Thanks to the Cadet Fund, we are very happy to announce the arrival of a new Pug Mill for the art room, appropriately named Pugsley! Now, you are likely saying to yourself, “What on earth is a pug mill?” Great question!
A pug mill is a machine that turns unusable, bone dry clay (pictured) into perfect, usable clay again! This saves clay from being thrown away and wasted- in turn saving money. The process is time consuming, but pretty simple.
The clay should be dried out completely before the process is started, so we let it sit out in the air for 3+ weeks to dry. The clay is then broken into smaller, manageable pieces, around the size of a golf ball, to rehydrate (I know this sounds counter productive, but when the clay gets to a certain point there is no coming back and we have to let it dry fully). The dry clay is placed in a bucket and covered with water for at least a week to rehydrate fully. NOW the pug mill comes in. That sloppy, wet clay is placed in the hopper of the pug mill and blended to a soft serve consistency. I am sure you can imagine how dirty a job this is! I often have eager students willing to learn and help.
We then slowly add powdered clay to the mix until the consistency is right and no longer as sticky- think thick peanut butter. The machine is then switched from MIX to PUG where it extrudes out a beautiful log of new, perfectly usable clay that we store in bags until it is time to use it! Please enjoy photos of the process and some photos of the beautiful pieces that have been made with this reclaimed clay!