How To Tell When Ceramics Are Dry

Using heaters or hot air blowers like hair dryers can cause severe cracking especially when the clay is already leather hard or drier.

How to tell when ceramics are dry.

Since there is about 20 of water in clay your pottery will also feel lighter because much of the moisture is gone. Do not force dry pottery. How do you know when your pottery is dry. If pieces are drying too quickly cover them loosely with plastic.

If there is high humidity cover the piece with newspaper then plastic. These high school ceramics students are clay prospecting. Dry pots upside down to even out the drying process. Bearing all this in mind it can sometimes be difficult to gauge if clay is actually bone dry.

Once bone dry clay has been made ceramic it becomes hard and cannot be transformed into a workable material. Wrap handles and rims with plastic to help equalize drying. When your pottery dries the color of your clay turns lighter. First published in 2008.

Slow even drying is best. Updated july 7 2016. This leads me on to the next section which tackles how to tell if your clay is bone dry. If the clay feels room temperature or even a bit cool against your cheek it s dry.

When drying pottery place a plastic cover over your pots. Uneven drying causes tension that can crack handles and rims. Process to rework good clay that becomes too dry to use.