First the dry clay is broken up into small pieces, then in a bucket covered with water and allowed to slake down. It can be left for a day or so. Once fully wet the clay can be mixed together and I then take handfuls and put the wet clay on plaster bats to dry to a workable consistency.
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| drying clay on the left - wedged clay on the right |
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| closer view |
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| wedged clay now ready for use |
This allows you to process larger amounts of clay than I would be comfortable wedging by other methods and brings the clay layers together. There is a good video here if you follow the link.... Van Gilder shows several techniques, the one I'm talking about is about 5 minutes in... https://youtu.be/hAOPlz3Bkgs
Once it's done I can reuse those washed bags to store it.
We had some rain recently and my native violets are loving it...
5 comments:
Thanks for the mini tutorial. I am going to have to try the cut and slam method of wedging. Anything to save the wrists.
Love your violets. We still have several months before we see any little flowers! Still, there is something comforting in knowing that flowers are blooming somewhere!
wow those violets have really tall stems
Hi Linda yes, our Australian Native violets stand proud from the leaves unlike the English violet that tends to hide amongst them.
Hi Smartcat, I'm glad my post has encouraged you to try a method kinder to your wrists and though our summers are very hot it does mean some spectacular flowers... keep warm :)
Recycling clay is a team effort at our club's studio. It all goes into a big machine which I think is called a pug mill. We also bag it up into the pre-loved plastic bags.
hi Caroline yes it would be a pug mill - wonderful machines for large amounts of clay.. good to hear your club is recycling when you think of all that goes into preparing the clay for purchase in the first place.
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