Plastic bags

[Pyewackette]

For years I've just used grocery bags and the like to "wrap" anything I don't want to dry right away.  Even if there's a hole in the bottom this has always worked pretty well for me.  It works even better now that I have little individual hardiebacker ware boards for my pieces - if I want something to dry slowly, I dip the hardiebacker ware board in water then a piece of newspaper then the piece on top of that.  Keeps them form sorta sticking to the hardiebacker when its wet.  When I have an uber thin top and a thick bottom (I like to carve a foot) it helps keep them drying slowly until they catch up to each other.  I also hang a microfiber cloth over the top (the kind with no loops, like you clean your glasses with).  But any "normal" piece has always done just fine wrapped in one or two grocery bags of the plastic persuasion.

The new guy at the studio was making fun of those of us who have been donating grocery bags to the studio for years.  He insists that the lightweight filmy dry cleaner type wrap stuff is far superior to plastic retail bags.  He wrapped some of my pieces in that stuff and lo and behold, both pieces dried out faster than the stuff I wrapped myself in regular ol' grocery bags.  And one was drying very unevenly even though I'd wet the hardiebacker it was sitting on.  Even the hardiebacker dried out overnight.  It's winter here in East Texas.  It is super dry.

Is he thinking of some other kind of plastic wrap?  Has anybody out there ever had a problem using plastic grocery bags to wrap pieces?  Am I just delusional thinking they've been fine for my stuff all these years?

[Babs]

Beneft of the softer drycleaning, new shirt wrap is its softness. Can cover softer stuff without harming it

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I’ve used dry cleaner plastic for years and had no problems with it. I don’t like the marks that shopping bags leave. But I think it’s just a matter of personal preference. They’re both plastic. They both work.

[Mark C.]

shirat bags for 50 years for me as well-I also have some larger sheets if similar plastic . I live in a area that banned sinle use bags  as well so even if I wanted them they are not here (better for the planet). The lighted plastic works the best=shirt bags

[Pyewackette]

Marks?  I've never had a single mark on any of my work.  I don't make big stuff mind you - everything I've ever made so far will fit in one or two bags or a larger shopping bag, say from Target. When I do start making bigger stuff I'll just use trash bags.  I NEVER do dry cleaning (better for the environment). Even at the studio they don't have a lot of this stuff - if any of us were actually using it it'd be gone already.

The stoneware here is still uber soft.  I have more trouble working the stoneware than I do the B-mix.  I've switched to B-mix because it is actually easier for me to work than the stoneware is.  It's REALLY soft - and WET. But I have no trouble getting it in the bag without damaging it. Maybe covering soft clay in grocery bags is my secret super power!  It would figure I have a stupid secret super power LOL!

After the move I'll just have damp boxes - which will also require plastic in the form of a big box and lid.  Ya can't win!  Or wait - an old defunct fridge!  If I can find one and if I can move it by myself.

This stuff in the studio isn't dry cleaner bags - its torn up sheets from dry cleaner wraps.  You have to wrap it around your work like a scarf.  *I* can't do it without it touching the work AND leaving gaps.  He THOUGHT he could do it (and it did look better than my efforts) but still it dried out overnight.  I'd say the stuff is about 8" wide at most.  Really.  Like a scarf.

I also happen to think that making fun of people who donate bags for this purpose was uncalled for, but whatever.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Pyewackette

[irenepots]

Hey Pyewackette,  I reuse   plastic bags from the vegetable aisle, and I find they're great - softer and easier to manipulate than grocery bags but not as flimsy as dry cleaner bags.  When one gets a hole I put a piece of tape on it.  I also cut them open to use flat.    Be sure however that they're not the  compostable bags like Trader Joe's uses.  Those do break down great in the compost pile  I use them with a little newspaper in the bottom for my compostable stuff.   But clay dries out quickly in them.    I'm sure they'd be useful in some ways but not for very slow clay drying.  Good luck!

[Pyewackette]

@irenepots Yeah I tape over holes with cheap packing tape from Harbor Freight LOL!  I figure the more use we get out of the plastic crap that's already here before it ends up as microscopic particles in our brain, the better.

I have stopped using Teflon tape to improve the seal on bottles and things though.  I don't know how eco that actually is, given that means I then turn around and buy more expensive plastic squirt bottles that don't leak.  I've found mustard bottles with squirt thingies work great without leaking for liquids.  I just don't eat that much mustard.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Pyewackette

[neilestrick]

We use dry cleaner bags in my studio. Leave them double thickness, don't open them up and put the pot inside. They hold the moisture better that way and are easier to remove without mangling the pots. I can leave stuff covered for a couple of weeks without any drying. All it takes is one small gap in the plastic to cause things to dry too quickly. We use 13" and 15" plastic bats in my studio, and put as many pots on a bat as possible, so grocery bags are too small. Dry cleaner bags are big enough to cover everything on the bat and tuck it under all around. If you're using small bats then I don't see why grocery bags wouldn't work just fine. 10-15 years ago I always had a surplus of dry cleaner bags from my students. Now all the offices have gone casual so no one is using the dry cleaners anymore. I did just look and I can get 400+ bags on Amazon for $68, so I might just do that since my current stash is starting to get low. I need about 60 bags in rotation at any given time, and they get torn and dirty after about 6 months of use in the studio, so it would probably be worth the investment.

[Pyewackette]

@neilestrick I counted today.  There are exactly THREE of these strips of filmy plastic, two of which are the size of a neck scarf and one of which is a double width neck scarf LOL!  Now I have no idea where he even came up with the wherewithal for even making the comment to start with. If it weren't for the donated grocery bags he was dissing, we wouldn't have ANYTHING to cover our stuff with LOL!

[Mark C.]

You can buy them at a dry cleaners  for 25 cents I'm told

[LeeU]

I think the full size (for suit or dress) dry cleaner bags are awesome-the best-the local dry cleaner here gives me 5 for a dollar. I use them as is or cut  some into large or small sheets. No marks-which I do get even when trying not to-from other plastic materials.  & just the right drying time. 

[Pyewackette]

Well maybe if we ever actually had any that weren't short strips I'd feel differently.  I'm not sure about the marks issue, but then I generally stick a piece of damp newspaper on top and usually under my work before I bag it.  Also I was paying attention today and I tend to try to sort of blow it up like a balloon when I bag stuff.  Sort of swirl it around to fill the bag before I swoop it down over my work.  I guess that cuts down on the chance of leaving marks on wetware, maybe?  If any get on there I must be trimming them off or burnishing them away.  I do like me some smooth surfaces - I notice when I don't achieve that.

Today I marked a bowl up significantly but it wasn't from bagging it.  It was from the lugs I was using while throwing a foot ring.  Thunk I, why remove the bowl from the wheel - it's too wet to trim yet but I'll be here for hours and it might be dry enough to trim before I leave.  Supremely bad idea.  3 hours later it was still too damp to trim and the rim had somehow sucked the moisture out of the lugs and melded with them.  I was trying to smooth those out with my finger.

What I learned today ... is I need to learn how to center better and also how to keep my work centered over the base while throwing so I'm not doing stupid things trying to avoid re-centering, LOL!

[Babs]

Now wondering ehat dud happen before plastic.

Box with wet towels wrapped around it.

I do this still when put recycled clay out on the plaster.

Hole in the ground...

Different life,.

[Mark C.]

Another free source of plastic I use is -----

I use market Banana boxes to store ,move, sell amd deliver orders of pottery in. I usually have 60-80 of them at any given time. Those usually come withg plastic sheets in them. Those are just a tad heavier than the dry cleaner bags. We use them to cover freshy handled pots like mugs that need to even out as well as dry a little.  They are perfect for doing both. They are free when I get the boxes from the produce sections.I can go thru 6-8 boxes a month dropping off ware in them via. dolly . Right now I'm working on a 20 banana box order so that 20 going away in a few more weeks.I have never bought a bag for covering pots as folks always bring them to me.Same way with packing materials-all free.

[Rae Reich]

Those free, flimsy grocery bags @Pyewackette has been using are few and far between here in So California and other conscientious states these days, replaced by stiffer, reusable bags. Some other kinds of stores still use them, I acquire a few every month somehow. I also like the thinner grocery vegetable bags for smaller things, but I am glad to occasionally need dry cleaning services (the objectionable chemicals are not legal here anymore, don’t know what they use - not always ’dry’). Nothing better for lots or large work. In my hippie potter days I hadn’t the money or clothes for dry cleaning so I begged the bags from my mom and other “office people”. 

[Babs]

On 2/17/2023 at 5:19 PM, Rae Reich said:

Those free, flimsy grocery bags @Pyewackette has been using are few and far between here in So California and other conscientious states these days, replaced by stiffer, reusable bags. Some other kinds of stores still use them, I acquire a few every month somehow. I also like the thinner grocery vegetable bags for smaller things, but I am glad to occasionally need dry cleaning services (the objectionable chemicals are not legal here anymore, don’t know what they use - not always ’dry’). Nothing better for lots or large work. In my hippie potter days I hadn’t the money or clothes for dry cleaning so I begged the bags from my mom and other “office people”. 

Time to don that skirt/cutoff levis , bandana a nd habachis and go plead!

[Min]

On 2/16/2023 at 2:06 PM, Babs said:

Now wondering ehat dud happen before plastic.

Damp cupboards and fabrics perhaps? 

[Pyewackette]

11 minutes ago, Babs said:

Time to don that skirt/cutoff levis , bandana a nd habachis and go plead!

OK I give up.  What's a habachi?  Google thinks I spelled hibachi wrong ...

[Min]

9 minutes ago, Pyewackette said:

OK I give up.  What's a habachi?  Google thinks I spelled hibachi wrong ...

It means Babs was a hippy!  

It's one of these things.

[Pyewackette]

@Babs Oh.  That IS a hibachi LOL!  I didn't know that was a hippie thing.  I'm sort of that generation, almost.  I was 10 for the Summer of Love.

[Babs]

1 hour ago, Pyewackette said:

@Babs Oh.  That IS a hibachi LOL!  I didn't know that was a hippie thing.  I'm sort of that generation, almost.  I was 10 for the Summer of Love.

I was remembering my tire tread sandals, u of o sixties student

Huaraches and fancy these days. Old ones had a curve to sole, straight off the old truck tyre mate.

@Min  just went with the flow, keep on truckin etc etc.

Cheaper to live also. Bikes a mode of transport, not an investment.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Babs