What is Reclaim? Connecting with Clay
Working with your hands is therapeutic; doing something meaningful with them is even more positive for the mind, body and spirit. Clay has also been subject to research in art therapy and neuropsychology fields; it is a grounding, responsive material that, when in motion, becomes animate. Our relationship to clay goes back 20,000 years and spans every continent and culture. Clay has played a pivotal role in the development of our society, from expressing spirituality to functional dish ware and food storage.
While I’m interested in research in relation to working with clay, I feel these concepts in a very immediate, everyday kind of way. The reclaim process, and my overall experiences throwing with beginners on the wheel has inspired me to foster more therapeutic offerings at Waveform in the form of Claybody programming.
A disc of fresh reclaim ready to wedge, student work, dry clay and a bag of slip.
What is reclaim?
Reclaim is the process of recycling clay that is too wet, or too dry, to use for wheel-throwing or hand-building. There is a broad spectrum of clay consistency, from bone dry chips and dust to liquid, watery slip. In between you have leatherhard (like chocolate), slurry (like a slushy), sticky wet reclaim (like mashed potatoes) and then, well, clay that’s “just right” – I don’t really have a word for it…
Clay will dry out quicker or stay wet longer depending on the season, climate, weather or studio environment. Forgetting to close a window all the way, or leaving a fan on overnight, can result in accelerated drying and presto, you’ve got bone dry clay whether you wanted it or not.
A plaster bat with fresh reclaim laid out on top in the garage
I remember when I was running Waveform out of my garage, the rainy season was brutal – not just because raindrops would creep into the studio during class, or the chilly wet air would linger in the concrete floor and infuse the space with a cold, clammy feel despite our little space heater working full-time. The real struggle was that in the damp environment of the garage, during the rainy season, the clay wouldn’t dry – slurry-filled buckets were ever-heavy, reclaim sat out for weeks in stasis, student work stayed sticky long after I was ready to wrap it up for transport for firing. Every surface felt damp, and my fingers were perpetually puckered.
During the rainy season, I would notice the clouds clearing from my bedroom window and rush out of the apartment into the garage to lug my plaster bat into the temporary sunshine. A plaster bat is a watery lung for the studio reclaim process: you lay wet slurry out on it like a wet, luxurious cake; moisture is wicked away by sun, air and the porous plaster itself. However the plaster can only do so much – if the air in your studio or your region is damp and full of water, the plaster fills with liquid that doesn’t evaporate and the clay remains as is. A few hours in warm sunshine or dry breezes can accelerate the drying process and move along your reclaim – just be mindful, if you’ve caught a sunny spell in the rainy season and clouds start to close in, move that reclaim in before it gets rained on. And if you leave it in the sun or the breeze too long, the edges may crisp up too much. If it gets to stiff, you’ll need to start the reclaim process all over again.
At Waveform, we go in and out of using reclaim and fresh clay in class. After you finish throwing on the wheel, you clean up your work station, using your sponges to mop slip (excess clay from the throwing process) into your individual water buckets. You then pour those buckets into a bigger bucket, which has a tote bag suspended by binderclips in it. The tote bag sieves out excess water over time – we actually drain the water using a super soaker like a huge syringe and use the excess to water the studio plants!
Wet clay slurry in a tote bag with water sieved out into an orange bucket
Eventually the tote bag is full of a thick slurry: wet mashed potatoes consistency. Reclaim can smell a little funky, and with our guests in mind we sprinkle in hydrogen peroxide every other day to eliminate any anaerobic bacteria and the signature swampy smell that most potters are used to. We also add bone dry chips to the reclaim – when clay is bone dry, it “slakes” well in liquid – meaning that it will quickly absorb water and break down into slip relatively easily. If it’s leatherhard, on the other hand (firm but not dry), it will sit in slip and maintain it’s form without dissolving. There needs to be enough of a pressure difference in the water content of the materials for them to break down.
Clay drying out to be smashed and mixed into slurry for the right consistency
Once we get the tote bag contents to the right consistency – firm mashed potatoes – we squeeze it out onto the plaster bat (one of my favorite chores). It’s so satisfying to smooth the reclaim into a 3 inch “cake” on the plaster, glistening and compact – in the summer, it’s just days away from becoming wheel-ready again.
Depending on the season, it may take a few days or two weeks for clay to firm up and be ready to wedge.
When you get to know clay in all its states, it feels like you are tending to it. When I am observing the reclaim process and participating in it step by step, my mind is quiet. The process feels peaceful, and logical, and slow. It’s like a longform cooking project. I often feel like the reclaim that I fan out onto the plaster is liquid gold – I take great care not to spill it, and use a tool to scrap the excess off each finger to get as much of it as possible onto the bat. So much work goes into reclaiming the clay. Careful, quiet steps. Hauling water, cleaning, stirring, waiting. When you work with clay in motion on the wheel, the process disappears time. Reclaim is the opposite: it slows time and makes it tangible, physical.
Waveform team member Ash, wedging clay for class :)
Reclaim is often a communal chore, if you are in a shared studio space. Waveform team member Ash, who you may have met during a class, does a lot of the reclaim now. I still engage with the process (and miss it, actually) – but it is such a physical, time intensive chore (especially wedging the clay to get it ready to work with again!), and I have a lot of other hats I have to wear for work, I needed some help. Ash is tuned into the clay in the studio in all its states; I feel like they are a shepherd to all the bits that dried out too long, or the work that didn’t make it, the excess, the leftovers.
When I throw with reclaim, I am honoring the labor of those who processed the clay. I’m in touch with all of those who touched the clay on their way to making something at Waveform; over 2,000 people at this point! Clay is infinitely recyclable – the ebb and flow of water through the material, and energy of a person to turn it into something or save the excess, connects me to my purpose, and place. It is living, breathing earth that we partner with.
The ongoing relationship I’ve built with clay, and the benefits to my own nervous system, are part of what has inspired me to develop Claybody offerings at Waveform – therapeutic pottery and hand-building classes that emphasize process over product, sensation over logic, introspection over achievement. Clayplay, a recent addition, is particularly inspired by the reclaim process. I thought it would be fun and helpful for people to have an entry point to pottery, the studio and the material, with a focus on clay in all it’s states.
Clay is rich with metaphor and constantly teaching me. Teaching me how to slow down, how to tend to myself and others, how to accept change. Clayplay is $40 and we play with the material without the goal of making or keeping anything. At the end, folks can bring clay home with them if they like and practice therapeutic play independently.
Is there a process in your life that feels like reclaim? Slow, simple, effortful and fruitful? In a society where the mainstream tries to influence us to prioritize instant gratification and seek quantity over quality, comfort over community…these slow, simple processes feel crucial to connecting with our humanity, honoring our place in nature and resisting oppression. The more time and energy you can pour into whatever process works for you, the better - whether it’s clay or some other material!
Learn more about beginner pottery classes at Waveform and all the studio has to offer here.
