What started off as a quarantine project has turned into a renewed passion for ceramics and time spent behind the wheel. Like many other high school students, I spent a semester learning the basics (and barely getting by as a classmate helped “fix” my pieces before I turned them in, lol) and haven’t touched a wheel since this past summer when Scott and I took a class at Desert Dragon Pottery. From here, we kind of went all in and bought a wheel and kiln so we could do everything at home. During our busy season we took a break and now we’re back at it with our makeshift pottery studio in our diy greenhouse! I’ve been sharing more of our time behind the wheel on my Instagram stories if you’re interested in seeing this baby in action!
Ok, so I went to hear about how we created this pottery studio at home? Once we had the main pieces, it all came together pretty quickly. After we built our greenhouse last spring and it went through the hot, hot, heat of an Arizona summer, it was looking a little lackluster and was ready for a clean up call this fall/winter. Luckily, many of our plants made it through the intense weather changes and all the inside needed was a good clear out (we took all the plants outside), a sweep and some window washing (we did a few windows and decided we needed to dedicate more time to it knowing harder water had really built up on them.
From here, we rearranged all of our plants so that we had room to fit the wheel, tools and ourselves in comfortably. We have a fairly small wheel (that we set up on wood blocks to reach our stool better) that sits perfectly next to a plant stand that we set a pot of full of tools on and a water bucket (a glass planter!) for adding water to our clay/cleaning. We also already had a hose nearby that we already use for that greenhouse that will let us so really clean up the clay from the wheel and our hands easily. As for a drying rack, we’re using one of the countertops and hopefully one day soon we’ll be moving them all in our kiln — which is currently in need of a tune up!
We’re so excited to continue working on this space to make it more functional for not only our pots, but our plants too! This tiny space has brought us so much joy the past few months and feel even more special to start a new hobby in here. Also, I can’t wait to teach Ace how to use the wheel! He’s been very excited about it and loves touching the clay — I have a feeling we have a future potter on our hands!
-Chels xo