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Bad Habits You Would Like To Break.


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All too often when working in studios by ourselves with no one else around, we get poor habits while working. Maybe it is something we have had for years, or something we just picked up within the last few years. A few of mine. . .

 

  • wiping my hands on my pants instead of a towel or rag while throwing.
  • waiting too long to clean the wheel up, everything is crusty, and so has to be soaked down to soften before cleaning.
  • Doing the same with the floor.
  • Not putting tools away once I use them, either that or developing a better tool organization system.

These are just a few of mine I have noticed lately, what are yours?

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Ditto on pretty much everything you said Pres, though I don't wipe my hands on my pants.

 

My general "organizational" system is naturally chaotic, you should see my desk in my classroom.  I call it the "Sedimentary System".  Everything is in a chronological order, based on when it got placed in the pile.  Need something from a couple months ago, it's towards the bottom of the pile; a couple days ago, towards the top.

 

In the case of my desk/ classroom and studio, I usually end up doing a big "purge" every so often.  That usually corresponds to the point that I get fed up with looking at it.

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Mixing very small quantities of slip, oxide, glaze etc. for decorating and leaving them in small dish without labelling - sure I'll remember what they are. 2/3 days later looking quizzically at the same mixture wondering exactly what it was!

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I clean my wheel head and tools after every use. I don't mop the floor often enough, I am doing it about once a month as needed right now. I clean my wheel pan(large skutt pan) and change my water once a week. I keep a pretty tidy workshop because its in the garage. What is interesting is seeing people who have potted for a lifetime studio and literally the walls are the color of the clay they use. I can't ever imagine myself letting it go that far.

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In addition to everything Pres said, I have a terrible habit of leaving my sponges in the slip bucket.

 

You and every potter ever.  Before I add my full classroom slip bucket to the reclaim clay bin, I do a sponge search.  The sponges honestly aren't too bad to find, it's pieces of chamois that are tough.  Once they are saturated with the slip, they feel like small strips of scrap clay.

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I have a few of the above mentioned habits but my worse one being unable to throw away unused items.  I think I'm going to find a use for it again and usually I do unfortunately.  The other day my husband needed some metal screen, I thought I had thrown one away 8 years ago.  I checked my shop it was still there taking up space.  I think I'll do some clearing out today.     Denice

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Denice,

 

I think artists are naturally kind of packrats.  It might originate, in college, when you have to live on a tight budget and you never know when you might need some scrap material for a project.

 

Art teachers are even worse.  We have that same instinct to keep potentially useful materials, like other artists, but then also know that their budget could be cut at any moment, meaning that we may have to make due with whatever we have.

 

This past Spring I (And by "I" I mean a student helper) cleaned out my supply closet.  It was full of three or four instructor's worth of stuff.  We found things in there, that predate the building.  I "liberated" quite a bit of materials .  You can only kid yourself so long in regards to, "I could maybe use that someday...".

A funny bit about cleaning out the closet, I had three or four prepackaged, probably pretty costly at one time, Art History sets.  They consisted of a record, a cassette, and an ordered slide carousel.  My guess is, you went through the slides as the record played music for ambiance and the cassette described the artwork.  It was like a virtual museum tour.  Anyway, after finding the sets, I had to explain to my student helper what slides were.  I ended up tossing most the sets.  I kept a few slides for some darkroom special effects, and gave the records to the student, which she melted to make bowls for her graduation party.  Wasn't much point in keeping them, as I can look up any artwork on Google, and stream it to my digital projector...

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I'm clearing out the studio after 23 yrs. because I need a new floor. What a lot of stuff & what can I toss? It all needs washing too. The press molds take up a lot of room & are needed. My basement space is 150 sq.ft. With 7 shelves, 2 wheels & work station. I' pretty good at keeping the floor & wheels & tools clean as I hate to start work with a dirty space. The things not used all the time collect dust big time. Maybe I'll go shopping today instead.

Joy

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my studio is clean.  that is the problem. I spend time keeping it clean.  now I have to make a mess of some area or other.  as I said once, I am a Pro-crastinator, not and amateur-crastinator.

 

I did once rent space in a studio that was so dusty that anyone walking in created a cloud.  I did not go back after the first month.

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