Recycling Clay

Jo saves all her scraps of clay -- like those created when she trims the bottom of a pot she's thrown. The scraps all go into a bucket along with some water to keep them from drying out.










When Jo accumulates a bucket full of clay slurry, she pours it into an old pillow case and hangs it from a tree. The majority of the water drains away during this step in the process. This takes several days. Exactly how long depends upon the weather, and when Jo feels like getting back to her clay recycling. Adding water again solves the problem should the clay dry out too much.












When dry enough to work with -- though still too wet to run through the pug mill -- Jo forms the clay into rough cylinders and sets them on a shelf inside the studio to dry more.









The de-airing pug mill. Basically, clay goes in one end (where the feed handle is laid back) and comes out the other. In the middle is a revolving screw that helps feed the clay through and mix it more throughly. More importantly, a vacuum pump attaches to the center chamber of the mill so the mixing occurs under a slight vacuum which removed any trapped air. Air bubbles create voids in finished work.

Traditionally, potters "wedged" clay to remove trapped air. This process is very similar to kneading bread dough. After a decade of time and many tons of clay, wedging began to take it's toll on Jo's wrists. Deviating from tradition by investing in a de-airing pug mill was a reasonable alternative to constant pain that was only going to get worse. Besides, using the pug mill is a lot quicker and easier than wedging.

Recycling Clay