layers. And so on… and so on. It’s amazing to see how quickly the different clay bodies all get homogenized into one blend.

Then I take the freshly mixed parts and pound them into blocks. These will now be bagged up and ready for use at a later date. I’m too busy right now trying to finish up the production cycle with glazing & firing to be making new stuff. That is going to have to wait until after my first two art fairs! I will be sure to re-wedge it all before actually using it for throwing.

So there we have it… mixed, bagged and ready for a spin on the wheel. FREE CLAY.
One hundred and twenty-eight pounds of it. That’s a lot of pottery potential.

And there it is… FREE CLAY