Plaster of Paris in my Clay

     I am a Sunday Potter, don’t forget, and I work on a mini-scale.  I only had Plaster of Paris available to make my little drying bat.  (to make it I slathered a plastic box with Vaseline, placed an upside-down baking dish, also slathered with Vaseline, in it and poured plaster over it and held it down until the plaster set; or did I set the baking dish upright in the plaster and weigh it down being careful not to let plaster seep over the wall into the baking dish?

     The issue here is that the plaster is not a satisfactory substance for drying my clay—you see the coating of plaster on the bottom of my dry clay in the upper photo?   I just realized that that coating was also on the bottom of all my white clay and I never would have seen it.   ughhhggjjhgjdjd##$@#$!@#$

 

SOLUTION:  I line the bat with a piece of old, thin bed sheet material.  The water soaks through the sheet to the plaster.   This is the first time I tried it and it worked perfectly!   I love it when a plan comes together.

By the way, who can tell me what the plaster does to the clay?  I’ve been carefully taught never to allow plaster into my clay but never knew the result.