Setting up a Home Pottery Studio
So you’ve got your hands on some clay and can’t get enough of it? Time to set yourself up a home studio! Now this can feel pretty overwhelming at first. Pottery is a messy hobby that can take up a lot of space, and it can get pretty expensive too. However you don’t need a huge, professional studio to start getting messy with clay. I have been tweaking my home set up for the past 18 months so here are my tips for starting your journey into creating pottery in your own home.
SPACE
One of the first things you will need is somewhere to work. Ideally this would be separate from your main living area due to the mess caused from working with clay. An enclosed garage space or shed would be ideal, but many potters (including myself) work under verandahs or carports that are not fully enclosed. Some potters convert spare bedrooms to pottery studios, some work out of their laundry, or even a spare bathroom! The main thing you are looking for here is a bit of open space with easy to clean surfaces.
FLOORING
Clay is messy! Your floor and parts of your walls will most definitely end up covered in clay, and you need to be able to wet wash these areas easily to avoid clay dust building up. For this reason your ideal flooring would be sealed concrete, tiles, or some kind of laminate flooring. I personally have laid laminate hybrid flooring from my local hardware store over my unsealed concrete floor and it works a treat.
TABLE/WORKBENCH
This could be an old kitchen table, a workbench from a hardware store, a plastic trestle table, or even the top of your washing machine! The ideal surface is semi-porous and smooth. I have an old kitchen table covered with a sheet of MDF, which I have found to be my favourite surface to wedge and work on. So no matter what surface you find, you can cover this with pieces of MDF or plywood from your local hardware store. If you will need to move your work around often then make these sheets of wood quite small so you can pick them up and move your pieces around as required.
THE WHEEL
You need to decide from the start whether you would like to get into wheel throwing, or if hand building will be your focus for now. Your space might determine this for you if you do not have space for a wheel, or if purchasing a wheel is outside of your budget right now. If you do choose to purchase a wheel you will need space to put this. You will need to have access to a power socket, space for a stool, and some clear space around the wheel so you are able to clean up any splashes and rogue clay trimmings.
SHELVING
You are going to need somewhere to store all your work! I assure you, you can never have enough shelving. I recommend some basic shelving from your local hardware store, although you could also use an old bookcase, rolling storage, or clear out some space in a spare wardrobe.
TOOLS/MATERIALS
TOOLS
There are SO MANY clay tools out there that you can buy! Try not to get too overwhelmed if you are just getting started. Here’s the basics that you will need. You should be able to pick up most of these in a beginner pottery tool kit at your local pottery store.
Various sponges
A wire
A wooden rib and a rubber kidney
Some basic trimming tools (if working on the wheel)
A needle tool
A few buckets
A rolling pin (if hand building)
MATERIALS
Well obviously, you’re going to need some clay. Which clay you pick up will depends on many factors including the look you are going for and whether you are hand building or wheel throwing. It will also depend on what is available in your local area and if you require your work to be food safe. I recommend starting with a fairly basic, low-cost and versatile mid-fire clay while you figure out exactly what your style is going to be. I have been using Clayworks Cone 6 white clay, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with some different coloured clays very soon.
When it comes to glazes, there so many commercial glazes and underglazes available in a wide variety of colours, and this is where you are going to want to start. They also come in small containers and will not take up too much space. It’s a great way to experiment with different colours, styles and effects before you launch into making your own glazes. Amaco Brent, Crysanthos and Spectrum are all great brands to start with.
WATER
You don’t need access to running water inside your studio, but you do need to be able to bring buckets of water in and out of the area. Water needs to be carefully handled when working with clay. The main thing to remember is: do NOT pour dirty clay water down your sink! You will clog your pipes and end up with a hefty plumbing bill.
The best option as a beginner is to work with a three bucket system. This basically means you have three large buckets filled with varying levels of dirty clay water. There’s a few ways this can work, but here’s how I do it.
Grab three big buckets, fill one about halfway with clean water and use this to throw, wash your tools and clean up. Pour this dirty water into your second bucket. The next day, the clay will have settled in the bottom and you can pour the clean water off the top into your original bucket to use in the same way. You can then pour the dirty clay water into your third bucket. Keep working in this way, continuing to pour clean water into your working bucket, and dirty water into the dirty water bucket. When the dirty water bucket is totally full of clay sediment then you can recycle it!
CLAY DUST
One of the most important things you need to understand when starting to work with clay is that clay dust can be extremely harmful to your lungs. Don’t panic though, when the clay is wet it is completely safe. This means you need to keep your studio clean! Now, this might not come easy to some people (it definitely doesn’t for me) but hopefully the risk of serious illness gives you the kick up the butt you need. You need to mop the floor regularly, clean all your surfaces using water and clean up your trimmings before they get too dry. It’s also a good idea to invest in a proper respirator mask so that when you do have to work with clay dust, for example when you give the studio a good, deep clean, you are kept totally safe.
There are also other safety measures to consider, such as wearing an appropriate mask when mixing glazes or working with gold lustre. If you delve into these territories make sure you are doing your research around safety precautions.
KILN
You might be thinking, yeah but where do I put my kiln?! Well, I am 18 months into my pottery journey and I still don’t have my own kiln. Here in Australia second hand kilns are fairly hard to come by and a brand new kiln was out of my budget for a long time. Luckily I have had access to a kiln at my local pottery supply shop where I pay to have my work fired for me. If you can access a service like this I highly recommend you do so, until you are financially able to invest in a kiln of your own.
Once you have your own kiln, you will of course need a space to put this. Mine will be installed in my undercover carport, but lots of people have kilns in detached sheds or basements (venting will be required for this). I am not a kiln expert so I will link a blog post here by Kara Leigh Ford about installing a kiln at home.
Well, I hope this post helped you if you are considering setting up a home pottery studio! It’s a bit more difficult than some other hobbies but I assure you it will be worth it. Pottery is such a fun and rewarding hobby and who knows, it might become your next business!
Happy potting!