Prepping our Studio Clay in 3 Easy Steps!

(took me almost 3 hours)

Hi! I’m bean the studio intern aka glorified clay pugger for Claydence. Here’s my simple guide to clay reclamation!

Step 1: Clay Evaluation

Slip & Puncture Test

Fresh Slurry

Clay Separation from Plaster Board

A large part of reclaiming used clay is the drying process, which can 1-3 days depending on how wet our clay slurry is.

Moisture Ranking 101

Balls of Clay pressed with the same force (force equal to that of holding a bottle)

From Left to Right

1 - Dense with a lot of resistance and bounce, similar to fresh-pack
clay. Feels like squeezing a recently pumped bicycle
tyre. [Rating: 3/5]

2 - Slight bounce with relatively less resistance, similar to
kids play-doh but feels like it would have a good bite. [Rating: 5/5]

3 - Finger sank in with no resistance, unpleasantly wet and
formed a vaccum around my finger. Messy and hard to wash off, imagine a cake batter if you ran out of flour midway. [Rating: 1/5] (would give a zero if i could)

Final Ranking:

1. Playdough

2. Bicycle Tyre

3. Cake Batter

Bicycle Tyre clay is common in most places. However, here we love our
playdough as it requires less water and strength, making half the battle
of learning to throw vessels over.

Step 2: Pugging Clay (Vaccumming Clay/De-airing)

Cross-Section of Reclaimed Clay

The Pugger

Inside View of the Pugger

All hail thee Pugger! This is what makes reclaiming clay mentally & emotionally feasible.

This trusty machine mixes and breaks down all the clay in a tight vacuum space, effectively
making a packed, air-free, and homogenous clay mixture!

Without this lovely bugger (Pugger) packing all the clay particles tightly, anything we
make won’t hold its shape just as well. This gives
us delightfully smooth and symmetrical cylinders of clay.

Step 3: Second Pug

Density Check

Cross-Section Check for Air Bubbles

Despite just graduating, these cylinders are then cut cross-section into even discs for
yet another examination!

Here they go through another moisture and air check. During this
process, they are banded into different batches according to their softness and
pugged again.

This ensures for a more homogenous clay mixture and gets rid of
any remaining air.

Finally, our freshly pugged clay mixture retires in their buckets until they are used!

Freshly Brewed Clay for Consumption

Warmest,

bean the aspiring farmer

@lentilbeanstew

Stories

05 The (Kiln) Bakery

06 My Lessons from Clay

04 Clay Preparation