Have you been curious what all the excitement is over paper clay?  Not paper machet, that is a totally different product, but actual potters clay which has a small percentage of paper fiber incorporated.  The addition of the paper fiber to a clay body makes it unbeatable for sculpting and hand building.  The cellulose fibers are strong and hollow, the tiny clay particles are able to flow into these tubes giving clay some wonderful working properties.
Have you ever tried to join several pieces of clay and found them completly pulled apart when dried?  Would you like to be able to join clay of differing moisture content easily with minimal or no cracking?  How about being able to repair cracks in your handbuilt green ware.  That can be a tough one made easy with the magic of paper clay.
I urge you to look into working with paper clay and finding out for yourself what advantages it holds for the way you work with clay.
Jerry Bennett has a wonderful site with all the information you needed to get started.  I will attempt to give a brief outline of what it will take but for more complete information just Google Jerry Bennett paper clay and you'll find his site.
I make my paper clay from my dried reclaim scraps which I save up in a 5 gal bucket.  When they are bone dry I cover them with water and let them slake till the next day.  In the mean time you need a paper fiber supply, almost any paper can be used.  I've used shredded newspaper, paper towels or rolls of cheap toilet paper.  I soak the paper in another 5 gal bucket while the clay scraps are slakeing.  When I am ready to mix up the batch ,you will need a power drill with a long mixing attachment, available in the paint department, I drain the water off the paper and use the drill mixer to whip the clay scraps into a fine slip.  If I have about 4 gallons of slip I add about 1 gallon of wet paper pulp , with most of the water squeezed out, experiment and find what percentage of paper works best for you.  It is important to mix the clay into a nice lump free slip before adding the paper then use the mixer to incorporate it.  Run the mixer till you cannot see the paper and have a nicely homogenized mix.
To the bucket I also add 1 teaspoon of copper carbonate to retard bacteria growth which can make a big stink in paper-clay after awhile.  This is not enough to cause any coloring of the clay.

At this stage I have a bucket of thickened slip, it is a good time to remove a container of it to keep for wonderful joining slip to use on any clay.  You will really like the way it acts like glue.  If you don't want to mix up a whole bucket of slip you can just mix up enough to give you a good batch of joining slip, really worth doing.  I bought a stick blender really cheap at the thrift store and keep it for mixing up the small batches, works like a charm.


I allow the bucket of slip to sit for a few days to evaporate some of the water, if water comes to the top you can speed things up by sponging it off.  Eventually you will have a bucket of really thick clay glop.  Here is photo of a bucket of paper clay ready to be turned out. You can see the stick I keep in the bucket to give it a mix now and then while it's drying out.





I put  an old sheet on my concrete floor and scoop out the glop to the center of it.  This acts like a huge drying bat, and you can fold the clay onto itself by pulling up on the edge of the sheet and give the clay mass a push with your foot.  Easy wedging and no muddy toes!  If you don't have a large concrete area consider buying a sheet of 1/2 inch hardie backer board , available in home building centers.  It is a wonderful product that absorbs water as well as plaster does and is very portable.  It comes in 3x5 ft sheets and is easy to score and break.  Divide it into 2 or 4 pieces and use these to dry your clay on.  They wash off very easily with the hose and don't take up much room stored on end.   You will find many uses for the pieces, wedging surfaces, temporary work tables, drying boards etc.  A real bargain for about $11.
I  dry up small batches of the paper-clay on plaster bats or hardie tile backer board and then wedge it up before use.  I depend on paper-clay for my tile making, it allows me to make thinner, stronger and easier to join pieces.  Did I mention how strong paper-clay is in the green stage?  Much stronger than plain clay, and you can dip a piece in water to re-wet it for adding additional parts or to shape or bend. The paper-clay story has many chapters , almost anyone working with clay will find advantages with using it.  A note though, it does not throw worth a fig.

Actually I have learned that if you reduce the percentage of paper it does throw well, you might have a little trouble with trimming though.  Use a sharp tool.

If you find this guide interesting or helpful please vote below and keep watching for new ideas.