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Your Dream Studio?


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Say like you just won the "anything art-related you want" lottery, and you get to set up your own custom studio--spare no expense! ^_^ What would you put in it? On the outside of it?

 

I'd get a fatty gas car kiln like the one from my old alma mater. That thing was a beast and reduced like a dream! I'd also get a front-loading Paragon Dragon for heavy bisque loads and big sculptures--easier on the back, and I like electric vs gas for bisque. I'd also get a long, skinny kiln for porcelain canvas loads, and a couple digital "EZ-Bake Jr." kilns for testing. I'd have a giant damp box, a de-airing pugger, a dozen Shimpo VL Whispers, a centering arm, a Griffin Grip, a bajillion Dolan trimmers, Mud Tools, Troy Bungart ribs and brushes, underglaze coming out of my ears, and a state-of-the-art GLAZE MIXING ROOM! ^_^ Dang, I miss the one from my uni... I wanna go hog-wild again with recipes! Oh, and SINKS. Good sinks with augers to clear out the muck that might get stuck down there...

 

Outside, I'd have a great set-up for pit and saggar firing, and a couple raku kilns, just for fun. I'd also get custom metal work to decorate my fence with GUINEA PEEEEEGS! ^_^

 

I'm prolly forgetting something. I usually do. :D

 

What would you guys get if you could afford anything in your studio?

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i would go to seagrove, nc and politely ask ben owens III to get out of my new studio.  you can see his fabulous building in a book about setting up a studio.  lots of other great places, but, he uses 3 clays and each corner has all the tools to work cleanly with a particular clay.  and a COPPER roof!

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I would love a plot of land where I could experiment firing a lot more and live on the property. Right now I am 3rd floor of a building with 8am till 12pm access and a 20 minute walk home. If I had all the money then I could skip forward about 15-20 years :D

 

Car gas kiln would be the first kiln on my list, lovely to roll pots and shelves in and out. Spray booth would be the next along with pug mill and clay mixer. I would think about a salt/wood kiln as I fired a great small one back in college.

 

Can I make it a big donut shaped building with the kilns in the middle courtyard and a conveyor belt transport system to move the pots through the areas, making, drying, bisque and glaze. That sounds great.

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Oooh!! I've dreamed of this so many times, that if I had a dollar for every minute spent daydreaming about it, I could probably pay for it! :lol:

 

First off, it would be at least 1500 square feet in size. I like having a bit of elbow room, you see. Next, it would be equipped with the most up to date kilns, both large and small. The whole thing would have a state of the art air treatment and venting  system.

 

PUG MILL!! Oh yes! There would be a pug mill!

 

There would also have to be several wheels at least. One dedicated to throwing, one to trimming and a couple of extras so I could pass on what I have learned to kids. Start 'em young, I say! ;)

 

Shelf space! Ooodles and boodles of shelf space!! Peg board walls, so that tools are clearly visible and within easy reach. I can't begin to count the total number of hours lost in trying to find a tool I just had in my hand, five fricken minutes ago! :angry:

 

A slab roller would have to be on the list. At some point, I'd also like to get into hand building.

 

And since we're dreaming here, the sky is the limit, right? Toss in a couple of staff persons. They can clean up all of my messes so that I can concentrate on perfecting my chosen insanity! :lol:

 

On the outside, it would be an attractive structure, with lots of hanging flower pots, a restful place to sit in the sun or the shade, and of course, my dream chicken coop would be right next door to it. That way, when I need a break, my babies would be close at hand.

 

We have the land to accommodate all of this....sadly, just not the money. <_<

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First on my  list would be kilns.  I'd want two larger Kilns that could tank pieces up to 36" tall.  one standard electric and the other for Raku firing.  Then I'd go with a humidity / temperature controlled cabinet for drying my green ware.  big enough to hold at lest 3 full kiln loads on the shelves.  Other items would be the pug mill and an extruder.   Anoverhead crane would be nice as well as I would probably end up making some large molds.

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A studio assistants sounds wonderful!  I would probably double the size of my studio then I could buy an electric wheel and still have room for my old kick wheel.  I could get a new extruder and pug mill that the assistants could use,  they could also fire the new gas kiln.  I like the idea of having different corners of the building for different colors of clay, right now I finish using one color before I start with a new one.  I don't want to forget about replacing my old kilns,  have fun dreaming.               Denice

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 My hub and I just bought a house.I have a miserable, humid, moldy, garage to work in right now. The garage in our new house is lovely but small. My kilns will be outside under a shed. We bought the least expensive house that we could find where we wanted to live.

 I want windows and light. I do not like working underground, WHHAAAAAAA I am a baby.

 It is not so much size that matters but comfort. To have what you need like light and windows can make all the difference. Having burd feeders outside the windows will be nice.

 My hub is a tv guy. He is on the road right now shooting a series call "American Masters." The show is about people who are really good at their craft. He comes back with AWESOME studio ideas. Ahhhh things will get better.

 More to come.

 Chris, have you ever seen Alan Bennet's fish?  He is a really nutty guy and is at Cedar Grove Gallery fairly often which is just north of you on I 85. He is amazing. He can be holding a chunk of clay and all of a sudden he is holding a fish.

 Short pieces of skinny rebar work pretty well to hold fish up. I use broken saber blades or blades from any of the three fencing weapons.

 

Beth

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Well first I would need a clean up crew.   And also raku cans on platforms so I didn't have to stoop over so much. more counter space . and some easy way to store all my zillion jars of little low fire glazes and stains used in raku. also a place to take occasional naps.    rakuku

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I totally forgot about the "lovely assistant" thing. OMFG. I would totally hire strapping young men and women to do the heavy stuff for me! I'd mix my own dry glaze ingredients, but they would do the heavy parts, like sieving and such. They'd also wedge and pug and CLEAN. :D I also like the spot for naps. A wee side-room with a select comfort mattress. Ohhhh yes. And a fatty, state-of-the-art air filtration system to kill the dust! Nobody likes silicosis...bad stuff, clay dust. :o Oh yeah, and a bumpin' sound system to blast my Iron Maiden. \m/

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Pug mill ... I'm recycling 50 lbs of clay for the first time and it's a nightmare ...

Shimpo Whisper (my dad is "storing" his in my garage for now and I'm going to cry when he takes it away ... I love that thing)

Slab roller with table extenders

Wiring that can handle both my kilns, and a vent system

Rolling racks for all stages of work ... drying, bisque, glazed, finished. 

Laundry sink

Sealed and easy-to-clean floors (currently porous concrete) and all walls drywalled and painted

Air filtration system

5 gallons each of every one of my favorite glazes, nicely mixed and ready to use

Slip pump and mixers for when I cast

A phone in my studio 

 

An assistant to handle the business end of things, listing items, contacting customers, and shipping.

 

Last but not least, a wonderful nanny for my son so he could be in sight but have somebody there to get his snacks and answer his endless questions. 

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This is a lovely thread, isn't it?

 

My project over the next year or so is to build a little studio next to our cabin in the Adirondack foothills.  My studio here in FL is a mess; just a space under a shed roof that's slowly subsiding into the earth.

 

I don't need a lot of space, because I'm not a production potter.  In addition, I'm strictly functional, concentrating mostly on kitchenware (I haven't made a vase in 20 years.)  This means that I don't need a lot of room, because the human hand can only use a pot in a narrow range of size.

 

I'm thinking about 16X20, pole-built and well-insulated, with enough windows for plenty of natural light.  A decent-sized shed for the kilns (we have 200 amp service for the cabin, planning ahead.)  I'd like a fuel-burner too.  I really like salt, and I wish it were possible to move my little salt kiln up there.  But it has a cast arch, and I don't know how to take that down without it falling apart.

 

Anyway, to me the essence of a great studio is not so much what it is as where it is.  I'd love to be able to walk out of my little studio and down the lane to the meadow where we have our orchard, past the stone walls and the beehives, to the garden.

 

On the other hand, in January, I'll probably be delighted to walk outside my Florida studio in shorts.

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After 43 years in my studio-I will say its my dream studio-but that said its still a toos up

upside-

Huge metal roof area off studio at least 24x 34 if not larger(to lazy to measure for you

lots of kilns plumbed in to 2 inch gas lines (3)

lots of electrics wired in (2)

great throwing room 8x12 insulated and heated with great light facing south.

plenty of ware areas

wood floors 2x12 redwood old growth from yesteryear -huge sink plumbed with cold water

huge 8 foot door to load clay and pots in and out

old glaze building is a junker so it cannot be hurt -its insulated wired and lite well.

all paid for long ago

downside-

not on same level so no rolling carts

gravel floors outside so no rolling racks

building narrow (11.5 feet wide)

has one step up to got thru-I could build a ramp bu on part of itt its in the way.

Old wood roof covered with metal roof-fire hazard

Dream studio yes as I'm not even entertaining the idea of new permits for gas etc  for new building as these days thats almost impossible.

Electric permit easy-gas permit not so easy and I'm not switching at this point as I love reduction firing and salt work.

Mark

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CM did an article several decades ago, probably, about itinerant Afghani (I think) potters who would go to a clay deposit, dig a hole (there's the clay), place a board with a hole in the center across the hole, drop a wheelhead on a pipe thru the hole and attach an old truck tire (lots of those along the roads) to the pipe bottom (there's the kickwheel), sit on the edge of the hole and make pots. They pit-fired using (again) old tires from which they first stripped the metal belting to use for decoration.

 

Now that's Basic!

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Hmmm.  I was not aware that I had any Afghani influence in my family tree.

 

But when I started making pottery in Las Vegas in the early 70s, my first kickwheel was put together using an old truck rim filled with concrete, an iron pipe, and a frame nailed to the fence that divided our backyard from the other duplex.  I used the base of a broken coke bottle as a lower bearing and greased leather as an upper bearing.

 

My first kiln was built out of sandstone and mud that I picked up in the desert outside the city and hauled home in my '47 Studebaker pickup, and fired with construction offcuts.  Somewhere I still have a little yellow lead-glazed cup I made on the wheel and fired in that kiln.

 

Surprisingly good times.

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Ah, the dream studio!

 

Picture a big airy barn-like structure, concrete floor, with sliding doors on the south side, to let in the sun on nice days.

A big deck on the south side, with ware carts that could roll out to the deck.

Also large tables to sit at for decorative work.

Inside, a clay making area, with pug mill and supplies, and then tables for doing slab work, attaching handles etc.

A huge pegboard filled with tools, and an apothecary type drawer set up for findings, like honey dippers, teapot handles, spoons etc.

A nice long counter for glaze making- supplies conveniently stashed beneath the counter and above. Gram scale, cups and scoops in a handy place.

Several wheels set up, with my beloved old kick wheel in the center.

An electric kiln area for bisque and low fire.

Outdoors there is a propane downdraft kiln, a small soda kiln, and a good sized groundhog kiln, with three chambers. Kilns have sheltering roofs.

All of this would be on a few acres, where one could stretch out a bit...

 

Of course, I have made pots in unheated outbuildings with no running water or electricity before.

 

Dreaming is nice, but when it is all said and done, having time, space and resources to make pots is the main thing, and that looks different to everyone.

 

Bottom line is, nothing can unwind me like throwing a dozen mugs...and I can do that most anywhere 😊

 

That is all.

 

Have a genius day,

Pat ... In southeastern South Dakota where spring is attempting to get its business done, so that summer can make its way to the stage.

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My dream studio is not much different from my current one, except you can see out the windows, (currently covered in foam insulation due to 1/2 inch gaps that air flow through), there are not stairs, and I have air conditioning and heat.  Not asking for much, really!

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