How long until it's bone-dry?
Drying is physics, not patience: wall thickness and humidity set the clock. Estimate wet → leather-hard → bone-dry for your piece.
Thrown mug ≈ 5-7 mm · handle joins ≈ 10-15 mm · sculptural ≈ 15-25 mm
~45% is the reference baseline; above 55% drying slows fast.
Wet → leather-hard
10 h – 29 h
Leather-hard → bone-dry
2.5 days – 5.7 days
Total to bone-dry
2.9 days – 7.0 days
- · 8mm wall vs the band midpoint: drying scales ~t^1.7 → 0.82x
Bands from Claybench's process-timing reference (stoneware baseline at ~45% RH). Real drying varies with airflow and form — the planner calibrates to your studio's logged conditions.
What actually moves drying time
- Wall thickness dominates. Water leaves through the surface; doubling the wall roughly triples the wait. Handle joins and bases are the thick spots that crack when the rest races ahead.
- Humidity is the multiplier nobody logs. At 75% RH, evaporation runs at roughly half the ~45% baseline — a "two-day" mug becomes a four-day mug in a wet basement studio.
- Plastic is a tool, not a delay. Covering evens out moisture between thick and thin sections — slower, but it's how you keep handles on mugs.
- Bone-dry means room-temperature to the cheek. A cool piece still holds water; firing it wet is how bisque loads explode.
Claybench schedules around real drying windows
Log your studio's humidity and the planner calibrates every deadline to it.