Pottery Studio Tour: Inside My Muddy Second Home

   This location of The Pottery Studio opened in February of 2021. I was in the very first class they offered, ready to get messy and learn all I could!

   Since then, I have been a member of the studio with my own shelf and 24/7 access to the community space with a door code. A lot has changed since they first opened, this is a look inside the studio as it is today.

 

   Member's pay $130 a month for the rental of their shelf. The perks of membership include 24/7 access as well as kiln services. The studio has about 20 Shimpo Whisper Wheels in the center and two large plaster topped tables for wedging clay.

   Since I was one of the early members I got first choice of shelves and I love how close mine is to the wedging tables plus it's on the cap end of an aisle and at eye level. Also, the trunk of my car is usually full of boxes, my main tool box, and anything that won't fit on my shelf when it's full of pots!

   

   There is a small supply store for clays, tools, underglazes, and bits for building lamps or teapots. I've been using B-Mix clay most frequently but just bought a bag of White 27 which has a lower shrinkage rate after firing.

     

   There are two main kiln areas, the shelves to the right are where members and students put their pieces ready to go to bisque firing. When the kilns are unloaded onto the shelves all of the naked pieces look the same, it's like a bizarre game of Where's Waldo. 

   

   After pieces come out of the bisque kiln and have their bottoms waxed, to help glaze wipe off easily and prevent them from sticking to kiln shelves, they come to the glazing station. There are test tiles of light to dark clays in each color though you never really know exactly how something will turn out. 

 

   A power drill with a mixing paddle stays in a bucket of water and it used to mix the glazes before dipping pieces. There is a digital scale and iPad system that logs in with our door code and prints out a ticket of the weight and price of the piece ready for firing. Currently, we pay $1.25 per pound for firing. 

     

   Pieces ready for final firing go with their ticket to the shelves by the Cone 10 gas kilns. They sit on top of cookies, small round clay slabs used as coasters, to protect the shelves from any glaze that might drip onto the shelves. The kilns are constantly being emptied and reloaded, the process takes about a week for firing, cooling down, and unloading.

   When pots are fresh from the kiln and still cooling they make tiny twinkling sounds as their new glass coatings settle and crackle, that's one of my favorite parts of the whole process. This is a time when studio members chat most freely, congratulating each other on their successes and asking what glazes made which effects. The kiln gods can be cruel, and also kind!