Kit Shannon on thu 17 jun 99
I hope someone can help me with this.
I've been wanting to experiment with paper clay for awhile now so last
weekend I tried to mix some up. I put a several roll of toilet paper in
hot water and let it soak for an hour or so. I stirred it up using the
mixer we have in the studio for glazes. The pulp still looked lumpy so I
let it sit for awhile longer. I added about 15 percent of the pulp to my
slop and mixed it up. But I must not have let the paper sit long enough
or something because now I have little balls of toilet paper in my clay,
they are about the size of a grain of rice. This isn't exactly how I
thought it would turn out. I thought the paper would be more evenly
spread out and not turn into little chunks. Did I do something wrong? Can
I fix this batch of clay or should I just work with it like it is?
thanks,
Kit Shannon
Thonas C. Curran on fri 18 jun 99
Dear Kit, About your lumpy paper clay... I can't offer any help on
the batch you just made off hand, but I would suggest another batch - a
small batch so you don't end up with too much you don't like. My paper
clay trials have used toilet paper, too, but first I dampened the roll
and then easily tore off bits at a time which I put into a container.
Then I poured boiling water over it, let it sit for about 15 minutes to
half an hour (as I recall). Next I used a old kitchen electric mixer to
mix the pulp. No problem with those tactics, and I've also made a batch
of plastic ready to use paper clay in big clay mixer on larger scale.
Just be sure pulp is more or less uniform...it will be like coarse
oatmeal, but it should not have big clumps of paper. (I've also used
pulp from nearby paper mill, and consisency there was about the same as
the homemade TP stuff.) Hope the next batch is more successful. Oh
yes, how is the venting in your studio situation? Paper clay does emit
an acrid odor while the paper is burning out... Cheers, Carolyn
Morgan Britt on sat 19 jun 99
You can find Rosette Gault's email address at www.paperclayart.com and ask her
directly. If you don't have her book, pick it up. Has a lot of info over and
above paper clay advice. I just finished a workshop with her - the stuff is
amazing!
Kit Shannon wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I hope someone can help me with this.
> I've been wanting to experiment with paper clay for awhile now so last
> weekend I tried to mix some up. I put a several roll of toilet paper in
> hot water and let it soak for an hour or so. I stirred it up using the
> mixer we have in the studio for glazes. The pulp still looked lumpy so I
> let it sit for awhile longer. I added about 15 percent of the pulp to my
> slop and mixed it up. But I must not have let the paper sit long enough
> or something because now I have little balls of toilet paper in my clay,
> they are about the size of a grain of rice. This isn't exactly how I
> thought it would turn out. I thought the paper would be more evenly
> spread out and not turn into little chunks. Did I do something wrong? Can
> I fix this batch of clay or should I just work with it like it is?
>
> thanks,
> Kit Shannon
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