We all get it dirty together. We all put it back together.
Every visit ends the same way, no matter which side of the studio you were on: your station, your tools, and one more part of the studio. It is five to ten minutes of work, and it is the entire reason this place looks the way it does.
If it is your first time, do not try to read all of this. Tap the side you were working on and follow the list.
Five to ten minutes, start to finish
Three things, every single time
We all make the whole studio messy, including the parts we never stood near. That is not a complaint, it is just how clay works. So everyone does the same three things before they leave.
Clean your station
Your wheel or your table, the floor around it, and every splatter that came off you. Back to how you found it, or better.
Clean or replace your tools
Rinsed at the all-purpose sink and returned to the correct bin. The correct bin, not the nearest one.
Clean one more part of the studio
One job from Option A, or two from Option B, picked from somewhere that actually needs it. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that keeps the studio nice.
This is the open studio checklist too
During open studio there is no instructor on shift, so this page is your checklist. Same three things, same standard, no supervision required. Continued failure to clean up properly ends a membership, and we would very much rather it never came to that.
Follow the list for your side
Tap each step as you finish it. This page remembers what you have ticked off until the end of the day, so you can lock your phone halfway through and pick it back up.
About the rags
There are two laundry baskets at each rag station, one for clean rags and one for dirty. Clean rags come out of the clean basket, dirty rags go straight into the dirty basket, and never the other way around. The stations are by the office and at The Wash Pit.
Please keep it to two rags per person per day. Rinse the one already in your hand and carry on with it instead of grabbing a fresh one every few minutes. It sounds like a small thing, and it is the difference between a manageable laundry pile and a mountain of one.
Tip the water. Keep the slurry.
If you were throwing, this is how your bucket gets emptied. It is the step people get wrong most often, usually with the best of intentions, and it takes about thirty seconds once you have done it once.
Fill your bucket at your station, not at the sink
Everything gets wiped out of your wheel and squeezed into your bucket of throwing water before you walk anywhere. Scraps that are not soggy go into the wet solids barrel instead.
Tip the water off the top, through the sieve
Pour slowly and stop when the slurry starts to move. The water goes through the sieve. The slurry stays in your bucket.
Rinse the sieve and hang it back on its hook
So the next person finds it ready to use instead of finding your afternoon in it.
Set your bucket on the drying cart outside the door
We let the sludge dry out and tap it out later. Leave the bucket there and grab a clean one on your next visit.
Pour the clear-ish water off the top so it runs through the sieve, and stop before the heavy stuff follows it.
Upending the whole bucket, slurry and all, into the sieve. That is the version that clogs everything and leaves a mess for whoever is next.
What gets washed where
Every sink and barrel in the building does exactly one job. Using the wrong one is where drains go to die.
The clay sinks, in The Wash Pit
The all-purpose sink
The pan rinse barrels
Out in the warehouse, just outside The Wash Pit.
Not sure where something goes? The all-purpose sink is almost always the right answer, and the onsite instructor is the rest of the time.
Your “one more thing to clean”
There are twenty-one jobs to choose from, and the honest truth is that a list this long makes people freeze and skip the step. So if you would rather not decide, we can decide for you randomly below!
Not sure what to clean?
Tap the button and we will hand you a job. If that area genuinely does not need it, roll again and take a different one.
Please look for the areas that need it most
Only pick areas that are actually dirty and that nobody else has already done today. A spotless shelf wiped again does nobody any good while the wall behind the wedging table is still wearing the splattered remnants of last Tuesday.
Wipe down one of these
- 1Both the slab rollers, legs included, in the wheel area
- 2The bat rack, including sweeping any fallen clay from below
- 3All three sink faucets, legs, and basins
- 4All the legs and sides of at least three community work tables
Or do two of these
- 1Thoroughly wipe a wall that has been splashed with clay
- 2Thoroughly wipe down at least three community stools
- 3Straighten two shelves of glaze, making sure all of them face forward
- 4Wipe down the complete bat box between the wheels
- 5Scrape off a wedging table and wipe down the legs and sides
- 6Rinse any complete bucket of dirty tools and return it to the wall
- 7Wipe down three different paper towel dispensers
- 8Wipe down any large trash can and lid that is grimy
- 9Wipe down one slab roller, including the wheel, rails, and any other parts
- 10Wipe down the table tops and legs of three tables in the drop-off and pick-up area
- 11Wipe the outside of the wet solids barrel
- 12Wipe the outside of the clay sludge barrel
- 13Wipe the outside of the bone dry clay barrel
- 14Wipe any community equipment or tools that are gathering dust
- 15Wipe down the table top and legs of a game table
- 16Wipe down a sofa that has clay or dust build-up on it
- 17Wipe down other equipment or areas that are not on this list
After the dipping buckets
Dipping glaze is the least forgiving thing in the building to clean up after. It can set hard as a rock if it is not cleaned up the same night, and it is very difficult to remove once it does.
Not certified on dipping glazes yet? Start with the dipping glaze certification, which covers the technique as well as the cleanup.
Molds get put away, not washed
This one surprises people, so it is worth saying plainly.
- We never wash molds. Water just smears clay deep into them, and a washed mold is a mold nobody can use for a long time afterward.
- If a mold needs anything at all, rub it with a dry rag. Most of the time it needs nothing.
- Match the number on the mold to the number on the shelf. Same number, same spot, every time.
A mold in the wrong slot is the same as a missing mold, because the next member looking for it has no way to find it.
Every mold is numbered and every shelf spot is numbered. Put the number back on its number.
Two things that are never okay
Everything else on this page is a standard we hold each other to. These two are rules, because they destroy things that belong to other people.
Store your work on a mold
It ruins your piece, and it takes that mold out of circulation for every other member until you come back for it. This one is strictly prohibited, with no exceptions. Your piece comes off the mold before you leave, and the mold goes back on its numbered spot.
Store your work on a wooden bat
Wood under a damp pot goes moldy and warps, and the bat is finished. We are not trying to be dramatic about a piece of plywood, but they are shared and they are not free.
You pay the replacement cost of the batThe four things people miss most
None of these are hard. They are just the ones that get forgotten at the end, when you have your coat on and your hands are clean.
The threads of glaze bottles
Wipe the threads with a rinsed rag before the lid goes back on. Glaze dried into the threads means that lid never seals properly again, and the bottle is on borrowed time from then on.
Screwing the lid all the way down
Halfway on is the same as off. The glaze dries out, and a glaze somebody was planning a whole piece around is suddenly gone.
The floor around your station
Nearly everyone wipes the table or the wheel beautifully and then walks away from the floor they were standing on the entire time. Look down before you go.
Tools in the right bin
A tool in the wrong bin is a missing tool, and the member who needs it tomorrow has no way to find it. If you are not certain where something lives, ask the onsite instructor. Nobody minds the question.
Let’s keep this the nicest studio on the planet
We all get it dirty together, so we all put it back together. Nobody here is cleaning up after you and you are not cleaning up after anybody else. Everyone does their station, their tools, and one more thing, and the whole place stays somewhere you actually want to spend an afternoon.
Thank you for taking the extra five minutes. It shows, every single day.