Reclaiming clay - how-to?

Hi guys!

What I have been doing up until now is to slop my lefotovers (a LOT when you
are a newbie on the wheel!) into a 10-liter bucket. Then I crunch the bits
down into maximum 2 cm bits or less.

But is 10 liters of clay too much to reclaim at once on a gypsum board? Am I
being too impatient?

Give me your tips on manually reclaimin clay, please!

Marianne

any amount is fine - especially as a nebie. start with a small batch &
get used to the method. then in time you'll graduate to larger loads.


see ya

steve



Bubbles wrote:
Hi guys!

What I have been doing up until now is to slop my lefotovers (a LOT when you
are a newbie on the wheel!) into a 10-liter bucket. Then I crunch the bits
down into maximum 2 cm bits or less.

But is 10 liters of clay too much to reclaim at once on a gypsum board? Am I
being too impatient?

Give me your tips on manually reclaimin clay, please!

Marianne

That is about the size I work with from dry trimmings, failures, etc (5
gallon buckets). For wet clay that comes from working, I just put it on a
plaster board as I'm working and then at the end of the session wedge that
all up, bag it to add to or use it to make stamps if it isn't enough to
throw with. (just remembered I have some recycling at home that I forgot to
wedge and bag up - hope the plastic cover was enough to keep it moist...).
Donna

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

Hi guys!

What I have been doing up until now is to slop my lefotovers (a LOT when
you are a newbie on the wheel!) into a 10-liter bucket. Then I crunch the
bits down into maximum 2 cm bits or less.

But is 10 liters of clay too much to reclaim at once on a gypsum board? Am
I being too impatient?

Give me your tips on manually reclaimin clay, please!

Marianne

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That is about the size I work with from dry trimmings, failures, etc (5
gallon buckets). For wet clay that comes from working, I just put it on a
plaster board as I'm working and then at the end of the session wedge that
all up, bag it to add to or use it to make stamps if it isn't enough to
throw with. (just remembered I have some recycling at home that I forgot
to wedge and bag up - hope the plastic cover was enough to keep it
moist...).

Hi Donna :-)

Good idea with the really wet stuff - but I am trying to avoid too wet - and
hope to get better at this - thus I will be mostly just leaving a bucket for
a couple of weeks or more (while filling up the next bucket) to dry, then
treat.

How do you mean about making stamps? Pattern stamps, I suppose. What do you
do then? Just form them into a stamp-shape first, then carve them when they
are hard enough?

Marianne

Any clay that I take off of the pot when throwing gets put on plaster to
take out excess water so this just has to be wedged up. I just make a giant
marble bit of clay, push something interesting in it, and as I'm doing so
I'm pinching it so that it makes something of a handle. You can also carve
a design into one or both ends a tube of clay. This is really hard to
describe. It doesn't really matter what you push into it or how you form
it. It is a hit and miss proposition to some degree. Stamps that I have
put a lot of work into don't work in the end because they are too busy and
just look messy. Some of my more boring looking stamps make the more
interesting designs when used to make multiple patterns. It lets you give
texture to pieces easily. As an example - take the marble bit of clay, roll
it out to a short sausage shape, carve off little pie shapes in four to six
corners to leave a raised pattern on the end. Let this dry, bisque fire and
then make a field of flowers in a plate in one corner or section (you can
make a center to the flower design by making a stamp that is just pointed to
a round end of the size you want that has had a ball point pen or pensil
making multiple little indents.

If I think of it, I will take some photos and post them but it really is
just open to your imagination.

Donna

"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That is about the size I work with from dry trimmings, failures, etc (5
gallon buckets). For wet clay that comes from working, I just put it on
a
plaster board as I'm working and then at the end of the session wedge
that
all up, bag it to add to or use it to make stamps if it isn't enough to
throw with. (just remembered I have some recycling at home that I
forgot
to wedge and bag up - hope the plastic cover was enough to keep it
moist...).

Hi Donna :-)

Good idea with the really wet stuff - but I am trying to avoid too wet -
and
hope to get better at this - thus I will be mostly just leaving a bucket
for
a couple of weeks or more (while filling up the next bucket) to dry, then
treat.

How do you mean about making stamps? Pattern stamps, I suppose. What do
you
do then? Just form them into a stamp-shape first, then carve them when
they
are hard enough?

Marianne

"dkat" wrote in message
...
Any clay that I take off of the pot when throwing gets put on plaster to
take out excess water so this just has to be wedged up. I just make a
giant
marble bit of clay, push something interesting in it, and as I'm doing so
I'm pinching it so that it makes something of a handle. You can also
carve
a design into one or both ends a tube of clay. This is really hard to
describe. It doesn't really matter what you push into it or how you form
it. It is a hit and miss proposition to some degree. Stamps that I have
put a lot of work into don't work in the end because they are too busy and
just look messy. Some of my more boring looking stamps make the more
interesting designs when used to make multiple patterns. It lets you give
texture to pieces easily. As an example - take the marble bit of clay,
roll
it out to a short sausage shape, carve off little pie shapes in four to
six
corners to leave a raised pattern on the end. Let this dry, bisque fire
and
then make a field of flowers in a plate in one corner or section (you can
make a center to the flower design by making a stamp that is just pointed
to
a round end of the size you want that has had a ball point pen or pensil
making multiple little indents.

If I think of it, I will take some photos and post them but it really is
just open to your imagination.

I see what you mean now, Donna. But I would really love to see a pic of
those you have made to get some inspiration :-)

Marianne

Are you still going to post pictures of your stamps?

thanks!

--
Stephanie Coleman
University of Phoenix Online

alt email:
706.467.9579
"Bubbles" wrote in message
...

"dkat" wrote in message
...
Any clay that I take off of the pot when throwing gets put on plaster to
take out excess water so this just has to be wedged up. I just make a
giant
marble bit of clay, push something interesting in it, and as I'm doing so
I'm pinching it so that it makes something of a handle. You can also
carve
a design into one or both ends a tube of clay. This is really hard to
describe. It doesn't really matter what you push into it or how you form
it. It is a hit and miss proposition to some degree. Stamps that I have
put a lot of work into don't work in the end because they are too busy
and
just look messy. Some of my more boring looking stamps make the more
interesting designs when used to make multiple patterns. It lets you
give
texture to pieces easily. As an example - take the marble bit of clay,
roll
it out to a short sausage shape, carve off little pie shapes in four to
six
corners to leave a raised pattern on the end. Let this dry, bisque fire
and
then make a field of flowers in a plate in one corner or section (you can
make a center to the flower design by making a stamp that is just pointed
to
a round end of the size you want that has had a ball point pen or pensil
making multiple little indents.

If I think of it, I will take some photos and post them but it really is
just open to your imagination.

I see what you mean now, Donna. But I would really love to see a pic of
those you have made to get some inspiration :-)

Marianne

Bubbles wrote:
Hi guys!

What I have been doing up until now is to slop my lefotovers (a LOT when you
are a newbie on the wheel!) into a 10-liter bucket. Then I crunch the bits
down into maximum 2 cm bits or less.

But is 10 liters of clay too much to reclaim at once on a gypsum board? Am I
being too impatient?

Give me your tips on manually reclaimin clay, please!

Servus Marianne,

I have a lot of clay to recycle, since i have children here working once
a week. I found it the easiest way to let it dry completely, bonedry,
then put it in a bucket, pour water over it to cover it, after a couple
of days I syphon the water off the top, use a drill with one of those
mixing fixtures to make a nice cream out of it and then spread it out
onto a plasterboard of two, about two inches thick, leave it there,
depending on weather conditions, and then wedge it to make usable clay
again. If you have bits which are almost leatherhard and submerge them
in water, they will never become soft.
If this sounds a bit complicated, send me an email and i can explain it
in german.

Liebe Gruesse, Monika

--
Monika Schleidt

www.schleidt.org/MSKeramik
if you wish to write me a mail, remove the number from my user name

"Monika Schleidt" wrote in message
...

I have a lot of clay to recycle, since i have children here working once a
week. I found it the easiest way to let it dry completely, bonedry, then
put it in a bucket, pour water over it to cover it, after a couple of days
I syphon the water off the top, use a drill with one of those mixing
fixtures to make a nice cream out of it and then spread it out onto a
plasterboard of two, about two inches thick, leave it there, depending on
weather conditions, and then wedge it to make usable clay again. If you
have bits which are almost leatherhard and submerge them in water, they
will never become soft.

I always let the buckets stand a long time before I reclaim. That much I
have learned, that the clay must be as dry as possible.

I would be interested in reading about what you do with your kids! I have a
"tageskind" (day-kid? haha!) who likes to make stuff, but she sometimes
needs some little ideas to give her a creative push. So far, she has made a
grotto with holes for her guppies to swim in and out of, a totem-pole-like
pole with an alligator-pincher on to for pictures, several different bowls,
a cup with 2 handles and a snake wrapped around it, a ring for a giant, a
funny-looking frog and a few little other things. She turns 8 tomorrow
(30th).

It could be fun to invite her and 2-3 friends over to make stuff with me,
and then I get it fired at my teacher's workshop. I love to be around kids!

If this sounds a bit complicated, send me an email and i can explain it in
german.

Ummmm - that wouldn't be very helpful! HAHA! My English and Norwegian are
mother tongues, but my SWISS-German is only 4 years old! Though I do know a
lot of pottery-terms (though don't ask me about political stuff and so on -
vocab-building takes a long time! Hehe!).

Marianne

Bubbles wrote:


I would be interested in reading about what you do with your kids! I have a
"tageskind" (day-kid? haha!) who likes to make stuff, but she sometimes
needs some little ideas to give her a creative push. So far, she has made a
grotto with holes for her guppies to swim in and out of, a totem-pole-like
pole with an alligator-pincher on to for pictures, several different bowls,
a cup with 2 handles and a snake wrapped around it, a ring for a giant, a
funny-looking frog and a few little other things. She turns 8 tomorrow
(30th).

It could be fun to invite her and 2-3 friends over to make stuff with me,
and then I get it fired at my teacher's workshop. I love to be around kids!

Ok, i have 20 kids, in four groups of five each, each group for an hour.
The youngest are firstgraders, the oldest are something like 14, 15
years, some have been coming for years, (the longest i had was a girl
who came for ten years, she started at age seven and stopped when she
almost finished highschool). One of the rules is, i don't tell them what
to make, but how to make it. They have to think up something on their
own, (I have a few little books though, which they can look through if
they cant think of anything to make). Of course they copy each other,
there are times they make lots of candlesticks, then they make lots of
picture frames, (the latest things were butterflies and roses!) and so
on, some of them are very creative and skillfull, others are not, but,
whatever they make is ok, is admired, there are no failures, and they
all love it. And so do I.
Yesterday was the last day for this schoolyear, i fired three kilns
this week, to have all their stuff ready, they pack it all up, we play
games with the little ones, make chocolate fondue with the older ones
and wish each other a happy summer.
In summer i have three (or maybe four) weekendworkshops for grownups,
Saturday, Sunday, all day. They make, i fire and glaze and fire again.

let me know, if i can help you with anything.

Monika

--
Monika Schleidt

www.schleidt.org/MSKeramik
if you wish to write me a mail, remove the number from my user name