My bucket of bone dry clay bits has been building up in my home studio since I first started my pottery classes three years ago. I learned early on that if you didn’t like something (and let’s be honest here — there wasn’t much to like for quite awhile), you should pitch it into a bucket to dry out so you could reclaim the clay and use it again later. So I just kept throwing all the rejects and clay scraps into the bucket to dry out, waiting for the day when I would have enough to reclaim. I even poured a plaster slab for drying out the reclaim when I while I was making my damp box.

But as I continued making things and learning new tricks, I realized that you don’t have to go through the reclaim process if you keep all your clay scraps and rejects in sealed plastic buckets. If you spray them with water occasionally, the clay will stay nice and moist. Then all you need to do is wedge all the clay bits together and you’re ready to roll out a fresh slab. Sometimes though, pieces I was working on that never made it to bisque fire for any number of reasons did dry out, and I would add them to the bone dry bucket. But for the most part, I was able to keep my clay scraps and rejects continuously going in a couple of sealed buckets.

As the bucket of bone dry pieces filled to overflowing (after three years, what do you expect?), as I opened up the last bag of purchased clay in my home studio I realized that it was probably time to turn all those dusty, broken bits into a new batch of ready-to-use clay. So rather than just buying another bag of clay, I filled an empty 5-gallon bucket halfway with warm water, and then starting adding in handfuls of bone dry clay bits (slaking) until the water rose to about 3 inches from the top of the bucket. Then I put on the lid and set it aside for a week to allow the clay to get fully hydrated.

During that time, a lovely bloom of anerobic mold started developing along the sides and walls of the bucket. So I knew I would need to add a few glugs of bleach when I mixed it with my drill mixer attachment to deal with that. What I didn’t expect was that as the bleach did its thing, the dying mold would release this crazy minty smell that was kind of fresh and sweet smelling — not at all bleachy. So that was a pleasant surprise. Once I mixed up the goop thoroughly with the drill mixer, I laid out a couple of 2×4 blocks on top of my wedging table and then placed my plaster reclaim slab on top of the blocks to allow air to circulate on all sides of the plaster slab, speeding up the drying process.

Then I got to scoop out a 2-inch thick layer of goop and spread it all over the top of the plaster slab. When the slab was completely covered, I put the lid back on the bucket and much to my despair, I realized it didn’t look like I had removed much clay at all. Meanwhile, it’s taking about 24-hours for each batch of goop I’ve arranged on the plaster slab to congeal into a reasonably solid sheet of clay, so I’m guessing it’s going to take 5-6 days to clear out the entire slop bucket. But once it’s done, I’ll have about 50 pounds of soft, moist clay waiting for my next projects. Considering that a 25 pound bag of clay goes for $30 (plus tax) these days, this is like found money. And I still have about 2-3 gallons of bone dry clay bits that are ready for reclaiming any time I’m ready to do it. But because I’ve become so good at using and reusing clay scraps along the way, it’s going to take a long time to work through this batch of reclaim.

In the meantime, my bucket of bone-dry clay bits will inevitably keep growing quietly in the back corner of the studio. I hope you enjoy the photo gallery.