Bonnie Gilmour on fri 5 jul 02
Hi Ruth,
Some feedback on moving that clay!
I am one of two studio managers at a very busy guild; 32 working members, and
100-120 students going though classes each quarter. Each beginner/intermediate
student is alotted only 1/2 box clay, advanced students get 1 box. 1 class/week
for 10 weeks.
We have a very very large rubbermaid garbage with screen for waste clay set up in
the students room. At the end of each term between the working members and
students we manage to clean that rubbermaid out.
1. Plaster bats; make the forms from a really large mixing bowls. They really are
great. Let dry and put thru a low bisque in kiln. Some of ours have been alive
and kicking for years now! Cut up some old sheer curtains and use between clay
and plaster. Once solidified, put in bags to age as long as necessary before you
pug.
2. Members can use all they want.
3. On a hot summer day, put down a big old bedsheet on the cement driveway
outside, and pour your clay onto the sheet. Every hour or so, pull up the the
sides and move into the middle. ( Kind of like making old fashioned apple
struedel!) Get your bare feet in there too. When it's workable (about 5 hours),
cut and put into bags, and let age for the pugger. Students would love to do
this! The cement works like the plaster and draws out the moisture pretty good.
In our member's room we have two medium size waste buckets, one for white bodied
anything, and the other for red and beyond. This has worked very well also.
Bats are always full with a tag that says student/ members etc.
Hope this helps,
Bonnie
Ruth Ballou wrote:
> Hi y'all,
>
> I and my fellow teachers could use a few pointers on managing clay
> recycling for a busy 100 student
> center. We've all been recently hired, come from one person studios, and
> there is much discussion on how to manage the large volume of waste clay
> produced in this setting.The students use about 5 different clay bodies,
> which get recycled together. We encourage them to do their own recycling,
> but there's still a lot leftover. We have a Peter Pugger and a student has
> been recycling clay with less than wonderful results (too soft and short).
> Some Redart is added to improve the color. We're thinking we need a system
> of garbage containers to sort the consistencies of clay to be recycled so
> that we have more control over what goes into the hopper. We'd like to
> handle the clay as few times as possible and still get a workable body.
> Aging in the bag is preferable to spreading slop on plaster. Is there
> anything we can add to improve plasticity, such as adding some VeeGum? Any
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Ruth Ballou
> Silver Spring, MD
>
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Ruth Ballou on fri 5 jul 02
Hi y'all,
I and my fellow teachers could use a few pointers on managing clay
recycling for a busy 100 student
center. We've all been recently hired, come from one person studios, and
there is much discussion on how to manage the large volume of waste clay
produced in this setting.The students use about 5 different clay bodies,
which get recycled together. We encourage them to do their own recycling,
but there's still a lot leftover. We have a Peter Pugger and a student has
been recycling clay with less than wonderful results (too soft and short).
Some Redart is added to improve the color. We're thinking we need a system
of garbage containers to sort the consistencies of clay to be recycled so
that we have more control over what goes into the hopper. We'd like to
handle the clay as few times as possible and still get a workable body.
Aging in the bag is preferable to spreading slop on plaster. Is there
anything we can add to improve plasticity, such as adding some VeeGum? Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
Ruth Ballou
Silver Spring, MD
Carol Ross on sat 6 jul 02
Yikes! I would NEVER put plaster in a kiln! It can be heated carefully in a
regular oven if it's necessary, but the temp shouldn't exceed 170F degrees.
Carol
doodles@mac.com
Stephani Stephenson on sat 6 jul 02
I and my fellow teachers could use a few pointers on managing clay
recycling for a busy 100 student
center. ....The students use about 5 different clay bodies,
which get recycled together. We encourage them to do their own
recycling,
but there's still a lot leftover. .... We're thinking we need a system
of garbage containers to sort the consistencies of clay to be recycled
so
that we have more control over what goes into the hopper. Ruth Ballou
Ruth , I would suggest some large heavy duty , full size plastic
garbage cans. If all recyling is done in the bag, you end up with a mess
of bags containing clay in various states of hardness. It is difficult
to assess what is really there.
1.Think seriously about whether 5 clay bodies is too many... whether you
want to try to recycle all five separately, or divide recycling barrels
into 'red ' and 'white' clay , etc. also it is crucial to separate high
fire and lowfire clays........
2. Label barrels clearly.
3. Encourage students to recycle their own clay in their own bags or
small buckets. and provide recycling instruction and adequate
recycling surfaces and spaces for them to do that.
4. Explore ways to motivate larger scale recycling!
In many studios there are usually a few students who 1) use more clay
than most others 2) don't have very much money to spend on supplies and
extra clay. What about working out an arrangement with these students?
In exchange for recycling a certain amount of clay, they get to use a
portion of it for their own use, even a very good size portion! This is
good motivation!!!!
Or make it part of class requirement, that everyone must participate in
one barrel recycling per class term, in teams of two or three.
Two examples:
I procured most of my own student clay through recycling it! In studio
#1, we used one clay only and put scrap into barrels, kept covered with
water. Whenever one barrel had filled , instructor asked who wanted to
recycle it...There were always a few of us who wanted to recycle the
barrel. We usually worked on it together. Added bonus was we could keep
any tools found in the barrel. First we pulled out denser clay masses
(watch out for submerged needle tools!!!!) and re-wedged those masses,
throwing sprinkles of dry fireclay, ball clay and grog onto the wedging
surface as we reworked it. The rest , usually an oatmeal texture, we
simply put onto plaster tables and receptacles until it stiffened
somewhat, then we made large 'cakes' of the wet gloppy stuff, about 2' X
4' X 4" until it was of a consistency which could be wedged. We kept on
top of the situation that way and whoever started the barrel had to
follow through. The instructor taught everyone how to do it the right
way . Everyone was taught to keep their own small scrap bucket as well
and recycle their own scraps as much as possible
.
Studio #2, recycling clay scraps was a paid work study job . We had a
series of 10-15 large barrels, tried to sort dry scraps from wetter
ones and slip but that didn't work too well. When one barrel filled up
students started filling another. We had a blunger attached to a mobile
frame which could be lowered into a barrel. Twice per term, all the
barrels' scraps were blunged into slip.
Classes made their own clay twice each term , from dry materials, and
this slip was to the mixture of dry ingredients. Students stood around
a framed -in table mixing the dry ingredients, puring in slip, wedging
slightly , then we ran everything through a pugmill. I would not
recommend this method, as the claymaking process created huge amounts of
dust, which students were not adequately shielded from. Also since
clay was SO abundant (we just made more when supplies ran low and no one
was charged for extra clay) , and since the recyclers were paid work
study students, everyone tended to use clay quite freely and did not
have any incentive to recycle their scraps.
cheers ,
Stephani Stephenson
Carlsbad CA
John Vandermeulen on sat 6 jul 02
Re: 1. Plaster bats; make the forms from a really large mixing bowls. They really
are
great. Let dry and put thru a low bisque in kiln.
Do you mean "make a plaster bat" and then put that into the kiln? At what temp? For
how long? Straight forward ordinary plaster?
Please excuse my ignorance,
John V
william schran on sat 6 jul 02
Ruth wrote:
"We'd like to handle the clay as few times as possible and still get
a workable body.
Aging in the bag is preferable to spreading slop on plaster."
I think you're going to have to develop a system to dry out the
slurry to a reasonable working consistency prior to running through
the mixer, unless you're going to add sufficient dry materials to
bring to this plastic state. Obviously there is then the concern of
clay dust.
In our school studio we have a small Shimpo pugmill and 3 large
plaster bats, framed in 2x4's, on wheels. Pull the clay out of slurry
buckets, onto the plaster bats for a few days and through the
pugmill. We also have any number of different clays in the studio,
all same cone rating and I can control the moisture content of the
"mutt" recycled clay very easily using this method.
Bill
Hank Murrow on sat 6 jul 02
>Ruth Ballou wrote;
>
>I and my fellow teachers could use a few pointers on managing clay
>recycling for a busy 100 student
>center. We've all been recently hired, come from one person studios, and
>there is much discussion on how to manage the large volume of waste clay
>produced in this setting.The students use about 5 different clay bodies,
>which get recycled together. We encourage them to do their own recycling,
>but there's still a lot leftover. We have a Peter Pugger and a student has
>been recycling clay with less than wonderful results (too soft and short).
>Some Redart is added to improve the color. We're thinking we need a system
>of garbage containers to sort the consistencies of clay to be recycled so
>that we have more control over what goes into the hopper. We'd like to
>handle the clay as few times as possible and still get a workable body.
>Aging in the bag is preferable to spreading slop on plaster. Is there
>anything we can add to improve plasticity, such as adding some VeeGum? Any
>suggestions would be appreciated.
Dear Ruth and Colleagues;
After using a Soldner mixer at Anderson Ranch, and varieties
of dough mixers and other machines, I have come back to the way it
was done in the historical past. Scraps are recycled right away by
wrapping in a damp towel and placed in a clay bag. Ready the next day
to wedge and use. Scraps that have gotten too dry are mixed in a
barrel with a blunger to a milk shake consistency, then run out the
spigot directly through a 60 mesh vibrating screen into buckets which
are emptied into wooden frames lined with dacron canvas. When the
canvas is full, the edges are folded over the clay mass and left to
stiffen up. Two or three days later, the canvas is unfolded and the
pug is wedged up and placed in plastic clay bags.
The result is clay that is plastic enough to pull handles
from right out of the bag. Very little noise or danger from heavy
machinery, the screen takes out any contaminates (ribs, needle tools,
etc), and the whole process is quiet and efficient. The wooden frames
can be stacked with a 'wrap' of canvas and a light bulb underneath to
speed the drying up if desired. Pretty much eliminates the
possibility of injury, which in a group setting is a bigger bummer
than a bad firing.
Something to think about, Hank in Eugene
Anne Wellings on sun 7 jul 02
>We'd like to
>handle the clay as few times as possible and still get a workable body.
>Aging in the bag is preferable to spreading slop on plaster. Is there
>anything we can add to improve plasticity.......
Make sure the students put all the clay that collects in their buckets
during throwing, and all the clay from cleaning their splashpans, tools,
etc., into the recycling container. The recycled clay will then contain all
the smaller, more plastic clay particles that got washed away during
throwing.
I've worked at two student studios where this practice was followed, and
the clay was dried on large plaster surfaces and then either pugged or hand-
wedged by the students. The quality of the clay was always good and I don't
remember it ever being short.
We mixed all the different clays together except for porcelain, which had
its own separate containers and wedging table. The result of this mixing
was usually a pleasant light brown color which students were happy with.
Anne
Russel Fouts on sun 7 jul 02
Most of you say that you encourage studio members to manage their own
recycle, here's how I do it in a one person studio. Could work for your
students.
I find that the best way to keep the clay plastic is to never let it dry
out. This might be easier for hand builders like me though.
As I work and make scraps, I drop them right away in a bucket with at
tight lid (no water). Then when I'm done working I spritz the clay in
the bucket with some water from a sprayer (not much, just wet the
surface) then use a piece of 4x4 to ram it down until it's all
compressed, then keep the bucket sealed when I'm not working.
I do the same procedure of spritzing and ramming each time I add new
clay. If the scraps are a bit drier, I use a little more water.
After a day or two of rest, the clay in the bucket is ready to use. It
doesn't matter how full the bucket is or isn't. A day or two of rest is
enough, the clay is always ready to re-use.
I cut out what I need with wire a cheese cutter and hand-wedge a little
before use.
I think this would work for throwers if your scraps weren't too wet or
too dry. For instance if you threw fairly dry and trimmed pretty early.
Actually, if you threw REALLY wet and trimmed REALLY dry and let it rest
for a couple more days, it would probably work as well. ;-)
Your mileage may vary.
Russel
--
Russel Fouts
Mes Potes & Mes Pots
Brussels, Belgium
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