Recycling Clay, the ENTIRE Process

Reclaim, from start to finish, save the part that actually produces the waste anyway. I place all my scraps into the green bucket that sits beside my wheel, trimmings, leftover skims from thrown pots, everything, I even scrape my hands off against the buckets sharp edge as I throw, to remove the slip so I can pick the pots away neatly. The only thing I don’t put into the bucket are larger masses of leather hard clay, as they can take weeks or even months to degrade properly — instead these are placed onto a heater so they can dry out thoroughly before being soaked — only then will they slake down. All these slops sit in water and turn to slurry, sometimes for a week, or longer or less, depending on how quickly I need to recycle it. I then use a sponge to remove much of the excess water on top and then give it a thorough mix. I bring the bucket to the thick plaster batts, (each made from about 8 kg potter’s plaster and 2 kg casting plaster), and scoop the reclaim out onto them. It’ll si