My studio is really my dad's garage and wood workshop. I sort of took over after college graduation. Although it isn't technically completely my fault.
My dad made it really easy for me. First he moved aside his tools, then he put in the furnace, he built me some shelves, wired a spot to plug in my kiln, added more shelves, moved more tools so I could stack boxes of clay, built me a table to store more clay under, gave me some cabinet space to store my glaze chemicals. Now he's trying to figure out how to add on to the back of the garage to move my kilns out there so I can work even while my kiln is going...
Really, it's like he doesn't want me to leave.
I appreciate it. If he hadn't done all of that and more, I'd have to find space to rent for a studio since a potter really needs access, somehow, to a kiln, wheel, and space to work in.
I guess you could say that my studio is my dad's workshop first, because even after I leave he'll still be working there, then my studio, then it is also storage for anything that doesn't have a home elsewhere. Tools, wood, supplies, random bits of weirdness placed in odd spots. One of my grandpa's gold fillings is sitting on top of a piece of turned wood, that hasn't quite turned into something yet, on the workbench. Yeah, random bit of weirdness.
These are my kilns. Since they have the same plug I can use the same outlet for them. I can fill both and if I have to, I can fire one one day then the next fire the other simply by switching plugs while I wait for the first to cool. Or the one day, I was getting really close to a deadline and wanted all of the pots that were almost done, I fired two in one day. I slept in our just finished gypsy wagon so I could get up every couple hours to turn up and keep an eye on the one that was firing overnight. It comes in handy to be able to switch them when I have a lot to get done in a short amount of time.
My wheel is a Brent. I have used Brent wheels since the very beginning. The kick wheel I threw my first pot on might have even been a Brent, I'm not sure since that was, gosh, sixteen years ago. I had a Brent wheel in my first pottery classes and in high school, and in college, and at the class I took the year I graduated from college. It was a natural choice for me and now any time I use a different brand it feels funny. Like I'm cheating on all the Brents I have ever used.
The bucket was a gift from a friend and mentor when I was only a few years into my pottery journey. Amy, currently of Pigeon Road Pottery, was trying to prank me in return for my scaring her one night around Halloween. This bucket, along with some other smiley face goodies were sitting by the tire she told me had gone flat on my car. It has been my slop bucket ever since. And always brings a smile into my studio, even when I don't. Of course it has no choice, it's a bucket.
Sometimes it gets crowded in the studio. Especially when my dad has something he needs to work on and his tools are buried behind stacks of my clay and glazes and we have to rearrange everything to get out what he needs. Or when I have a show and I have to move stuff around to get the things I require for my show which are also buried until I need them. We make it work, not always gracefully, but it'll do for now. Well, it'll have to do until I find a studio of my own to clutter up.
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