How a potter recycles clay

• Florian Gadsby takes the bucket of collected trimmings of clay from different pots and plates.
• He then lets the clay dry out in thick sheets on plaster bats.
• Once it's dry, he cuts and shapes it into blocks to store for his future projects.

The following is a transcript of the video.

Florian Gadsby: I'm Florian Gadsby, and I'm a potter. Today I'm going to be showing you how I recycle the clay trimmings that accumulate in my studio and turn into stuff that's usable to be made into new pots.

The trimmings that you see coming directly off my bowls, those ones I put directly into the bucket, but that's because they're very thin pieces. If they were much larger chunks, I would first dry them out on the radiator until they're completely bone-dry, and then I would put those in the reclaim bucket. So, bone-dry clay especially slakes down really quickly, or just the trimmings that you see from the bowls and the mugs and things. Those break down very quickly too.

And then once all that's in the bucket, I just cover it with water, as it doesn't really matter how much there is, as long as it's all submerged, because then once it's all broken down I can simply use a sponge or a jug to remove the excess water on top. So, once my bucket's full, I just put my hand in and I mix it all together. As long as you mix it so it's kind of one even texture. You don't want there to be harder lumps in some areas and then much softer lumps in other areas. You want it to be as even as possible.

Once the clay has been fully mixed up, I can take it over to my plaster bats, where I then layer it out in thick slabs to dry. I take the clay, and I scoop it onto the plaster bats. I raise my plaster bats off the ground with some kiln props, which are made of a ceramic composite. And I do that so airflow can get underneath them, and it helps the bats from becoming too saturated with water. I layer it out as smooth as I can so that it dries evenly, as I don't want extra bits that are hanging off or bits that are protruding too much, as they'll dry out faster than the rest of the clay. What you're waiting for, with the plaster on the bats, is for it to return back to a usable condition. So the plaster itself absorbs the excess moisture in the clay.

And you can, of course, let it get too dry. If you forget about it, it can become unusable again. And then you have to restart the whole process again. So you do need to keep a keen eye on it.

I flip the slabs of clay over just so the other side gets a chance to dry out as much as the top section. It's just a way really to make sure that my clay is drying as evenly as possible. If you have clay that's too firm to use to make into new pots, your best course of action is either to layer it with softer clay and then wedge the whole lot together, or you can simply just dry the whole lump out until it's completely bone-dry, and then you can place it in a bucket and slake it down with water and begin this process of recycling.

Then I take the clay and I cut it into a shape which is workable for myself. So, I don't make it so it's too heavy, too large, or too small. It's kind of a personal thing. It's how much clay can you lift and wedge, essentially. Now I want to make the clay more workable, so it's ready to be wedged. So I take it onto the table and I cut it into a large block. And then, once layered up, I cut it into more of a rectangular shape, which is easier to work with.

Whereas with spiral wedging, that's sort of the day-to-day wedging technique that I use for clay to throw straight on the wheel. Cut wedging is quite a simple process, because it's, fundamentally, all you're doing is cutting and layering clay. When I'm cut wedging, I have two blocks of clay in front of me. One of them is reclaimed clay that's come off the plaster bat, which is soft. And then I have another block of clay which is much firmer clay that I've had stored away in the studio. And all I'm doing simply is taking one layer of each, putting them on top of each other, and then doing this cut-wedging process. And that way, by the end of it, I'll have a nice even texture, which I'll be able to throw with.

The tabletop I'm wedging on is simply thick birch ply, which is, you know, an absorbent wood, which is helpful. But if one place on the wood becomes too saturated with water, your clay can begin to stick. And when that happens, I simply move to another spot.

Once the clay has been wedged up, and if I need to store it, I simply put it into plastic bags and tie them up tightly. Or I wrap them up in big sheets of plastic if they're larger blocks. I also spray them with water a little bit if I want them to stay softer, but essentially they just need to be in an airtight bag.

The way clay is recycled really depends on where you live. You know, the climate, what the weather is like, what your studio is like. There isn't a one-size-fits-all method, and it changes. Even the type of clay you're using makes a difference. This is the handmade process that I still think is necessary to know how to do. You know, you don't want to be a potter who can only wedge clay with a machine. Knowing how to do it by hand is always useful. We're lucky as craftspeople, because the material we use is really cheap and abundant. You know, it's everywhere under the ground. It's mud, it's puddles, it's stones.