www.simonleachpottery.com Thanks for your donations which are appreciated - to donate go to website and RU-vid page, there is a 'button' there. KEEP PRACTICING !
Mr. Leach have you ever thought about using a food Saver Vacuum Sealer to seal your clay in? I think you might cut your resting time of clay that is to firm in half with one. The Vacuum action would force the water into the clay and soften it faster. Also would work for storage of clay as the machines have a sealer on them that will seal the bag as the air is sucked out of it.
Help Please? I have a ball of clay that while wedging (cut and slam technique) keeps cracking, splitting and has medium size chunks fly off. No matter how much water i seem to add after about 3 cuts it starts splitting and flaking at the edges again. Am I doing something wrong or is there an issue with the clay? It is getting me really wound up as I am only just starting out and I am spending my entire pottery session just wedging clay (to no end) and not achieving anything. One moment it is flaking at the edges and then it is sticking to the wood panel i am using an pulling large chunks out. Any help would be greatly appreciated? Thank You
Simon, a great tip!...worth it's weight in gold down here in dry Arizona. One thing, my hands were sympathetically hurting just watching you "pound" the clay, so I'll probably try out a rubber mallet or some equivalent. Another thought, how about a scrap block of wood studded with long nails to do the chopstick hole making. Do you think the iron in the nails would affect the clay? If not, and there's a lot of clay to process, it might speed things up. But anyway, thanks again, I have quite a bit of stiff clay I was dreading re-hydrating. Now I'm looking forward to it...you're great!!!
Louise, I agree with you about the iron. It would seem to me that microscopic bits of iron could end up in the clay then over time cause a rust stain in your finished work. What about gluing a bunch of wood chopsticks to a board?
Hello Simon, Thank you for the clay softening method much appeciated. I am slowly setting up a pottery here in my garage and am having a small problem that I am not sure how to deal with. I only have one sink here in the shop and do not want to plug tyhe house plumbing with clay. Can you show us a video on making a clay trap so that this can be prevented? I know I will need a valve for when I use the sink for something else besides cleaning up the clay but haven't come up with the clay trap itself. Thanks forlessons so we can Keep Practicing. Jeff In Bismarck ND
Consider redirecting your garage sink's wastewater outside to a garden or a hole filled with rocks and sand. My late mother grew up in Mandan so I am familiar with Bismarck as we visited the area many times when I was a child in the '50s.
Hi Simon, After a day or two/three do you tip out the excess water before needing or just incorporate the water into the clay. Met Mr Hurn in Dorset not so long ago, was telling him I have been enjoying your vids. What a nice chap. Am keeping practising, all the best and thanks,
I wanted to share info with you about how to soften stiff clay. A youtube video by Bill Van Gildor. Just take the block of clay and simply drop on each side and top and bottom. It really works. Check out the video.
Thanks for the advice. There seems to be an easier way we might try: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2H7mv4meVjo.html. Any thoughts? Next, would you offer advice on dealing with clay that has uneven consistency (say, when we re-cycle thrown clay and some stiffer parts appear in the mix)? Thank you so much for the insight.
