A Clean Studio!

I am not naturally tidy. I have a habit of allowing chaos to take over my workspace - until I end up spending more time looking for things (usually a clean, flat surface!) than actually working. It's not a good way to run a ceramic studio, though, so part of this weekend was spent restoring my studio to working order.

And since it was finally suitable for company, I took some pictures.



My studio is a converted dining room about 10 x 14. The nice thing about using that room was that it was easy to run water and install a sink. (The downside was that the walls were wainscoted, which made installing cabinets harder.)

The counter beside the sink is where I do most of my moldmaking. It's also where I pour greenware, though not at the same time. In this picture I have greenware to the right drying, and a master mold and my mold boards closer to the sink. I boxed up the master there, but I took it outside to pour the plaster so I didn't risk contaminating the clay. Normally when I am making molds, everything else gets put away and that is all I do for a few days.



These are the two kilns - the larger Skutt 614 and the smaller AIM 88. The molds on the floor to the right of the kilns are drying.



This is my painting and sculpting station. It's usually the messiest part of the room. The white box under the desk is a dorm fridge. I use it to keep my in-progress sculptures cool. I learned the hard way that the kilns warm the room enough to melt Chavant clays!



Since I have a lot of projects underway at the moment, I brought a card table in to create a temporary staging area. Each bisque is sitting on top of a plastic folder of reference materials for its color and pattern. The cabinet beside the table is an old flat file from my graphic design days. The drawers are the perfect height for a single layer of underglaze bottles. They are also a good size to hold extra kiln furniture.

So this is what you'd see if you dropped in to visit - and told me ahead of time. I'm not sure I'm willing to post what it might look like if you arrived without warning!