Clay from bags always too hard

[HenryBurlingame]

Hi all, so I was wondering how common this was. I have been trying a lot of new cone 6 clay bodies from various suppliers and I am finding that a lot of the time the clay is too hard to wedge or throw straight out of the bag, sometimes waaay too hard even though the manufacturing date was only a few months ago (I’m looking at you Seattle pottery supply!). Is this pretty common? I guess I’m going to have to spend today adding water to bags and flipping them every few hours, but man it is making me want to just decide on one clay body and get a pugmill lol.

Edited Sunday at 04:31 AM by HenryBurlingame

[PeterH]

Some ideas in ...

 

[LinR]

I also use the clay bag in the bucket method which works well.  One caution, make sure your clay bag has no holes.  That's a sure way to get slop!  Lin

[Rae Reich]

Back a few decades ago, we students at Santa Ana College were able to go over to Aardvark, where they were mixing and bagging their clays, press our thumbs into the bags and choose which boxes to buy. Those were the days!

Has anyone tried recently, on volume orders, to request softer clay?

[LeeU]

On 9/18/2024 at 11:57 AM, HenryBurlingame said:

(I’m looking at you Seattle pottery supply!)

I use them and have always gotten satisfactory clay-not too soft and not too hard. I got 50 lbs this week (I'm in NH) and it is perfect. If you haven't contacted them and spoken directly with someone, it might well be  worth letting them know you have an issue. (If you have talked to them and gotten no resolution, if it were me I'd contact again and make some noise!) 

[Denice]

Cone 5/6 feel hard but can be soften up easily.   I have a tall 5gal bucket,  I put the bag of clay in it tied end up,  I fill it with water and leave the tied end of the bag sticking out of the water.   It depends on how hard the clay on how long you leave it in the bucket.   If it is really hard add a half cup of water.   I have revived some really  dry old clay,  it takes more water and a longer soak,  clay I just purchased only takes a day.  When I take a bag out I will check and see if I have more that needs to be soaked.  The water has never gone bad,  I usually have to add more,  if I do need to dump it I roll it out and dump it in the driveway.  I use to do the slamming method or dropping it 4 or 5 times on the floor to soften it.   I like the the texture of the soaked clay better,   perfect for throwing.  The water pressure rearranges the alignment of the clay and water with in the bagged clay.  I have a lot of different clay's in my studio,  I keep my bucket filled with water and on a 3 wheeled caster so I can move it around.    Bought a bunch of them on sale at Menards,  perfect size and will handle heavy loads.  Right now I am working with a black clay that is really stiff,  I didn't soften it because I am working on a sculpture.     It takes a lifetime to learn all of the secrets of clay,  when I was four years old I made a mosaic tray and got hooked on clay.   I will be 72 in two weeks still learning and hooked on clay.    Denice

[HenryBurlingame]

I will try the bucket method and see if that is any different from just adding water to the bag... I have always just added water to the bag, rotated it a few times, and in a few days the clay seems pretty consistently softer.

On 9/20/2024 at 6:18 PM, LeeU said:

I use them and have always gotten satisfactory clay-not too soft and not too hard.

Most of the clay I got from them in my last order was about 6+ months old, with one bag over a year old according to the date on the package. Had to add about a cup of water to every bag to just be able to wedge them comfortably, and a little more to be able to extrude or slab roll without issues. The year-old bag was acting really strange - super short and floppy so I just gave up on it, water wasn't going to save that one lol. Maybe just bad luck on my part, but I have liked almost every other clay I have tried more than the SPS stuff, but I am still going to use it all and see what I think as far as finished pots look, how absorption turns out, etc. before I make any final decisions.

Edited Sunday at 04:46 AM by HenryBurlingame