My bag of clay is turning GREEN

[weece]

Hi, I have a few unopened bags of hand building clay that is turning green on the surface. Looks like mould, or "slim" .

Can I slice this green stuff off and use the remaining clay? Or will it cause problems. Should I just throw them out and buy new?

Hope someone can help.

Weece.

[rosebead]

Well Weece some potters actually like their clay to be moldy.
It makes for a better clay body. You can add some bleach to kill the mold if it bothers you.
Here is an intersting article about moldyclay:
http://www.lagunaclay.com/support/articles/mold.htm

[beautifulfreak]

Mold means it is just getting good. You can slice it off if it freaks you out or just wedge it in when you use it. If you put bleach in it, it will be rough on your hands when you use it. I wouldn't want to have bleach in my clay.

I have a moldy clay story:

A part time professor at my college also taught clay one semester a year at a local junior high school. He always kept the clay from one semester to the next all sealled up in a few buckets in the back of the art room out of the way labled with his name and contents. The slurry from one semester would then sit all year til next time he would teach and be just perfect the coming semester. In his absence a new teacher arrived and decided to clean house. When he came to process his buckets of clay for the students use he found them gone. And new teacher when asked said, " oh, they had gotten all moldy and yucky I knew you wouldn't want that so I threw them out." The professor told these story always with a big sigh...year old moist clay is a terrible thing to get thrown away.


ok I didn't say it was a good story.

[weece]

This is great news, I'm so glad I have not thrown my clay out, and can now look forward to getting my hands dirty... Thanks for the info....

weece

[WmDShirley]

You may not want to hear this story... well of course clay is much more plastic with organic material in it. That's what makes natural clay blue and grey instead of red. I knew a very good potter who... pissed in her clay. Just a bit, she said, just enough to inoculate the clay with happy people bacteria. She said clay in the wild had all kinds of organic material in it, including animal piss and she thought it made for a better throwing clay. Myself, I don't do this but I do occasionally pour the last few drops of beer onto my clay in the bucket. There's an additive you can use but I forget the name. Something like "Additive A" or some such thing. My friend indicated that you did NOT want to know what it was made of, but I suspect it was organic stuff because it was to add plasticity to new clay. Most of my clay is dug from the local stream and occasionally added to salvaged clay from the local school. Seniors have to make clay for their final grade but they rarely take time to label the bags. To avoid problems high firing low fire clay they toss unlabeled bags out and I grab them from the dock. I have a lot of very old clay in plastic tubs that I allow the rain to get into and winter to freeze. Makes for great clay!

[beautifulfreak]

There was a guy in school that read some place that yogurt in clay made for great a plastic clay body...maybe it was, maybe it wasn't but his clay was banished from the studio as it stank too bad.

I had frat boys pour beer in my clay when i was in college. It didn't seem to hurt it none but I didn't see any difference in plasticity. But this was dug clay anyway so maybe it was as plastic as it could get already.

Sorry I don't pee in my clay...ick..the acid would likely be a bit rough on the hands and it would likely stink...you could use it as a rumor in a public clay studio tho so to keep others from stealing/borrowing your clay...

[Noadi]

I've also heard about organic material being good for clay. However some people are sensitive to mold so if you have any allergy problems you definitely should cut off the mold and throw it out. If you don't then I wouldn't worry about it.