EXTREMELY Important Article About Dust In The Studio

[Marcia Selsor]

As mark says, as youngsters , we were probably a bit too lax with the masks. No masks mixing clay. That was in the 60s. I wear one now when dry mixing for my Soldner mixer.

I keep my studio clean too. Sweep up after getting anything on the floor. Mop regularly. If I didn't I would be tracking footprints into my laundry room and then the kitchen.

Its my new setup. 

Marcia

[Rex Johnson]

I guess me being the outdoor studio guy, I'm lucky.  I can just hose the whole place out...

but I do the same with my garage twice a year when the dust and flotsom just gets on my nerves.

Cleanfreak

[High Bridge Pottery]

@JBaymore  Are they doing similar activities in point E and point H? They both say sculpting. It seems to me like point H may be because they sanded a plaster mould,  didn't clean up and then brought the dust up the next day sculpting.

[LeeU]

So...the good news is I did not, nor will I have, a long term career in clay. And it is a tiny home studio with extremely low volume/production, and I am not mixing anything or fooling with plaster. I am over 70 and plan to live to be 100, but am willing to back pedal on that for quality of life issues.  As such, I will stop sanding the sharp edges of things, especially lots of thin pendants, even with my respirator, and use a damp sponge-no biggie.  The bad news (for me) is.....none, at the moment, that I can tell from carefully reading all the comments. Important topic.  Me-I wet mop & clean every time I use the studio-I can go barefoot and leave with clean feet. 

[Rae Reich]

I, too, have a question about the definition of "leather hard". To me, it means leather-like in that it's still a little flexible and still damp enough that sanding is impractical and produces lumps, not dust. So, "sanding of leather hard clay" - not possible.

Sweeping up the trimmings, though - possibly.  Lots of trimmings. 

[Guest JBaymore]

On ‎9‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 9:37 PM, neilestrick said:

I have to wonder if the sculpting process (H) includes sweeping those clay bits into piles on the table, and/or scooping them into the trash or slop buckets, or it it's literally just the process of cutting clay off with a loop tool. Any sort of sweeping motion, even just brushing the carvings into a pile on a table top, would likely kick up fine particles

It has been a while since I talked to him... so I don't remember his answers precisely, but this is the first thing I thought of.   People tend to let trimmings pile up....and because of the thin cross sections... they dry out fast.  If they are not cleaned up regularly in a "working session" they likely have become well less than leather hard and also lots of dry stuff.  Then if they are "swept up"...... by any means (brushed with hands, shoved with putty knife, etc.) ....... they will get a good "poof" into the air. 

As I remember, I asked about this and he did not have that detailed an accounting of the activity.  So without the information.... safest to assume that WAS done. 

best,

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

[Guest JBaymore]

On ‎9‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 9:18 PM, Tyler Miller said:

@JBaymore

Here's my hypothesis, please share with Dr Goldberg if you have a chance.  It's water droplets, from human breathing.  You'll note that the article does say that the equipment used cannot distinguish between the two--and counts liquid as particulates.  Perhaps someone breathing more directly at the equipment, perhaps more people (he only said usually there was one), or perhaps an individual very nervous about trimming (like I used to be).

The mixing plaster and sanding from the mould making are known dusty activities and do provide a pattern on the equipment of particles doing the Brownian motion thing.  I was using it as a template for how dust would look on a such a test.  Because that  w i l l generate dust.  That's how it will look.

I'd happily be wrong, and I'll donate $20 to a charity of your choice if I am, but I'm willing to bet it's water droplets that would disperse more quickly than the known dusty activity of plaster mixing.

Interesting hypothesis, Tyler.  I likely will get back to him with a lot of the questions people are asking as a "follow up". So I will run it by him.

best,

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

[LAPurkis Pottery]

I wet mop everyday in the studio and all equipment is cleaned after each use. Once a month I complete a serious clean. I like to work in a clean space but more importantly is that my studio is in my basement and I am very aware of the need to keep this area as dust free as possible. I teach Ceramics at a high school and we follow the same procedure. Last year I took a class at a local studio and the other potters were surprised that I followed this cleaning ritual.

[MFP]

John,

I did not read all the replies....when I clicked the link to the article provided in your post.....malwarebytes blocked it due to a Trojan virus

[Min]

3 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

Original post was nearly two years ago. Looks like the domain has expired, and/or may have been taken over by 'squatters'.  

Not sure if this is the same article - but here's one by the same author, on the same topic, that's still available:  https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramic-art-and-artists/ceramic-artists/techno-file-studio-dust/#

 

@Rockhopper, thanks for posting the link to the CM article from Mark Goldberg. I don't know if it's the same article but the gist of it seems to follow what I remember of the original link John posted. I'm going to add an addendum to John's post linking this article.