the dirt

When you talk about bringing clay into a teacher’s classroom, you can see the cringe creep across their faces as they imagine the amount of clean up involved in making these clay projects. But after over 10 years of teaching clay in other teachers classrooms, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible to do clay projects and not make a huge mess.

First, each student gets a board to work on at their spot. This board helps keep them, their desk and their project contained. In the beginning, I had canvas covered wood boards that were stacked into a wooden wine crate, but it was heavy to cart around and the crate only fit 20 boards. So I switched to using plastic cutting boards from Ikea. They worked great; they were affordable, durable, lightweight to carry classroom to classroom and easy to clean.

The other key to keeping the classroom clean is to not use slip (clay and water mixed together into a muddy slurry) when attaching clay parts together. Generally, slip is used as a ‘clay glue’ and the proper attaching technique is to score both parts of the clay you want to attach, then paint on a little slip and smooth the parts together. Slip and kids are a messy combination and I found that just scoring the clay and blending, really did the job, which allowed me to eliminate using slip in the classroom altogether. To remind the students that they still needed to score their clay thoroughly, I dubbed the technique: ‘scratch-to-attach’ as an easy way to remember this crucial building step. If student’s clay becomes a little dry through the building process, I bring a spray bottle of water that I can give each project a little spray as needed, keeping the water mess to a minimum.

Once all the projects are finished and it’s time to put away all the clay tools, I ask students to make a ball from all of their remaining clay bits and return that to the clay bag. I ask them to brush any remaining dust or crumbs of clay into their hand and dump that in the garbage or into the clay recycling bin if you have one and then return their cutting boards to the designated box. Once that’s done, they can use a big sponge to wipe down their desks and double check for any clay that may have fallen on the floor. At that point, your classroom should be clay free and students can get back to books.

If your clay gets to dried out from over working it or it gets too wet and mushy to build with, you don’t need to throw it in the bin, it can all be recycled so that every bit of clay you buy can be used. Here’s how I do it in my classroom…

First, you’ll need a plaster board. If you’re recycling small amounts of clay, you could use some scrap drywall pieces with the paper removed from one side of it, if you’re recycling larger amounts, you’re going to want to make a thick plaster board. I have a board that is about 3’x 2′ with wood edging around the outside of it that is about 3″ high. You could use an old shallow drawer if you’ve got one.

Next, mix up your plaster per the directions on the bag and pour it into your frame, make sure the top is as even as possible and tap the sides of it to release any air bubbles that may have gotten trapped in the plaster. Let the plaster set up and harden, give it a few days to dry out before recycling any clay on it.

To set up your recycling system, you’ll need a bucket with a lid. I use a standard size garbage can on wheels to make it easy to move around the room and also tuck away but if you are recycling smaller amounts of clay a 5 gallon bucket might be big enough for you. Add all of your scraps of clay that are too wet or dry to work with and cover with water. Be careful not to allow tools, sponges or other studio debris to end up in the bucket, it will start to decompose and smell pretty bad. Allow these pieces to soak and break down until the clay is uniformly squishy.
Then scoop out the clay and lay it in an even thickness onto your prepared plaster board. The plaster will dry the clay from the bottom and the air will dry it from the top, this might take a few days depending on the weather in your area, how hot the room is, how wet the clay is and how wet the plaster board is. You also might need to flip the whole thing over to keep the drying even. You’ll have to keep checking on it to make sure it’s not getting to dry. Once the clay is at a nice working consistancy, it’s ready to be wedged and bagged up for using again. Wedging the clay is sort of like kneading bread, it will remove the air bubbles from your clay so that your work doesn’t explode in the kiln. Here is a great video about wedging your clay: Clay Wedging 101. Also, if you happen to pick up small bits of plaster in your clay, be sure to pick these out before wedging your clay, as they will explode in the kiln. Then bag up your clay in thick plastic bags and store it until your are ready to build again. 

If you find your clay dried out too much on your plaster board, you can toss it back into your recycling bucket and start the process over again. Recycling clay can be a slightly laborious process but it’s definitely worth it and is a great opportunity to teach your students each step of the process and let them learn some extra credit points for helping you recycle the clay in your classroom.