Remember that big pile of gooey clay I was reclaiming in my studio a couple weeks ago?…

Well, tonight I finally pounded it up and put it into clay bags.
Turns out it was two hundred & eleven pounds of “FREE” clay!!!

Sure, it still needs a lot of wedging before it can be used. But I needed to get it off the big
plaster bat before it got too dry. My next step will be to take my “mixed-up reclaim” clay
and layer it with some “new” clay. I’ll take a new bag and interleave it with the reclaim,
cut it, layer it, squish it, pound it… cut it, layer it, squish it, pound it… repeat. Once the
layers are incorporated with each other, I can start the wedging. I’ll do a bit of wedging
and then put them back into the bag. I’ll so the “real wedging” when I get ready throw
with it. Until then, the bags of reclaimed clay will be sitting in the corner of my studio.
Just waiting…

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!!!

So my day in the studio started with me moving around a LOT of clay.
I had to organize all the boxes & bags of clay strewn about my studio.
And then I had to move up my most recent clay purchase from the loading dock.

It was a lot of work & sweat. Moving everything around in my studio. But once it was done,
it looked great. And I just kept telling myself that it was “thirty boxes of potential.”

So I tackled my pile of reclaim clay this afternoon. Fun, huh?
It had sat out open to the air for a couple days on a large plaster bat.
And it was still a little wetter & gooier than I would normally use.
But this time, I had a plan…

Knowing that I have a couple older bags of clay that are a little hard, I decided to use
this opportunity to soften it up with the reclaim. So I pulled it off the plaster bat,
cut it into smaller pieces and did very little wedging to get it more reconstituted.
All in all, my pile of “goo” weighed in at just shy of 90 pounds of new clay! Love it.
So I cut thin slices of reclaim and layered them with thin slices of the stiffer soda clay.
Fun with a wire tool. And lots of layers.

So the trick is to cut the thin layers of clay and alternate the clays you’re trying to incorporate.
Once you have a tall stack, it’s just a matter of slamming it down on the table to “compress”
the layers together. Then you slice the stack in half vertically through all the layers, and place
one half on top of the other half. Pick up the new stack and slam it again. Slice it in half again
vertically and stack it again! Slam it again. Slice it again. Stack it again. Got it?

Several repetitions of this simple task will surprisingly mix your clays effectively. Each time
you re-stack the two halves, it doubles the number of layers. So when you slam it down, the
layers get thinner. Double it again, double the layers and slam it so each layer gets thinner.
Over and over again! I then pounded them into simple blocks of new clay and put them into
clay bags. I’ll keep them sealed up far a week or so before I start using them. But after that…
the possibilities are endless. And I now have a LOT of “new” clay with just a little work!

I’ve always said “I like to play in the mud”…
so I’m starting the New Year with a big pile of mud!!!
I couldn’t decide what to do when I got into the studio today. So it was a bunch of cleaning
and organizing. Prepping for production to begin. Cleaning. Scrubbing. Refilling. Sweeping.
And “cookin’ up” some nice new clay…

Actually, it’s my latest pile of reclaim clay. Having slaked for a couple months over the
holidays, it’s all nice a gooey and ready to start turning it back into clay. So today I turned
it all out onto a large plaster slab to get the drying process started. A couple days on the slab,
and my clay should be “sturdy” enough to start wedging it back up into some nice “new” clay.
And then the possibilities are endless… and I love “free” clay!!

So we started our Saturday in Minneapolis with a trip to Continental Clay.
The same clay manufacturer that I typically order my clay from. I’ve never been
to their warehouse & store before, so it was kind of exciting. Plus, it was nice to
have a coupon and a big car to bring back hundreds of pounds of clay! I got more
stoneware, B-clay and soda clay. Something for everything and every firing.
Some for my next soda kiln, some for cone 10 reduction, some for who knows what?!
While there, I also got a very quick tour of the warehouse and their clay mixing area.
There’s a LOT of clay there… I made a dent in their inventory – and my car was now
dragging a few inches lower than it was before!

Oh, what to do with all those dry clay scraps?…
Well, turn them back into new clay again of course!!!
Yep, all of those dried trimming scraps can be re-hydrated into new clay
and used again to make a new pot!

So I take all of my trimming scraps and allow them to dry out completely.
I keep them in a large plastic bin for “safe keeping.” When there’s a good amount
of them, I fill the container with water just above the clay level. The water will soak
into the dry clay and allow it to “slake” down. After the clay has absorbed the water,
I let it sit for weeks… or at least until I feel I have time to deal with it.

When I feel that the dried clay is rehydrated, and the majority of the water has either
soaked in or dehydrated, I scoop out handfuls of the new clay mixture and place it on
a large slab of plaster. This will help draw the excess water out of the mixture. I typically
leave the pile of clay sitting on the plaster bat for a few days until enough moisture has
been drawn out and the mixture is now close to a normal clay consistency. Then, I take
the clay off the plaster bat and get ready for some “heavy lifting.”

As you can see, I don’t worry too much about what kind of clay scraps get into my reclaim.
In fact, some of my other studio mates don’t reclaim their scraps… so them give them to me!
You just need to make sure that all clay going into your reclaim bin is rated for the same
kiln firing temperature.

I then take slices of the new clay, and interleave them with layers of fresh clay straight out
of the box. As the majority of my work is fired in the soda kiln, I generally use fresh
soda clay when I’m layering so that I know that at least half of it is for the soda kiln.

Now that I have stacks of mixed clays, I start pounding them together. It’s actually
easier than it sounds. Just pick up the entire stack, and slam it back down onto the
table. Cut it in half, stack the halves on each other – and slam it down again.
Slice-stack-slam-repeat. Slice-stack-slam-repeat. And so on… and so on…

Seen above, I’ve only sliced, stacked & slammed once. See the layers are still apparent?
Assume you are starting out with 10 layers. Slam them down, cut it in half, stack it on itself…
now you have 20 layers. Repeat… and now you have 40 layers. Repeat… and now you have
80 layers. Then 160 layers… 320 layers… 640 layers… etc. So the more times you do it,
the thinner the layers become and the more incorporated your different layers become.

Once I have sliced & slammed the clay and feel that they clay is well incorporated, I pound
roughly into cubes and store it in recycled clay bags. This reclaimed clay is now ready to go!
Yesterday, I reclaimed over 175 pounds of recycled clay – that would have otherwise been
thrown away. Even better… with just a little effort, it’s like FREE CLAY !!!

With fall right around the corner, my studio pumpkin patch is almost ready to “harvest.”
Hopefully in time for the art fair this coming weekend?!

Art In The Barn – September 27th & 28th
On the grounds of Good Shepherd Advocate Hospital in Barrington.
On Route 22 west of Route 59.

In the beginning there was clay…

and it made a great “impression” on me!