Eco-Conscious Pottery: Sustainability in the Home Pottery Studio
As the owner of a small-batch pottery studio, being sustainable means developing processes that conserve energy and resources and making mindful business choices to lessen negative environmental impact.
Here are four things I do to be more sustainable in my pottery studio:
1) Reclaimed Clay:
I reclaim every scrap of clay that isn’t fired.
My preferred reclaim method involves rehydrating completely dried out clay with used throwing water. Once the clay is fully rehydrated, I mix the wet slurry by hand (lots of squeezing!) or with a cordless drill with a mixer attachment to eliminate chunks. I then lay the slurry on a plaster bat made of pottery plaster for even drying, and, finally, when the clay is pliable and still soft, I re-wedge the clay to make it workable for future projects.
Don’t have space for a dedicated plaster bat or wedging station? Penguin pottery makes a portable wedging board that you can store away.
In order to streamline my reclaim, I intentionally chose stoneware and porcelain clays with matching (or close to matching) shrink rates to reclaim them together, resulting in stoneware/porcelain hybrid pieces.
Curious to know if one of my pieces is made of recycled clay? Check the bottom of the piece. If you see color variation in the clay, it’s likely a hybrid! And you can know then the thoughtful labor that went into bringing that clay back into use to produce something beautiful.
2) Non-Toxic Materials:
I’m intentional about working with non-toxic, lead-free, and food-safe materials. I recommend some underglazes in this post.
3) Thoughtful Energy Consumption:
I fire my electrical kiln only when at capacity and during off-peak hours. That means less strain on the grid and more mindful energy consumption. I write more about picking electric kilns and kiln firing costs in this post.
On cold days, I will also maximize time in the studio while a kiln is firing so I don’t have to use heat. I also use energy efficient light-bulbs.
4) Reusable water:
I don’t have running water in my studio. Instead, I rely on a trusty 5 gallon bucket of water which I got second hand from a Chinese restaurant (it was originally for soy sauce!).
I use this bucket of water for all my work in the studio, including throwing, cleaning tools, and smoothing out pieces. Clay particles will settle overnight, leaving relatively clean usable water at the top of the bucket the next day. If the water gets too cold overnight, I have an old electrical water boiler I use to reheat it.
I replace the water about once a month. When the water level gets low, I throw the remaining sludge into a pit dug behind my shed and refill the bucket with fresh water from inside the house.
Think pottery-making meets eco-friendly water conservation!
But wait, there’s more!
There are other things I do, too!
I reuse paper bags and recyclable packaging materials donated by people in town,
I limit trash to about 1 bag every 2-3 months,
I wash my towels by hand.
I’m sure I can do more, but every little bit counts!
