Working with clay at home

Basic steps to enjoy making with clay at home

Our students contact us a lot about basic advice on working with clay in their homes or personal studios, so we are sharing our knowledge and tips on best practice. This post will cover things that are good to know, from basics of safety to good tips on storage and transportation of work from your home to the nearest kiln.

Health and Safety

The most important thing to consider and be aware of when working with clay, is that clay contains respirable crystalline silica (silica). Very fine invisible material that may cause severe respiratory illness, if not sufficiently controlled. Working with clay is generally safe, and silica becomes a problem for us only when our clay dries out, (or if we handle it in a form of powder). For this reason make sure:

• no dry scraps are left lying around
• adopt “clean as you go” method
• avoid dry sweeping that will raise dust in the air
• avoid using clay in carpeted spaces, as dust will be too difficult to remove
• always mop the floor and wet sponge the surfaces after you are finished.

These basic steps will ensure making with clay is a safe and lovely process to share and enjoy.

Storing work

If you need to store your work to return to your projects later, it is a common practice to wrap your pieces in plastic. You can use a regular plastic bag. Check for holes, as they may speed up drying. One can keep the work indefinitely if it is wrapped well, sprayed with water, and kept airtight. So you can return to your projects after a break.

When you finish your project, let your piece dry out naturally in a room temperature. Your greenware is ready for a firing when it is dry.

Planning and materials

When you are deciding to work with clay, consider what materials you would like to use. If you worked in a supported environment before, did you use earthenware clay or stoneware? If you do not have a potter’s wheel at home, as the majority of makers, you can work on your handbuilding. Consider clays that are good for this technique. Usually ceramics suppliers will be able to advise you. Consider the scale of work, and the results you would like to achieve, and what will be possible to fire. Here is our list of trusted ceramics suppliers.

Kilns, transportation and packaging

The work is bone dry, when it is no longer cold to the touch at room temperature. It means we can safely load it into a kiln, and be confident the work will not blow up in a firing. When your piece is bone dry, it is time to take your pieces to get fired.

From our experience of running Firing Service

Cornstarch packing peanuts or its friend, vermiculite, are highly effective for transporting complex shapes. They can be easily “poured” around irregular shaped objects and provide a cushion against shock during handling and transportation.

If you are making stackable shapes – make sure you have cushioning between pieces when you are packing them into containers that will carry them. Make sure that none of the pieces are touching. It will help you to minimize breakages. You can use bubble wrap, a couple of layers of newspaper, shredded paper, or other packing material.

If you made flat or long pieces – use a stiff board for transportation, so the work does not flex when you move it. It will increase the chances of your greenware arriving to a kiln in one piece.

If you are working with porcelain or very fragile work, it may make sense to bring it to a studio that will do a firing for you in a leatherhard state. Thin pieces will dry out quickly and will not cause much nuisance, and can be transported to kiln shelves safely.

Kiln Firing

If you are making work that will be fired by someone else, take notes on your materials, your supplier, and any advice that is available about the materials you are using. Help your kiln technician to make the right decisions on a kiln programme that will guide how your pieces fire.

Don’t forget that it is unsustainable to fire half-empty kilns, and make your work well, so it can share a kiln with other pieces!

Bisque fired work can be glazed immediately and fired again, or kept indefinitely before it is glazed. It is important to make sure your work is dust-free before glazing. Also, don’t forget to check the temperature range of the materials before applying glaze.

If a step-by-step guide on the process is helpful for you, read our outline of the ceramics process here, and check out firing service page if you wonder how to access kiln firings in our studio.

See you soon!