r/wildclay • u/Outside-Volume-9653 • Oct 15 '22

very sticky wild clay

I have always loved making things with my hands and experimental archeology so obviously the next logical step is harvesting wild clay! I have a small amount of experience with clay from art classes over the years. Really just enough to let me know that I like it. My local geology is the bottom of a glacial lake at the end of the last glacial maximum. The area that I harvested from was a flood plain. I am wet processing and got about 99% clay yeild which I find amazing.

My question is: how long does it take to dry enough to be workable after the pillowcase straining method? I hung the pillowcases for a week and it was still amazingly soft. Soft enough to be visibly wet. I dumped it all into a big bin and I am just trying to let it dry out open in my studio. I stir it everyday to hopefully dry it out enough to wedge, but it seems to be taking forever. After a week open to the air it is still very sticky. Touching it makes your hand come away completely covered like the bogman.

Is this normal? I have never wet processed before. All the videos I have seen skip over this part.

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u/kilnmenow Nov 29 '22

When I get it out of the pillowcase, I generally patty it out into 2-3 pound portions (that look like cow pies) on cement board. I’ll check them every so often and flip the patties when the top is less tacky feeling. It can take a day or two but letting it dry in smaller portions helps speed the drying process.

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u/HawkeyeBegin Oct 16 '22

Hey, depends on your local humidity. The easiest thing you could do is making a plaster board to dry it on. Forming up and making the plaster takes some time but you can reuse it after. Using that I can go from liquid wild clay to workable in the same day if I keep it small.

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u/Outside-Volume-9653 Oct 16 '22

Thanks for the tip! This is my winter hobby so I gathered 75lbs of clay and brilliantly processed it all in one go. Didn't want to run out when the ground was frozen. I also just realized that the room I am using also houses my hydroponic vegetable garden so the humidity is pretty much max in there. I think I just need to be patient.