The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 48 No 3 November 2009

Works hop
• Prolonged exposure to any clay dust is detrimental to your health, so to reduce the risk of inhaling
the toxic clay dust, use wet sponges and mops to clean up and minimise airborne clay dust. Pick
paperclay off the floor before it dries.
Using paperclay in the classroom and studio:
• No wedging is needed as the paper fibre allows air bubbles to escape and gives the clay body a more
even water content.
• Return firmer scraps of paperclay to the bag and add a little water which it will absorb overnight.
• Dried out bags can be soaked for a week to return to plastic stage. No wedging is needed.
To make paperclay slip f rom leftovers:
• Drop dry scraps into hot water half an hour before needed.
• Flatten stiffer scraps to finger thickness, allow them to dry completely, then half fill an ice cream
container. Half an hour before required, fill to the top of the container with hot (quicker than cold)
water. Add a few drops of bleach/detergent to keep the 'porridge' from going off. It needs to
soak for half an hour. Don't stir. Pour off the excess water then mix and use. If you can smell it
decomposing, throw the mix away and sterilise the container and any tools used.
Random facts and guidelines for working with paperclay:
• Count to 20 when soaking limbs in paperciay slip before pushing into softer paperciay feet, hands,
head and body.
• Work can resume on completely dry pieces, even years later (Paul Aldred in WA holds the record
of resuming work eight years later). Soak lip (the proposed join), or the whole work, in water for 2-
20 minutes (depending upon size), add plenty of slip and then continue building soft paperclay onto
the damp area.
1 Throwing slabs ~ la Hay
2 Graham joining dry rings of clay with paperclay slip
3 Jojo Fuller and Kay Alliband having fun
THE 10URNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2009 79