Saturday, March 10, 2012

Too Wet/Too Dry

This winter has been pretty mild in Minnesota with very little snow.  While that's been great for me personally, it's made it a little difficult to dry pottery in the studio be cause the air is really dry.  It's still cold enough that I need to run the furnace out there and that tends to dry the pots faster on one side than the other making them very difficult to deal with trimming and adding handles and such.  So I cover them with plastic, but then they don't dry at all and get moldy.  Also not good.  Leaving the plastic loose still give me stuff dried more on one side.  

But now I may have found a solution so my pots dry slowly enough to not crack and warp, but still actually get dry.  I've started using biodegradable garbage bags to cover the drying boards.  Not sure of the science behind it, but they must breath enough to allow some moisture out.  Whatever it is... I'm grateful for a solution to my pottery drying problem. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Huh... that's a good idea. I bet you're right... the bio bags probably have tiny holes. :)

Lori Buff said...

Brilliant. I recycle the dry cleaning bags of friends, they are thin so the pots actually dry slowly under them. I also flip the bags every day so any moisture that accumulates inside the bag doesn't stay on the pot for long, that prevents mold and speeds drying slightly.

Sue Pariseau Pottery said...

Also a great idea Lori. I'll have to give that a try when I don't have enough bio bags and have to resort to regular plastic.