All dried up...
 

Dear all,

It is the height of summer here in Athens. I am the newbie who
posted a few days ago with firing questions.

I have my clay [1] in big plastic bins, but it has (after about a
month) got too dry to manipulate easily. Is there a short cut to
getting the clay useable again, or should I get it totally wet
and slurry-like pass it through seives and wait for it to
re-condense again? I don't want it to dry completely as the bin
shape will not allow it to come out easily.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

Cheers,
Stelios Zacharias

[1] this is the clay I collected in dry form, and passed through
seives, then decanted the top water off after a few days and left
to evaporate to a useable hardness.

--

The address in the headers is real and does not need de-mungeing

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:36:09 +0300, Stelios Zacharias
wrote:

Dear all,

It is the height of summer here in Athens. I am the newbie who
posted a few days ago with firing questions.

I have my clay [1] in big plastic bins, but it has (after about a
month) got too dry to manipulate easily. Is there a short cut to
getting the clay useable again, or should I get it totally wet
and slurry-like pass it through seives and wait for it to
re-condense again? I don't want it to dry completely as the bin
shape will not allow it to come out easily.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

Cheers,
Stelios Zacharias

[1] this is the clay I collected in dry form, and passed through
seives, then decanted the top water off after a few days and left
to evaporate to a useable hardness.

It depends on how dry it is. If it is just a bit too dry, you can
just add a bit of water to the container and wait a week or so and
rewedge. If it is fairly firm, but not yet leather hard, you can
slice it 1" thick, dip the slices in water, restack, then wait a week
and rewedge. If it's leather hard or beyond, you'll probably need to
let it dry completely and then slake it down in water and start over.
It is very difficult to rewet leather hard clay.

deg

I too have the same problem. Let me know the answer you get. TIA Barbara

There are a few methods you can try for clay that has firmed up a bit much, but
isn't at the dry or too firm leather hard stage.

remove the clay from the plastic and wrape a wet towel around it and then wrap
in a plastic. A large plastic trash bag works well. Leave it overnight and it
should be the way you want it in the morning.

Another method is to slice the clay about 1/2 - 1" thick, dip each slice in
water and put it all back in the bag. This will do a fast job of bringing it
back to a soft stay.


Another easy method it to fill a 5 gallon bucket with water. Put your bag of
clay in the bucket and open the top of the bag to allow the water to move into
the bag and cover the clay. Let sit a few hours or overnight till it is the
consistency you want.

Regards,
June
http://www.angelfire.com/art2/shambhalapottery/

I thought you had said that your clay was in a container that didn't
allow you much access to removing it. You might try my method. I have
a very long screwdriver which I force almost to the bottom of the clay
making multiple holes. The dryer the clay, the more holes. Fill the
holes with water and let set a few days. I do this with my bicks
standing on end. Some have been unworkably dry but were reconstituted
in this manner. Leather hard, though? I doubt it. Can't hurt to try.
Catherine in hot Yuma, AZ

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 06:14:26 GMT, in rec.crafts.pottery you
wrote:

I thought you had said that your clay was in a container that didn't
allow you much access to removing it. You might try my method. I have
a very long screwdriver which I force almost to the bottom of the clay
making multiple holes. The dryer the clay, the more holes. Fill the
holes with water and let set a few days. I do this with my bicks
standing on end. Some have been unworkably dry but were reconstituted
in this manner. Leather hard, though? I doubt it. Can't hurt to try.
Catherine in hot Yuma, AZ

It's in a plastic bin which holds about 60 litres. The removing
it problem is because the bin flares out at the bottom. If it
dries, it will be too wide to travel up and out of the bin. Not
leather hard yet, but certainly lost plasticity.

Thanks to all for the replies. If I don't manage to save it by
wetting overnight, I'll let it dry out and slake again.

Cheers,
Stelios

--

The address in the headers is real and does not need de-mungeing