Tips and Tools: Compact Clay Trap Trine Nørgaard Bentsen

Appears in the March 2023 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

With a few supplies available at the hardware store and these instructions, you can construct an efficient clay-trap system with a small carbon footprint.  

If you’re creating a home studio and want to avoid clogging your drain, then this little DIY project might be just right for you. As you probably know, you should never use a sink that is connected directly to normal household plumbing to rinse off your clay-covered hands or tools. If you do so without a clay trap to catch the clay particles, then they will settle inside your drain pipe and clog it over time. It is both annoying and costly to get a plumber out to fix the problem.

If you have a dedicated clay sink in your studio, then you have the option to attach a sink trap—these can often be bought at your pottery-supply store. In my home studio, I have no such possibility, as my studio is located in a 200-year-old barn in our garden, and it does not have running water. Therefore, I had to come up with another solution. I needed both a way to get rid of my clay water and a sink-Iike area for cleaning my tools.

My solution to this was building a sink and clay trap all in one out of buckets and other supplies I got at the local hardware store (mine is Harald Nyborg).

Supplies

• Two larger buckets with lids (approximately 14 gallon (53 liter)) 
• Two smaller buckets with lids (approximately 2¾ gallon (10 liter)) (if you want the same buckets as mine, Google their name, Plast Team Akita, as I know they are sold in multiple countries)
• Drain parts: a sink basket strainer, which often comes in a set, where you get all the parts needed, so you only have to attach your drain pipe
• Drain pipe: a connecting PVC pipe that fits in diameter with your drain parts/sink basket strainer (the length isn’t that important)
• One faucet: a drain tap—any type will do
• Two hole saw bits (one that fits the drain hole and one that fits for the faucet hole)
• Tools: hand saw, drill, wrench 
• Sandpaper

Instructions

Begin by cutting the upper 6 inches (15 cm) off one of the big buckets and use sandpaper to sand off the edge to make it nice and smooth. This makes it easier to use the upper bucket as a sink. Otherwise it will be very tall and narrow, and it will be difficult to use as a regular sink. This bucket will be the sink area. Drill a hole for your drain using the hole saw in the middle of the bottom of this sink bucket. Drill a hole in the middle of one of the lids for the drain pipe to fit through, so that you can install the sink drain.

Then, attach the drain so that it is fixed in between the upper (sink) bucket and the bucket lid, joining these two parts to each other. Next, attach the drain pipe. Drill a hole using your small hole saw bit one-third of the way down from the rim on the side of the second big bucket. This bucket will be the clay trap. Attach the faucet through this hole. Insert one of the small buckets inside the big bottom bucket.

Finally, place your newly assembled sink bucket on top of the lower bucket. Place the second small bucket underneath the faucet. You’re done! Now you have a safe way to clean off your tools, hands, etc. And if you don’t use your clay-trap system for cleaning off glaze and other materials, then you can easily take the small inner bucket out when it gets full and reclaim the clay that has gathered there.

You can also build the same system (perhaps on a smaller scale) for handling glaze particles. This way you can actually also reclaim your glaze leftovers. This is, however, a little more tricky if you use more than one glaze or color, so you can never know what mystery glaze your going to get out of a recycled batch.

Bonus tip: Since I don’t have running water in my studio, this clay trap also ensures that I always have access to water. I can just tap some from my clay trap and re-use the water time and time again.

You can also make this clay trap without the second small bucket inside and that works just fine. However, if you do use the second bucket, then it is easy for you to change the inner bucket if you change clay type, so you can still reclaim your clay without contaminating it. Furthermore, the inner bucket makes it easy to clean out the clay trap, as you can just pull up the little bucket and drain the clear water from the top, and now the clay in that small bucket is ready to be reclaimed. If you do not have this inner bucket, then you will have to scoop out the clay from the big bucket, which is more time consuming.

Have fun creating your own clay trap!

the author Trine N. Bentsen is a self-taught ceramic artist and founder of KEO ceramics. She generously shares all her knowledge and secrets to obtaining great glaze results with other pottery enthusiasts on her Instagram (@keo.ceramics) and YouTube channel ( www.youtube.com/@keo.ceramics). She loves teaching and sharing the passion of creating and will be starting online beginner pottery classes in 2023.