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I just can see one or the other raising an eyebrow reading my QOTW :lol::lol:

 

Others may laugh out loud, yelling YESSSSSS. And maybe there is one or the other saying "Me? Well... Ehm....never say never.....". Still others blush, look quickly to the left and right and ask themselves "how does she know?"

 

I know because I am doing the ransacking quite regularly. Not in normal trash bins of course (that was only written in the title of this QOTW to get your attention), but construction waste bins, skips, dumpsters etc. During the Symposium in Barcelona I found a few things in dumpsters I could use, and some of the Symposium group, mainly Robert and Steve, brought collected construction-waste-a potter-still-can-use almost every day. It's normal. It's us!

 

How about you? Are you or are you not rifling through dumpsters?

 

Happy week to everybody!

 

Evelyne

 

 

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I have been known to scavenge a thing or two from a throw away pile at a friends house or something that is setting next to a trash bin or a random piece of something that I find when walking or ........

 

This summer I had the privilege of helping 3 family members move.  I came away with small treasures from each move!  Yes, most of those treasures have found their way into my little studio.  However it they do not work out as I had planned, back to the trash bin with them!

 

Roberta

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I have never gotten anything for my studio but I did rescue a Victorian side table that was waiting for trash pickup and my husband picked  a new pair of car ramps that were sticking out of the neighbors trash.  We informed both neighbors about our liberations,  one neighbor threw the table away because the legs had water damage.  The other neighbor threw the ramps away because they were a XMas gift he had never used.  It's amazing what people will toss.  Denice

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always.  the stainless steel table, 30 inches deep about 8 feet long came from a pizza chain store that was remodeling.  that was the biggest score.  lots of racks from remodeling chain store bakeries.  their management doesn't care about recycling them through used restaurant suppliers because they have an entire store to run and the rack is a nuisance to them right now. old metal refrigerator racks from a store that sells new appliances to large apartment complexes was a source for a long time.  great drying racks!   so i keep my eyes open at all times.  

 

thrift shops and yard sales are great, too.  usually the things that are left after everyone has bought all the "good" stuff.

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Most of the shelving in my studio are kitchen cupboards that a neighbor pulled out when remodeling and put by the side of the road. They are perfectly sound. Some I left the doors on, others off depending on how wide they opened out. They're awesome and super sturdy.

 

My dad found a dozen Formica tabletops by the side of the road. He took a few and brought me a few. They're bright yellow, which I wouldn't have chosen; but they're sturdy and easy to clean and don't get water damaged.

 

I have many other side-of-the-road items that I've used. In our town, everybody puts stuff they don't want out by the side of the road for free. I do it all the time. So far the only thing I put out that has not been taken was a huge heavy water damaged melamine shelf. When I say heavy, I mean at keast 200 lbs.

 

I'm cleaning out the garage for an upcoming studio show. My husband and I culled our four bookshelves down to three so we could get rid of the one in the garage. Literally hundreds of books that I put out vanished. Everybody who walked past stopped and took a few. I didn't have to take a single thing to the thrift store. It's awesome.

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I nab plastic bags out of the recycle to cover my clay at the classroom. Since I don't have space for my own studio QUITE yet, husband does not really want me picking up all the nice heavy tables/stools/shelves in our neighbor hood and re-purposing them just yet. :rolleyes:

 

Once we get a shed, then we can talk  :D

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it embarrasses my husband. He says," My wife, the Dumpster Diver" I collect copper wire from old appliances, lamps, stoves, etc. 

I have gotten formica table tops,  shelving cabinets from a closing department store, and just cool shapes. I pick up end rolls from newspapers.

Recycling is a good idea.

Marcia

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Yep I've done all of that. When we were finishing our house every evening after the construction guys left I would go out and dig through the pile and pull out drywall, plywood, 2x4s, 2x6s, etc. I am always looking for things that might improve studio life.

 

The thing I do that embarrasses my husband is at restaurants I collect up all the straws and wooden scewers that come with the meal. I just look at him and go... "What? They're just gonna throw them away and straws make excellent holes and the scewers are great for drawing in clay." He just shakes his head and says at least wait until I'm done with my drink next time before you steal the straw. Oops, I swear I thought he was done!

 

T

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Oh yeah...started out with one of those NYC Con Edison wood cable spools, before they were trendy, that became the table in my tenement flat and have always furnished my digs from discards. My speciality in art school was using "found objects" (had to develop some real artistic skill with the work, as opposed to my pieces looking like they were the result of sheer poverty). Today, before I read this post, I scored a couple of 5 gal. duck sauce buckets from the dumpster of a Chinese restaurant and a few pieces of twisted metal something-or-others that will make nice texture tools. But I don't steal milk crates anymore. 

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Long ago, as I was packing up from a show, a gentleman from Knudsen Dairy approached me, presented his business card, and repossessed two of my cherished crates. I'm glad we can buy them now, though I don't think they are as rugged as the originals.

 

I have rescued many usable and re-usable items. People bring me stuff they would rather not throw away. By the time I put things out in the trash, they are truly trashed, with little left to redeem them.

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I am currently using an old 3' cable spool as a table; a wooden pallet where I hang my tools; and shelves from discarded refrigerators.  Do old motel key cards fit the description I have lots of those.  My wedging table was discarded by someone who was giving up pottery.  My son gives me his used banjo and guitar strings to make cutting wires. 

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Sad to say, but I have been forced to start. . . walking by. I have been a hoarder for so many years that I find my shop too crowded to get around in. I have old wooden boxes that came with the house, doors and molding over the rafters, an old car axle that I was keeping to build a kick wheel, bins and tins of all sorts of hardware, and a mess of other crazy things, including the female sweater manikin that hangs next to the bar clamps before you get to the kiln. Yep, been there done that, but not any more!   Oh wow Fall cleanout is coming up, maybe I'll take a walk around the block.

 

 

 

 

best,

Pres 

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Guest JBaymore

I'm in the point in life that, like maybe Mark and Pres, I have stopped acquiring stuff "that might be good some day" in the studio.  Too many years doing that are already behind me. 

 

At the moment, I am working on streamlining my studio space and getting RID of stuff that is not sort of actively used.  Example: I've decided that I will no longer do any workshops out of my own studio... so I'm selling off about 4-5 wheels that I don't need.  Some plaster molds that I no longer use....... going away.  The "too heavy" thicker wood ware boards that are still absolutely perfectly useable.... but not nice and light like my brich ply ones....... so I don't tend to use them....... going.  And so on.

 

If I see something that will fill an IMMEDIATE need...... I would not be above "dumpster diving".... but I am not actively looking (like I used to).

 

However... that being said....... a dumpster full of new-ish insulating firebrick......... I'm all over it  ;) .

 

best,

 

................john

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When I moved into my current house, (28 years ago) the builders had completed 5 out of 34 houses and we were first to move in.  Every night after the builders had gone home, we would walk our domestic rubbish to their skip (their instructions - no collection for a year), and then dive in to see what we could find.  We'd been told by the builders this was OK.  Nails, screws, damaged kitchen units, half-used tubes of sealant etc.  As more houses were finished, we got to know more neighbours at the skip visit.  The builders were quite lazy, and if a stack of bricks fell over, it was too much trouble for them to pick them off the floor, so we were allowed to acquire such items too.  Got about 6 wheelbarrows of sharp sand that had muddy tyre prints in it from a dumper truck that they couldn't/wouldn't use.  Such wastefulness, couldn't not take advantage of it.

 

As for today, well only yesterday we acquired a trailer full of ex roof-timbers from the local surgery who are having their roof repaired.  They've gone to the Scout campsite for use, even if the scrappy stuff only gets burned, it was worthwhile.

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well one day I was eating a little packet of tuna with a spoon. because tuna stinks, i didn't want to put the packet in the inside trash at the studio so I took it directly to the dumpster. A friend saw me walking away from the dumpster with a spoon in hand.  She said "I hope walking away from the dumpster with a spoon does not mean what it looks like".  LOL, no I do not eat out of dumpsters but would not be above grabbing something I thought was useful. 

 

There is a scrap yard near our studio and we all cruise by there looking for interesting found objects.   rakuku

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well one day I was eating a little packet of tuna with a spoon. because tuna stinks, i didn't want to put the packet in the inside trash at the studio so I took it directly to the dumpster. A friend saw me walking away from the dumpster with a spoon in hand.  She said "I hope walking away from the dumpster with a spoon does not mean what it looks like".  LOL, no I do not eat out of dumpsters but would not be above grabbing something I thought was useful. 

 

There is a scrap yard near our studio and we all cruise by there looking for interesting found objects.   rakuku

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well one day I was eating a little packet of tuna with a spoon. because tuna stinks, i didn't want to put the packet in the inside trash at the studio so I took it directly to the dumpster. A friend saw me walking away from the dumpster with a spoon in hand.  She said "I hope walking away from the dumpster with a spoon does not mean what it looks like".  LOL, no I do not eat out of dumpsters but would not be above grabbing something I thought was useful. 

 

There is a scrap yard near our studio and we all cruise by there looking for interesting found objects.   rakuku

 

Peter's dumpster will never have good stuff in it-all of that is in his yard-no need to even think about good stuff from that one. Arcata Scrap well thats another story .

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I guess I fall into the "not collecting anymore" category. I've been trying hard to get rid of stuff & I share the basement /studio with my husband's shop and all the stuff he's collected over the years. I have unfortunately been responsible for cleaning out two houses recently- one an uncle that passed away & the other place for one who moved to assisted living. Not fun. Makes me desperately want to become a minimalist except the rest of the family here won't cooperate. I have to get rid of things "on the sly".

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I am happy to read that I am not the only one who's dumpster diving (I like that expression very much! It's like a compliment...). And Marcia, my husband is always embarrassed too when he is with me when I rummage in dumpsters. At the beginning he was standing a few steps away and looking the other way, but nowadays he's walking fast far away from any dumpster... (giggle). I should change too to the "not collecting category" like a few of you, because my space in the studio is limited, but.... (a big BUT). 

 

I will do a "show us your most precious dumpster diving piece" in a few weeks in the QOTW, so go down, up, out to your studio and take a pic and stay tuned!

 

Evelyne

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