BOC Open Studio – Come on in to my Studio

See those pinkish doors up there? That's my studio. Well if that looks a little like we put doors into the side of a 1920’s garage, you’d be right. It’s just across a small deck from my dining room. BTW, that rams head is range found. You don’t get magnificent horns like that unless you’ve lived to a ripe old age. And, no, I don’t normally collect skeletal remains. I just happen to really like the horns on this guy.

Come on in and let’s have a look around. But I’m warning you, it is a huge mess in here. I’m getting ready for a few shows over the next 2 weeks and cleaning wasn’t high on my list of priorities. OK, truth is cleaning is never on my list of priorities, but it is more chaotic than usual in here.

This is my main wet clay work area. It’s an inexpensive 6 foot folding table from the office supply store, covered with canvas wrapped particle board work surfaces. I make a lot of molds and texture plates for my work and these get stored in set of cheapo plastic drawers. Theoretically, every thing here has a home. But often things are not at home. The wine bottle I’ve just noticed on the right gets used as a mold, just in case you are wondering. This is where all of my beads, pendants, and components are made by own two little hands.

This is my glaze table, at the moment filled with things that need to get glazed and into the kiln straight away. This is where I glaze all of my pendants, beads, and sometimes pots. It’s also where I make glazes and plaster molds for some of my work. This is actually pretty darned tidy right now. Notice those arrows?

Exhibit A: Juice pitcher, last seen July 2009 in the refrigerator, Lubbock, TX
Exhibit B: Small sieve, last seen February 2004 in the kitchen utensil drawer, Kansas City, KS
Exhibit C: Butter knife, last seen May 1999 in the cutlery drawer, Melbourne, AU

I have no idea how these things end up out here. But there is a saying in my house that if you can’t find it, look in the studio.

These are my kilns. There are 4 and each has its own purpose and have been acquired over time. The big one in the back came with me from Australia. I use it only 2-3 times a year now to fire larger non-beady work. The medium sized one on the left is where my beads and buttons get fired. The blue one on the cart is my new metal clay kiln. I also use it occasionally for a bisque firing of beads. The tiny kiln on the top is for slumping glass. I hardly ever do that anymore, but once I’ve got a kiln I just can not part with it. By far and away the most expensive part of setting up a ceramic studio is the kilns. Not just the kilns, but there is all the kiln furniture (shelves, posts, bead racks, mandrels) and the wiring.

So that’s where all the dirty clay work gets done. But come inside with me. There is a whole other aspect to studio work. Much cleaner, much tidier.

This is the business end of Summers Studio. It is also where metal clay and wire work get done. The rolling plastic bins are used to store shipping and packaging materials. It’s on wheels so that it can be moved into the dining room when the table is too messy to use. In fact this table to is too messy to use right now. This is an old photo. It may never look like this again.

This is the most important part of my studio space and where I am right now. This is my thinking corner. This is where I sketch out ideas, write blog posts, and sometimes nap. It is almost as tidy as this right now.

Next up----2nd give away at 3pm!