I'm freezing!!!

Fairbanks, Alaska experiences extremely cold winters, with temperatures often plummeting to between -40 and -60 degrees Fahrenheit. During much of the winter, temperatures generally range from 20 to -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter conditions can begin as early as September and extend until May. Residents of Fairbanks adapt to the weather and find ways to cope with these conditions. The key to living in Alaska is having appropriate gear, a well-insulated home with a reliable heating source, and a dependable car equipped with a block heater.

This blog is not about living in Alaska, it is about being a potter in winter. A big question I had when I moved here is, what happens if my clay freezes?

The most important thing to do when living in areas with freezing temperatures is to prevent your clay from freezing. If it does freeze, you'll have a lot of work ahead of you! As water freezes, it expands, potentially causing the clay particles to separate. To make the clay usable, you have to wedge the clay or run it through a pug mill. Sometimes you have to dry the clay out completely and then rewet it and wedge it.

If you freeze pottery that is still in the green ware state, the pottery is ruined. I learned this the hard way, when my studio got down to freezing conditions and all my thrown bowls cracked. Pottery that has been bisque fired is fine.