Clay and Clay Prep

Wedging is important for two reasons. Firstly, it removes hidden air pockets out of your clay that might if not removed blow up in the kiln. Secondly, it mixes your clay making it homogenous, no drier, stiffer spots and softer, moister spots. Making your clay homogenous makes it easier to work with and lessens the chance of it cracking while drying.

Necessity is the mother of invention they say and so I have always found.

My first semester teaching I found myself in need of a wedging surface. The classroom I teach in is a mixed use room and many different arts and crafts are taught in such room. The tables sadly are 8 foot folding table with slick but scarred table tops which I cover with plastic sheeting for class. Wedging and rolling out coils is impossible on such a surface. I needed a portable wedging board of some type.

I decided on canvas wrapped plywood. This will be light, portable and clay won't stick easily to it.

Needed materials:

2'x 2' piece of plywood
3'x 3' piece of canvas(12 oz duck or thicker)
heavy duty staple Gun
staples
paint or wood sealer

Directions:

Seal or paint both sides of your plywood. Let it dry completely. Now place plywood on smoothed canvas and center the wood so there is even amount of canvas on all sides. Now put a one inch fold one side of canvas. Now making sure your one inch fold stays folded, bring the side of canvas up and around the plywood. Staple thru the fold the entire length of the canvas wrapped side. Now do the same steps to the opposite side but pulling the canvas taunt before stapling. Do the same with the 2 remaining sides. Be generous with the staples. As an optional step you could add a rope handle by taking a short length of rope and knotting both ends and stapling it to the back side of your new wedging board.

As long as your clay has not been fired or had contaminants introduced to it you can reuse your clay scraps and clay slurry to make more clay.

Reclaiming is low tech and you do not need anything more than a bucket and a old pillow case to recycle on a small scale. Larger scale recycling can be done with a clay mixer and/or pugger but for the hobbiest or the clay artist just getting established, they are quite expensive items.