NotAPotter

Good to know on the thrift store ordeal. I already came across a bread rack for $50 locally, I think I'll give them a ring and pick it up. I'll have to keep an eye out for a cupboard. I think she'd like that. She definitely wrap everything in plastic bag right now. I'm sure she'd like to do away with that.

Good idea. I was actually thinking about getting her one of those hydraulic carts from harbor fright that would allow her to lift the clay up to the wedging surface. Would make it easy to unload from the trunk of her car, and then load it to her working surface. The "recessed" space in the garage (adjacent to utility room) I have water lines running. I'll be able to tap into those to supply water to a sink. I don't intend on tapping into the drain in the house. I fear dealing with clogged drains down the road... even with the use of clay sink traps. That and I need to break into the concrete to tap into existing drains and I am really trying to avoid that. I need to think about it a little more, but I was thinking of making the traps/water reservoir mobile so they can be wheeled to the end of the garage and dumped outside or just have a hose handy to flush and drain it as needed (like a water heater). And lighting is def on the list. I have quite a bit of LED strip lights to use so there'll be plenty of light to work with.

Thanks for the feedback. That's exactly the type of thing I'm after. When you say damp closet, can you give me an example? I would like to think it's something that has humidity control, but not sure if we're talking about aomething sinpler than that. Are you talking about Hardie cement board? You say similar to plaster... Does the wedging work surface need to be porous/absorbent like that? What happens if it isn't? I've definitely heard her talk about this a ways back. Right now the work surface she has is a plywood workbench, and I remember her saying something about how it wasn't good for wedging.

Sorry for the triple post, but I might add.... I am looking for any and all feedback. Anything that you've done for yourself in your workspace, or things that you've seen in other peoples studios would help as well. I've seen something similar to bread racks in the local studio my wife used to go to. Has ample shelf space and can be rolled from one station to another when glazing or trimming, etc. Shelves can be moved on-the-fly too to accommodate different sizes of pots.

Since this is a pottery forum, here is a picture of my "work mug" she made a while back.

Hi - not sure if this is the right forum/sub-forum, but here we go... I am looking to renovate my wife's pottery studio. Now the reason why I am reverting to a forum and not to her directly is because I am looking to make this a surprise for her. I know that she'll have personal preferences that only she'll be able to answer to, but I also know that I can do 75% of it if I get some feedback from some fellow potters. I also don't really have a timeline for this, but with a 4 mo old in the house now, let's just say things are slow moving, and I have some time. My goal is to introduce this to my wife before she gets back in the groove again. She hasn't done much since giving birth to our baby, but I know she is jones'n to get back into it. I like to think I am familiar enough with some of the process flow she goes through when doing pottery. I am going to boil it down to this (please correct me if I am missing a crucial step that would have a substantial impact on workflow): Wedging -> Throwing -> Drying -> Trimming -> First firing (Bisque?) -> Glazing -> Final firing -> Storage. I mean, this is it in a nutshell right lol? At 30,000ft, I find that shelf space, a sturdy table/bench, sink, kiln, and "glazing station" would be some of the things that would make her studio, well, a better studio. Fortunately she already has a kiln, and she has since used it. The help I am looking for here is: What is the best way to utilize the space we have to provide all the accommodations? I know there is only soo much we can do with a small space, but I am optimistic. I will share images of the current setup as soon as I snap some to show what we're working with. What are ideal materials for certain surfaces? We had a large red oak cut down a few years ago, and I had all the lumber milled into boards. I have A LOT of material relatively speaking, so if I can leverage it to make workbenches, shelving, wedging table (my understanding is this has to be a robust and solid surface, yes or no?), then that'd be great. However, I do also understand that some planed and sanded red oak might not be ideal for working clay, so put me in my place. Some images of the current space: Our house: Some shots of the garage from exterior: A few interior renderings: And a layout of the size: And some of the milled red oak I wood (see what I did there?) like to use if possible: