My Studio

y Studio

My pottery studio is located next to my home in the middle of

100

res of farmland in rural Stanly County. It is luxurious by some

andards

(heat and A/C, adequate storage and work surfaces, running

water in most

seasons) and lacking by some others (no bathroom or

refrigerator. It has

two important qualities that I insisted on when we

designed it – a view of my

back yard from the pottery wheel and a

covered porch for Raku firing. I

have since added a few additional

important features – a rocking chair to

think in and a sleeping spot for

the studio dog.

Designing the studio took a lot of study, and I enjoyed visiting

other

potter’s studios to get ideas and see what was important to

them. Pottery

making is a combination of a creative process and a

manufacturing process.

There has to be enough flexibility to allow

creativity and variation among the

pieces as the potter improves the

designs and switches from one style to

another. But there also has to

be enough organization to allow efficiency,

minimizing movement

among the various steps of the process.

Since I do all the work myself, the design did not have to allow for

multiple people performing multiple steps. So some of the same

principles of

kitchen design

ere

used. However, what you will find in

almost every

pottery studio that a kitchen lacks is a ware cart – a rack

of adjustable

shelves on wheels that allow the various pieces to be

moved around the

studio from workstation to workstation.

One other thing my studio lacks is a retail shop. I am not close enough

any major thoroughfares or pottery areas to get a lot of retail traffic.

So it is

only a working studio, with occasional friends dropping by to

see what is

going on.

Electric Kiln

Raku Porch

Drying Rack

Glazing Bench

Rocking Chair

Ware Cart