Linda Stauffer on wed 17 may 00
The school district in which I teach has a large amount (over 1000lbs)
of rock hard Amaco #48 Stoneware clay. We do not have a pug mill. Our
resources are limited, one small wedging board and one plastic bucket.
It appears that they stored the clay for too long in the district
warehouse and it dried out. When we order clay they send us more of the
old stuff. Is there any way to recycle this in a small classroom with
5th and 6th graders moving and out all day long? How about over the
summer?? Is there anything I can do to salvage this clay???
Kurt M Vernikos on wed 17 may 00
You can recycle the clay on your own with the purchase of a few things and a
little muscle. Get a few large trash cans(Home Depot), some plaster bats,
and plenty of water. Break up the dried clay and throw it into the cans,
add water. Give the clay some time to soften, mix it well with any long
sturdy tool. Add a little beer to the mix! It really helps, seriously.
You're all set, pull soft clay out and onto the bats,cover with plastic for
a while, then turn over to pull out excess moisture. I hope you can wedge,
get ready for a good workout.
----- Original Message -----
From: Linda Stauffer
To:
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 10:37 AM
Subject: HELP-recycle clay
> The school district in which I teach has a large amount (over 1000lbs)
> of rock hard Amaco #48 Stoneware clay. We do not have a pug mill. Our
> resources are limited, one small wedging board and one plastic bucket.
> It appears that they stored the clay for too long in the district
> warehouse and it dried out. When we order clay they send us more of the
> old stuff. Is there any way to recycle this in a small classroom with
> 5th and 6th graders moving and out all day long? How about over the
> summer?? Is there anything I can do to salvage this clay???
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
>
Cindy Strnad on wed 17 may 00
Hi, Linda.
You can salvage it, but it will be hard work. Would be hard work even if you
had a pug mill. Here are my suggestions, and I'm sure you'll get more from
others.
First, the clay needs to be broken up into chunks no bigger (and preferably
a bit smaller) than your fists. This will be easiest at this stage if the
clay is truly bone dry. Lay it out on a sheet on the ground and pound
(careful for your shins!) with a sledge hammer.
Slake the clay in water until it becomes slip. Stir well to homogenize it.
Once it's liquid enough, you can accomplish the stirring with a paint or
glaze stirring attachment on an electric drill.
You'll need to allow the slip to dry out, back to the plastic stage of the
clay, and for this you'll need some sort of absorbent containers. You might
try making large, shallow drawers with hardware cloth bottoms and lining
them with heavy muslin or canvas, then stacking them up on a network of
cement block supports and filling them with slip. Another possibility is to
pour the thick slip into pillow cases or something of the sort and hang them
outside from a strong support. This is difficult, as the pillow cases will
be *very* heavy and awkward. Of course, there's always the time-honored
method of using plaster troughs, depending upon how complicated you want to
get. If you just let the slip sit in plastic buckets, it will eventually
evaporate (unevenly) to a consistency you can work with, but it'll take a
long time. I hope someone can give you an easier method for this.
Once the slip reaches plastic stage, you just knead it and go. As you see,
it's a simple process, but not an easy one. It might even, almost, be easier
to ask the school board (calm down, calm down--I know what they're like, but
you gotta do what you gotta do) for more clay. After all, it's not all that
expensive. I hope it goes well for you.
Cindy Strnad
earthenv@gwtc.net
Earthen Vessels Pottery
RR 1, Box 51
Custer, SD 57730
DONALD G. GOLDSOBEL on wed 17 may 00
The easiest way to reconstitute the clay is to open the bags and stand them
submerged in water for several days. The clay will return to its former
self. Empty the excess water and close the bags. The moisture will equalize
in about a week. I store such clay with the bag upside down to keep the
moisture in and equally distributed. If it gets too wet, leave the bag open
until it is just right for the little ones.
Donald
8At 10:37 AM 05/17/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>The school district in which I teach has a large amount (over 1000lbs)
>of rock hard Amaco #48 Stoneware clay. We do not have a pug mill. Our
>resources are limited, one small wedging board and one plastic bucket.
>It appears that they stored the clay for too long in the district
>warehouse and it dried out. When we order clay they send us more of the
>old stuff. Is there any way to recycle this in a small classroom with
>5th and 6th graders moving and out all day long? How about over the
>summer?? Is there anything I can do to salvage this clay???
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
___
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
>
Larry Vaughn on wed 17 may 00
One suggestion: GET some five gallon pickle buckets --most schools have
these from PTA fundraisers--or go to a deli to get discards--
and get some hammers and burlap sacks or just lay the hunks and chunks out
on old sheets or on clean cement, and let the least wild, most responsible,
fifth and sixth graders chop away at the dry clay until it is all hunks and
chunks smaller than a tennis ball, then drop it into those five gallon
buckets and cover with water, leave for a month maybe, and then teach
everyone to wedge. For LOTs of fun you could do it barefoot--see if you can
get hold of a Reading Rainbow video of a program with the book called
Giving Thanks, which is followed by a Native American potter wedging soft
clay with her foot. Spread out to dry on/in a clean cloth.
Joanna Vaughn
Lee Love on thu 18 may 00
Lisa,
Yesterday, we treaded on a large hill of clay we were recycling.
It is from trimming scraps (not the same as blocks of rock hard clay.)
But what we did was put the trimmings in a large plastic tray (I thought a
kids swimming pool would do the trick too.) We layered the scraps and
then use a plant waterer to sprinkle water on the clay & then added another
layer. We used hammers to break up the large chunks. We covered this
with plastic and let it set overnight. We then took out blocks of this
soften clay (adding more water where needed) and stacked it near the pugmill
and covered it with plastic. After a couple days, we put dry clay on the
cement floor before laying the wet clay down, and tread on the clay, moving
an armload of the clay from one hill to make a new hill. We tread on it
all twice. Talk about clay aerobics!
After the clay was all walked on twice, we put it through the
deairing pug mill. The foot wedging and pugging took two of us all day and
we have a little left over to do this morning (probably before we start
glazing.) But, I think if it was set aside after two foot wedgings, and
then maybe foot wedged one more time, it would have been good enough for
hand wedging. Not sure how you want to treat the hard blocks of clay
(maybe bust it up?) but the students might have fun walking on the clay to
wedge it.
--
Lee Love
2858-2-2 , Nanai , Mashiko-machi ,Tochigi-ken 321-4106 JAPAN
Ikiru@kami.com Voice Mail and Faxes (a USA number): (303) 256-0374
| |
|
