The wheels
Electric wheels across three sections of the wheel room, all the same model and all set up the same way, so the one you sit at behaves like the one you sat at last week.
How to throw on the wheel
The inventory
What the studio actually has
Most members find out the studio owns a wall extruder about eight months in, usually by watching somebody else use it. This is the whole list, what each thing is for, what it costs and whether you need a certification first.
29Wheels
248Slab molds
650+Brush-on glazes
150+Underglazes
4Kilns
nearly 10,000Square feet
The honest version
Walk the building instead
The list below is accurate and it is still a list. The studio’s own 360 tour is the same building with nothing left out: seventeen stops, one walking path, and every machine on this page sitting where it actually sits.
It opens full screen on its own page, which is where it belongs: the viewer is close to a megabyte before a single panorama loads. Seventeen stops, one walking path, and it is the same building this page is a list of.
Room by room
Everything a member can put their hands on
Included means it comes with a membership at any level. Anything with a price beside it is charged separately, and anything with a black tag needs something to happen before you use it.
Wheels and throwing
Everything that spins.
A kick wheel
A treadle wheel with no motor, where the speed comes from your leg. Slower, quieter, and a completely different feel from an electric wheel.
How to use a kick wheelA mini wheel
A small wheel for tiny work. Throwing a two inch pot on a full sized wheel is harder than it sounds, and this solves it.
Throwing on a mini wheelBats, banding wheels and chucks
Bats for anything wide or flat, banding wheels for decorating, and chucks for holding an awkward form upside down while you trim it.
Making and using chucksHand building
Slabs, extrusion, texture and reclaim.
Slab rollers
Two rollers that turn a lump of clay into an even sheet in about a minute, which is the difference between one slab and twenty.
Slab rollers and slab moldsThe slab mold room
A room of slab molds, hump and slump, from tiny dishes to serving platters. Every one is catalogued with what it makes, how much clay to start with and how thick to roll.
The Mold RoomA wall extruder
A lever operated extruder that pushes clay through a die to make coils, handles, tubes and hollow forms in one pull.
How to use the wall extruderA pug mill
The machine that mixes and de-airs reclaimed clay and pushes it out ready to use. It is what makes reclaim practical rather than a weekend project.
Pug mills, the pros and consCookie cutters, stamps and texture tools
Shelves of them. Cutters for slabs, roulettes and stamps for texture, and rolling textures for pressing patterns into a fresh slab.
Imprinting textures into claySurface and glaze
The wall, the buckets and everything you put on a pot.
The glaze wall
Brush-on glazes, arranged so you can find one by color rather than by name, with a real fired test tile beside every single one.
The Glaze FinderUnderglazes
Underglazes for drawing, lining and painting. They hold a line and do not move in the firing, which is why most colored work is underglaze under a clear.
How to use underglazeDipping buckets
Seven buckets of dipping glaze for a perfectly even coat in one go. Purple Level Members get six of them included and Black Level Members get all seven.
How to use dipping glazesMason stains
Thirty two colors sold by the twenty five grams for coloring clay and slip. They are paid for before they are weighed, and only the owner or the main hand building instructor weighs one out.
Buy mason stains by the gramWax resist, latex and tape
For keeping glaze off a foot, making a crisp edge, or masking a pattern.
Using resists for effectA spray booth and atomizers
For spraying glaze rather than brushing or dipping it, which is how you get a gradient or an even coat on something too big to dip.
Spraying glazeKilns and firing
What the heat costs and who runs it.
Four kilns
Including a large bell lift kiln for the pieces that do not fit anywhere else. Bisque runs to cone 05 and glaze to cone 5½, which is cone 5 with a twelve minute hold.
What a kiln firing doesThe baby kiln
A small kiln for approved projects, useful when one piece needs a different schedule or cannot wait for a full load. Book it by asking the owner, the general manager or the studio manager. There is no form.
Loading and unloading a kilnRaku firing
Outdoor raku workshops, run as their own events rather than as part of open studio. Raku takes its own certification because it involves fire and tongs.
Get certified for rakuGlaze catchers and kiln cookies
Pre-made discs that sit under a pot and catch a running glaze before it welds the piece to a shelf. Cheap, and they save a shelf that is not.
Making a glaze catcherThe building itself
Shelves, sinks, tables and the things nobody lists.
Member shelves
Your own shelf space, sized by level, from half of a divided shelf up to the biggest private shelf in the building.
What each level includesThe wash pit
A proper clay trap sink, which is the only place clay water goes. A domestic drain does not survive clay.
Cleaning upDrop-off and pick-up tables
Where finished work waits for the kiln and where it comes back to. Work on your own shelf does not get fired, because nobody can tell it apart from work in progress.
How your work movesHeat lamps
Hanging lamps for speeding up drying on simple even forms. They are also the fastest way to crack good work, so they are worth understanding before using.
When to use the heat lampsOutside tables
The only place alcohol inks and Pebeo paints are used, because they are solvent based and never go in a kiln.
Applying alcohol inksA front desk of small things
Tool sets, clippers, epoxy, clay mender, applicator bottles, bumper pads and a bead rack. It runs on trust: once it is paid for, take it.
Helpful pottery items
Said plainly
Five things the studio does not have
Knowing what is not here saves more time than knowing what is, so we say these five outright rather than letting somebody find out at the glaze wall.
Slip casting
The studio does not slip cast and never will. Slab molds are not casting molds, and this is the single most common mix-up in a pottery studio.
Lusters and overglazes
Not stocked. Members who want gold, platinum or mother of pearl bring their own, and they fire at their own low temperature.
Oxides and carbonate washes
Not stocked. Mason stains are, which covers most of what people reach for a wash to do.
Shipping
Nothing the studio sells ships, with one exception: print on demand merchandise, which is drop shipped by the printer.
A reduction kiln
Every firing is oxidation, which is what an electric kiln does. Reduction colors need a fuel kiln and the studio does not have one.
Before you use it
Four certifications, and why each one exists
- Slab rollers and slab molds. A roller under load can be damaged by one careless pass, and a cracked slab mold is not replaceable.
- Dipping glaze. A bucket is a shared resource with a density that has to stay right. One wrong dip wastes it for everyone.
- Glaze and underglaze. The short version of what goes on a pot, how thick, and what has to stay bare.
- Raku. Fire, tongs, and a reduction chamber, outdoors, at night.
One thing worth knowing about open studio
Open Studio Managers keep open studio running, help with clay purchases and hold the line on cleanup. They are deliberately not there to teach pottery, which keeps open studio what it was meant to be. Instruction is what the classes are for.