We are in our second year of offering Air Dry Workshops. Teachers that booked Air Dry workshops last year are doing the same again this year. We do more Air Dry workshops than the fired ones. Teachers that have booked us fired first then Air Dry, always rebook Air Dry. When we are at a trade show, everything in our booth is Air Dry and we never fire anything before painting. All sample pieces we do as The Clay Teacher are not fired. Houses are made from unfired clay. Entire towns are made out of unfired clay from the Adobes in the South West, to Africa, Israel and India
One such dwelling is the "Musgum clay house". Named after its creators, the Musgum, an ethnic group in the far north province in Cameroon. The house is created from compressed sun-dried clay.
San Miguel Chapel, Sante Fe, New Mexico is the oldest church structure in the US. Original adobe walls built in approximately 1610 AD.
When making projects with the Air Dry method, you have to be familiar with clay and know how to work with it in order to have success. If the projects are made properly, you will not have problems with them later. When you follow the instructions of The Clay Teacher and the DVDs all pieces are sturdy and will last as San Miguel Chapel, unless dropped of course, then all fired or unfired clay will break.
When students make something out of clay and paint it, it is notpottery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery it is only decorative or sculpture,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture. The pieces are not intended to be used in the kitchen as pottery, so there is no reason to finish them as a piece of pottery. However, the Air Dry method creates a very sturdy project.
Here is a little dish we put through the rinse cycle in the dishwasher. We sure do NOT recommend dishwasher safe, but it certainly survived and we still have it.
Taking the kiln out of the picture opens up clay to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Every day is Clay Day!
Until the next time.
Cindy
