The Reclaim Barrel

At a ceramics studio in Decatur, Georgia, potter Ellen Marsh keeps a five-gallon bucket by her wheel she calls "the reclaim barrel." It's where failed pots go — cracked bowls, lopsided mugs, vessels that collapsed under their own weight. Most potters toss their failures in the trash. Ellen drops them in water. She submerges the broken pieces for days until they dissolve back into soft, workable clay.…