There’s a lot of satisfaction I get when I recycle clay and resources for functional pieces. I’m the guy that tries to use up as many of the leftovers in the fridge as possible before they become science experiments. It’s just something that my mom instilled in me. So.. I have mainly been using my purchased clay for specs and commissions. But I keep all the other stuff.

Trimmings, scraps and throwing bucket waste are all gathered to be re-hydrated, worked and wedged for useable 25 – 50 pound raw material. It’s not only satisfying to produce pieces from the manual labor. . . I get a bit of a workout getting it to the working stages.

In my day job, I’ve unfortunately acquired an abundance of computer hardware. I’ll make a trek to a local green recycling business with monitors, boards and system metals. When someone asked me to make a birdhouse, the cabling called out to me when I wanted to hang a prototype. The cables (USB, ethernet.. etc), are perfect for the outdoors – usually rubberized wiring that will hold up to the elements for quite awhile.

I’ve also enjoyed making planters from the recycled clay. Always useable and because they’re fired stoneware, they’re more durable and last much longer than Terra Cotta.

Happy 4th of July to all.