Rehydrated/reclaimed Clay Question

[Foxden]

I have bags of clay that have never been used and have dried out, bone dry. I typically reconstitute them rather easily and put it them use as needed.

 

My question is "is this ten year or more old dry clay considered aged? Or does the aging process only apply to wet clays?"

[glazenerd]

Kaolin, ball clay, feldspar, silica, bentonites, calcined clays, grog, : point being everything mixed to make a clay is a natural earth material. It has been in the ground long before someone dug it up and processed it. It can sit in the bag dried for fifty years. I have had clay close to the leather-hard state in the bag. I just cut it up into 2" cubes and cover it with water overnight. Drain the next morning, and work it back to a pliable form. Or. if you had a pugger........... One trick is to use your slab roller: just work it through the roller, fold, roll, fold, roll... let it work it down---saves the hands.

 

Glaze nerd

[Tyler Miller]

Pretty sure aging is a wet-process only.

[rayaldridge]

Tyler is right.

 

Clay has to be wet for a while to develop plasticity beyond what it has when first hydrated.

[Mark C.]

Dry and die wet and alive

10 years dry is not aged as noted above

[Marcia Selsor]

Dry doesn't promote aging as said above. water provides life literally.

Marcia

[flowerdry]

I believe the aging process involves some bacterial growth so water is required for that.

[Foxden]

Then a least it has several years of aging on it since it was wrapped in plastic and didn't dry out overnight. I do make most of my clays from dry materials and the reclaimed dried out clay does seem to throw better.

[rayaldridge]

I might be wrong, but I think once it has dried out, you've lost any plasticity gained when it was wet-- since the increased plasticity comes from the water-based products of micro-organisms.