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A few weeks ago I've read in the forum that some of our members change the filter in their respiratory mask only .... once in a blue moon :o

 

This let me to the questions: how often are you cleaning your studio?... changing filters?... are you taking the vacuum cleaner to the floor or are you sweeping it with water?... is your throwing wheel full of scrap for ages, or are you cleaning everything after every throwing session?.... are you - well, you get the picture.

 

Come on, fess up.... :D

 

Have a happy week! We just had a big storm....

 

Evelyne

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If safety, health and hygiene are not paramount in your studio then you are doing something terribly wrong. Here is a small sample of our practice at The Potters Shop & School:

 

We vacuum ( with a certified hepa equipped machine) every day. We mop weekly. Respirator filters are cleaned and disinfected after every use and filters changed according to frequency of use. 

 

Steven

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I'm relatively picky when it comes to the wheel...not so much that I feel like I have to clean it after every use but that I just like the idea of sitting down at the next opportunity to a clean wheel. The floor gets mopped once a week...lots of water and a wet vac follow-up.  Counter tops get wiped after each use.

 

The serious messes come from other things that seem to happen in the studio that aren't part of the making process...packaging, for instance.  I have no idea why I have an aversion to cleaning up after packaging/boxing things up.  At the moment, the studio is a disaster because I have emptied all the cabinets for a serious throwing-out session, but haven't quite gotten to the throwing-out part.

 

Peace,

Paul

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My main throwing wheel has not been cleaned well in years (the top part)-maybe a decade or two-it tends to stay wet most of the time.

The splash pan gets emptied weekly as well as fresh water bowl

my trimming wheel gets cleaned up every day almost.

Floors once a week

 

I decided you quit cleaning the throwing wheel (the Brent plastic top) as its used so often and have saved by now about 1/2 a year of time I figure.

The wheel head is cleaned all the time.

I most likely will clean it every day when this turns into a hobby and I have more spare time.

 

I have an hepa air filtration system when I',m in cleaning mode that really cranks up in my small space

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My workspace is so small that I have to tidy up as I go or I'll gradually be edged out of the door.

 

I usually mop and wipe down when I've finished.........don't want that sinking feeling like you get first thing in the morning when you walk into the kitchen and last night's dishes are still there waiting to be washed up.

 

Sally

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I think I fall somewhere in the middle.

 

I promptly clean up serious messes because I hate scrubbing and picking at dried hunks of clay. I rinse off my tools and squeeze my sponges, put the splash pan into my bucket and clean it out each time I throw. When I glaze, I rinse out my brushes and squeeze them into a nice shape. 

 

However, I'm followed everywhere I go by clutter. So, the brushes are clean but they'll sit on the table where I left them to dry. The sponges too. The splash pan sits on top of the clean wheel head. 

I sweep as often as I can but I won't do it when my son is in the studio. I recently bought a mop that has a little tank for squirting water ahead and that has been working great to wet clean the cement floors. 

My biggest mess of all is of course that the studio is also my garage and houses my washer and dryer and rolling hamper. The personal stuff in the garage by far creates the most mess. My desk in the house where I package my orders to ship is always an avalanche of papers, tools, shipping supplies and camera equipment. I clear it off frequently but in the morning I find the junk has crept over the formerly clean surfaces again. 

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I recycle all trimmings into a bucket. When that is full I dry the slurry on large plaster slabs. I sweep regularly and vacuum with a shop vac. I mop as well but not as often. I work in complete cycles usually. Foil saggar pots...bisqe and apply and fire. Raku slabs are the same. Obvert and ceramic saggars each have their cycles. I use my large work table for the foil and the raku preparation and the are clean in between.

My cats spend time in the studio so I don't like to have it dusty for them..as well as for me.I do find an occasional dead lizard that got trapped in a bucket and could not escape. Always a starling surprise.

 

Marcia

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I have never found a lizard in my bucket but I see them out of the corner of my eye,  my dog likes to catch them and tear them up.  I am pretty much like everyone else when it comes to cleaning,  scraps  and brushes get cleaned daily  and floors get vacuumed and mopped once a week. I do a more thorough cleaning before I mix glazes. Denice

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My studio is in the corner of my workshop that I do everything in from wood work, leather work to car repairs. The concrete floor is impossible to keep clean so I don't worry to much  I do vacuum or sweep the floors occasionally but find that the bare concrete will be dusty no matter what I do.When I clean the floors I open the double garage doors and have 2 big fans running to get the dust out. The finished product will go out to the sales studio to keep clean.  I clean the wheel, tray,table and tools  at the end of the day.

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Concrete floors eat through mops, I find a quick spray of water with a hose across the floor and then brush it all into a puddle works for me. Shovel the big bits then a quick mop over the floor to get the rest. Have to make sure nothing is on the floor that can't get slightly damp.

 

Where can I find the cleaning fairy on etsy? I could do with one of them.

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I look forward to the day when my only responsibility in life is mopping the floor. I do it every night; takes less than 10 minutes. So in a week, I spend about an hour cleaning the ~1000 sq ft floor.

 

It might be a "better" use of time to do it once a week but I find it to be a good part of winding down for the night.

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But surely factories don't make cleaning fairies?  They'd have to be hand-made.

 

Flippancy aside......  At home in my greenhouse (studio) I have paving slabs for floor with a double-thick row down the middle of anti-fatigue mats (love them) and try very hard to not drop/splash anything.  I work on boards on the slatted staging and damp wipe every time before I walk out and return to the house.

 

At the centre.....  That's another issue, we wet wipe tables at the end of every session, and the centre are responsible for the floor.  Although we do mop (wet towels) if we've spilled anything, they are supposed to mop once a week.  I think they do, as although it never seems clean on our days, it must get done at some point.

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Pretty fastidious, I am.

 

I use wet vac, wet mop, & respirator mask, w/HEPA filters, appropriate to the job. I clean tools immediately & whatever surfaces were in use after each session. Wet or dry clay in the splash pan may sit a while because I use every grain of the stuff and it's easier to clean when there is more of it. The flooring is covered with a sheet roll of truck bed liner, which was a smart move on my part.

 

I function best with in a well organized space with labeled materials--the old "a place for everything and everything in its place". With my cognitive deficits, all I have to do is misplace my fettling knife and not find it after ransacking every room in the house and I can come unglued. If I break bad and just "let everything go" and get behind...then it could cause a psychotic break (not really) and I will end up avoiding the place for weeks. So, cleaning properly and organization, beyond being viewed as a good health practice, is a great containment strategy for somebody whose mind spins off like curlicues on fire. Doing the chores keeps me going, in the sense that if I don't make a mess and leave it there, I am ten times more likely to return to the studio faster and more frequently and DO SOMETHING.  

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No robots yet but it is interesting to note the same PID equations that can be used to control kiln temperature can also be used for controlling robot movements. It is the same really, here is my set-point now move to it  :D

 

I would love an automatic glaze weight robot so I could ask for any grams of ingredients and it would dispense it in seconds. Testing would take no time at all!

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I have something close to a cleaning fairy.  

 

My daughter is at the age, where she actually enjoys cleaning.  She constantly asks to mop in the studio.  The thing is, it's generally not dirty, but I let her go at it anyway.  

 

She is also my trimming scrap collector.  She hangs out, while I'm trimming, just to collect the bits, and throw them in my reclaim bin for me.  

 

Like ronfire, my studio, isn't just for clay work.  It's my general purpose workshop.  I have an adjustable drawing table, and even a photo enlarger.  

 

I've stripped and repainted/ restained/ reglazed numerous windows in that space.

 

Things get a bit messy, when I'm doing the various projects, and organization goes out the window.  But I clean up well in between.  Luckily, a couple years ago, my wife bought me some storage shelves for a gift.  Before that, my work table double as my storage space.  That was a bit frustrating...

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Think I'll train my youngest Grand Daughter (almost 2 years old). I've started with vocabulary - when she asks "what's there?", pointing to the door to the bedroom that's my studio - "Grandma's special room" ("Na'ma's room"). Why didn't I just say 'studio'? That's because it always feels a bit pretentious when I call it that, given my stage of learning! However, thinking about it, I love that description because that's how I feel about it, it is special (for a 2 year old swop special for 'dangerous'). She's nailed "Na'ma's pots" when scrolling through photos on my phone - looking for videos of herself (she's obsessed by these!?).

 

We've had a look round, with her in my arms (daren't put her down to walk! If you've had experience of a not quite 2 year old, you'll get this). I can see her taking it all in ..... After a short while she's staring wide-eyed at the tools on my wheel - one word came back at me - "Dirty" - haven't found anything in the training books about how to develop this into a love of cleaning - any tips Benzine?

 

Once I can face the mess she'll get into, I'll get her into clay (PlayDoh at the kitchen table is as far as we've got). Hopefully she'll have a little creative streak in her and I can look forward to shared studio time in the years to come!

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