Studio Update: New Shelves

For many years my studio has been populated with odd bits of second-hand furniture and shelves. Building up a studio from scratch often means adapting items you already have. I've always re-used and re-purposed old pieces of furniture that were 'down-graded' from the house and given them a new lease of life in the pottery. And when I needed something extra, I looked in second-hand shops for something to fill a gap.

The trouble with second-hand items though is while it might be cheaper than buying new, they don't always maximise the space. And my new studio - although bigger than the last one - somehow wasn't working out well using my existing kit; I was constantly tripping over stacks of stuff on the floor, whilst there was loads of unused space around the walls.

So I decided to get myself some new shelves. I needed tall, heavy-duty shelving that could withstand quite a lot of weight. I've never been keen on drilling holes into brickwork and didn't feel up to the challenge of designing a whole wall of twin-slot bracket shelving (way too daunting!) So I chose a brand new, self-standing, easy-to-assemble and adjustable metal shelf unit instead - delivered to my door.

It slotted (fairly) easily together and took me half a day with a mallet to bang all the pieces into place. It has five shelf boards (unfortunately chip) which I painted with a few coats of emulsion to seal them and make them more waterproof - a must in a pottery. I would have preferred real wood, but no where seemed to offer it.

As you can see in the photos, I've managed to get quite a lot of stuff onto these shelves with some room for more in the future (weight permitting). The tricky part was deciding where to place the height of each shelf as the 'adjustability' was only before assembly (once hammered in, there's no going back!) So I had to carefully plan where items would go so everything would fit in the best possible way. As a last minute brainwave I chose to fix the bottom shelf quite high off the ground allowing me to slide some heavy buckets underneath - and I'm so glad I did!

So far I'm very pleased with them, they seem fairly solid and I quite like the way they look too - which always helps!

Storage Jars - How To Make Flat Lids

At the moment life is getting in the way of making pots. This happens quite frequently of course: there’s always something popping up in life to interrupt potting plans. Recently it’s building work that’s causing disruption. We discovered the outside wall directly above my studio space was in danger of falling over in the next bad storm. And bearing in mind there’s been some pretty stormy, rainy and windy weather recently, we decided we’d better get it fixed pronto! All very boring, disruptive, noisy, dusty and stressful etc. And since it’s happening directly over my head, I’m having trouble concentrating on making pots.

However, in between the drilling and hammering and general crash of masonry falling around me, I’ve managed to do some reclaiming of clay at least and even made a few pots. As you can see in the photos, I’ve made some storage jars in the same style as my mustard pots. They have a simple cylinder design with a small ‘shelf’ area for the lid to sit on and little cut-out holes for a spoon.

The lids are thrown on the wheel from a small lump of clay. They’re made ‘right-way-up’ with the knobs included, which is a bit like making the opposite of a bowl. Instead of making a hole in the centre of the clay, you press down on the edge of the lump to create a flat lid around a central blob, which is shaped to become the knob. I’ve made this little diagram below to illustrate.

As long as you get the amount of clay right for your pot and you measure accurately when throwing, this is a very efficient design. No clay is wasted and it requires only a small amount of ‘clean-up’ when leatherhard: just a wipe over the base with a damp sponge. The holes have to be cut at the optimum time: the clay can’t be too soft or too hard or they won’t be nice and crisp. I used to use a round looped tool to make them but this time I discovered my small cookie cutter is the perfect size.

I’ve always liked storage jars, especially with lids and holes like these! And there’s something very satisfying about getting a lid to fit snugly onto a pot. Anyway, these pots are drying now and waiting to be bisque fired. In the meantime I’m hoping the building work will be over soon so I can get back to normal potting.

Turning Bowls: Foot Rings vs Flat Bases.

For a while now I’ve been making a style of bowl that didn’t require a foot ring. Hopefully you can tell in the pictures above that my sugar bowls, drizzle bowls and salt-and-pepper bowls are all turned completely flat at the base. Because of their shallow shape, these bowls already have a low centre of gravity and don’t need the stability of a foot ring, so I chose a flat base to complement this style and give them clean, simple lines. Flat bases also have advantages in the making process since they’re much quicker to turn and less wasteful of clay.

Sometimes though a style of pot just cries out for a nice bit of fancy footwear! So in a recent commission of bowls I’ve chosen a traditional-style deep foot ring to go with the deeper shape of the bowl. The photo above shows a pot turned upside down on the wheel ready for turning a foot ring.

In the photo above you can see the same bowls freshly turned with foot rings. I always leave turned pots to dry upside down: this airs the bases so the whole pot can dry out more evenly which helps minimise the risk of cracks appearing.

In the photo above you can see a smaller bowl. This was made with a bit of ‘left over’ clay at the end of the throwing session. I made this bowl with a steeper angle so when I came to turn it I decided to make a very narrow deep foot ring. I think it makes a very pretty silhouette – so I might make a small batch of these. In the last photo below you can see my pottery seal: just to prove I made them!

Special Delivery

I’m a bit over-excited at the moment. A huge lorry arrived outside the house on Friday morning and left behind this big parcel. I unwrapped it and look what was inside…

A lovely new Shimpo wheel! I’m so pleased with it. It’s a Shimpo Whisper RK3D and I’m so chuffed. Within minutes it was out of the box and set up in the corner of my studio. Then I decided to give my workspace a good clean and re-arrange everything to accommodate my new toy. So here’s a picture of my nice clean workroom…

Yesterday I tried out my new wheel for the first time. I decided to throw a few small bowls just to get used to things. And for the first time in absolutely years I had trouble centering. Two bowls had to go in the reclaim. Now at first I put this down to a) getting used to a new wheel, and b) being over-excited. But two bowls…? I'm used to using different wheels at the drop of a hat without losing a pot. So something wasn’t right. I found a forum on the Internet that suggested if you know it isn’t you who’s the problem then check the wheel head is level. I checked. I got my spirit level out and realized my studio floor is so bumpy the wheel head was sloping all over the place!

So I spent a good half an hour re-adjusting the re-adjustable foot on the wheel and putting pieces of cardboard under the others to get it right. The forum also had a little trick to test if the wheel is running true. Put a pencil with an absolutely flat base up-ended in the very centre of your wheel and spin, increasing the speed. If the wheel is level it will stay upright even at full speed. I tried this with a flat-based brush. At first it flew off the wheel even at slow speed. After lots of fiddling with cardboard it now stays upright. So hopefully I’ve fixed the problem!

Anyway, not all the bowls went in the reclaim; I managed to make three little bowls on my first throw despite the centering issue - and here’s one of them. I’ve added a lip as you can see, and I’ll be turning them soon when they’re dry enough. So I should find out in a day or two how I get on with turning on my new wheel! Still over-excited by the way…