Setting up a home studio

I'm about to start the process of having my basement finished. I
recently got a wheel so I'm excited that we'll be including a small
pottery studio in this project. The room will be about 9 x 16 feet.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on the following:

- Flooring. I'm thinking vinyl/laminate flooring might be the most
durable and easy to clean.
- Lighting. I've heard fluorescent lighting is good, any other ideas?
- Sink. Is a laundry/utility sink the way to go? I've been using an
existing utility sink, but it's very low and I tend to have an aching
back after cleaning my tools, etc. I'm wondering if I can drop a
utility sink into a cabinet with more height. (I already have some
cabinets I plan to use in the room.)

I'm planning to set the room up with as many shelving units as
possible, some counter space for wedging, and ability to install an
exhaust fan if I do get a kiln in the future. I have ordered Alistair
Young's book - How to Set Up a Pottery Workshop. I'm hoping that
will include some recommendations.

Any other helpful tips?

Thanks!

P.S. I hope this isn't a repeat question. I was surprised not to
find much on this topic already.

As far as your floor is concerned, if your not using a kick wheel and
its easily moveable i would get some painters plastic to lay down under
the space where the wheel will go or around the entire workspace. Even
with some nice laminate flooring, cleaning the dust and debris will be
a huge pain, unless there is a drain pipe or something in the floor
where u can pressure wash or mop the entire floor and easily get rid of
the excess water so you dont have to change water buckets every couple
passes. With the plastic you can easily roll it up and dispose of it
and lay a new one down every so often.

For the sink i would get a laundry style sink thats pretty decent size.
They sell parts that would make this an awesome sink to have. Get a
tube style drain for the sink that actually sticks upwards and is a
couple inches below the sink top, this makes it so that clay and debris
falls to the bottom of the sink and only the water goes down the tube.
Another helpful think is to have a open pipe where it emptys. I mean
the pipes under the sink, where the pipe stops and u can see the water
come out, and under that open part have a funnel pipe with a adequate
screen in it so you can make sure clay doesnt go back into the pipes if
the top tube missed it. I know this is a little extreme, but dont
wanna take a chance and clog the pipes with clay and debris. Oh and
you can put a sink in a cabinet if you want to, will just have to cut
the cabinet accordingly so the pipe work and sink will fit into it.

Personally I'm a college student majoring in ceramics, and plan to open
my own studio and gallery this summer. The studio will be in the
basement of a house i inherited These are two of my plans for the
space.

Hope I helped a little bit or atleast inspired new ideas and good luck!

In article .com,
says...
I'm about to start the process of having my basement finished. I
recently got a wheel so I'm excited that we'll be including a small
pottery studio in this project. The room will be about 9 x 16 feet.

We are within two weeks of completing our own basement and a pottery
room was set aside for wife in that project. I'll add what we've
learned so far.

- Flooring. I'm thinking vinyl/laminate flooring might be the most
durable and easy to clean.

Is your existing basement floor dirt or concrete? We decided to keep
the concrete in the area where the wheel will be, and we used a product
called DriCore (http://www.dricore.com/) to create a foot-friendly
surface around the table were one stands a lot. This seems to be
working quite well. The concrete is durable and we're leaning towards
painting it with one of the flooring paints like I used in my woodshop
to make cleanup even easier.

- Lighting. I've heard fluorescent lighting is good, any other ideas?

We're using 4' shoplights, but the the trick is to get full spectrum
bulbs. They cost a bit more, but they don't give the blueish greenish
tint to things that the standard fluorescents do. In her room with a
12' x 14' space we installed six two-bulb fixtures. The effect is a bit
dazzling at first! :-)

- Sink. Is a laundry/utility sink the way to go? I've been using an
existing utility sink, but it's very low and I tend to have an aching
back after cleaning my tools, etc. I'm wondering if I can drop a
utility sink into a cabinet with more height. (I already have some
cabinets I plan to use in the room.)

You certainly could. If there is clearance within the cabinet, there
should be no problem mounting any suspended sink unit onto the
countertop material. One idea might be to look for one of those kitchen
sinks that has one shallow basin and another deep basin side by side.
Then you could have the best of both worlds.

If you're running your sink directly into a sewer or septic system, then
consider the Gleco Trap to keep the gunk out of the lines. I can't find
a web page for Gleco, but here is a commercial supplier that offers it:
http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Supplies/gleco-trap.htm

P.S. I hope this isn't a repeat question. I was surprised not to
find much on this topic already.

Check out the ClayArt archives (http://www.potters.org/categories.htm)
for a lot more discussion. Maybe even consider joining if you have not
already; although be warned, there is a *lot* of traffic! Potters like
to talk ... :-)

--
Charles Jones )
Loveland, Colorado
AIM: LovelandCharles
ICQ: 29610755
MSN:

i painted my concrete floor with cement paint. it cleans easy & looks more
uniform.

i have to add a pitch for my old lighting company. i used to work for Lights
of America, the 1st people to make the shop lights & the twister bulbs. (they
are still a USA company).

they have a line of twister bulbs that put out extremely bright color white
(very full spectrum) light. they seem to be the only ones who also sell higher
watt bulbs then what is usually available. they sell via wall mart, costco,
home depot.

they have a 65 watt bulb, and even a light fixture assy for around $20 to $30.
it puts out the light of a 400 watt bulb! photography buffs found out this
bulb matches professional bulbs selling for over $100. soon they will have an
85 watt bulb and 100 watt energy bulbs. these are BRIGHT bulbs! equivalent to
up to 1000 (thousand) watts of trqaditional bulb light.

one or two of them in your work area and you'll have some decent light!

see ya

steve





Subject: Setting up a home studio
From: Charles Jones
Date: 2/3/2005 7:24 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

In article .com,
says...
I'm about to start the process of having my basement finished. I
recently got a wheel so I'm excited that we'll be including a small
pottery studio in this project. The room will be about 9 x 16 feet.

We are within two weeks of completing our own basement and a pottery
room was set aside for wife in that project. I'll add what we've
learned so far.

- Flooring. I'm thinking vinyl/laminate flooring might be the most
durable and easy to clean.

Is your existing basement floor dirt or concrete? We decided to keep
the concrete in the area where the wheel will be, and we used a product
called DriCore (http://www.dricore.com/) to create a foot-friendly
surface around the table were one stands a lot. This seems to be
working quite well. The concrete is durable and we're leaning towards
painting it with one of the flooring paints like I used in my woodshop
to make cleanup even easier.

- Lighting. I've heard fluorescent lighting is good, any other ideas?

We're using 4' shoplights, but the the trick is to get full spectrum
bulbs. They cost a bit more, but they don't give the blueish greenish
tint to things that the standard fluorescents do. In her room with a
12' x 14' space we installed six two-bulb fixtures. The effect is a bit
dazzling at first! :-)

- Sink. Is a laundry/utility sink the way to go? I've been using an
existing utility sink, but it's very low and I tend to have an aching
back after cleaning my tools, etc. I'm wondering if I can drop a
utility sink into a cabinet with more height. (I already have some
cabinets I plan to use in the room.)

You certainly could. If there is clearance within the cabinet, there
should be no problem mounting any suspended sink unit onto the
countertop material. One idea might be to look for one of those kitchen
sinks that has one shallow basin and another deep basin side by side.
Then you could have the best of both worlds.

If you're running your sink directly into a sewer or septic system, then
consider the Gleco Trap to keep the gunk out of the lines. I can't find
a web page for Gleco, but here is a commercial supplier that offers it:
http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Supplies/gleco-trap.htm

P.S. I hope this isn't a repeat question. I was surprised not to
find much on this topic already.

Check out the ClayArt archives (http://www.potters.org/categories.htm)
for a lot more discussion. Maybe even consider joining if you have not
already; although be warned, there is a *lot* of traffic! Potters like
to talk ... :-)

--
Charles Jones )
Loveland, Colorado
AIM: LovelandCharles
ICQ: 29610755
MSN:








steve graber

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 08:24:13 -0700, Charles Jones
wrote:


- Lighting. I've heard fluorescent lighting is good, any other ideas?

We're using 4' shoplights, but the the trick is to get full spectrum
bulbs. They cost a bit more, but they don't give the blueish greenish
tint to things that the standard fluorescents do. In her room with a
12' x 14' space we installed six two-bulb fixtures. The effect is a bit
dazzling at first! :-)

In the shop where I used to work they tried full-spectrum
fluorescents. The shop was in a basement level, so no
windows for other source of light. When you first walked into
the room, it was indeed dazzling. I got a strong sensation of
"sunrise"... but it lasted all day long! However, whether this
is right for you or not seems to be a very personal thing. To
me it was uncomfortable and seemed to produce more
annoying glare than the regular fluorescents. Of the other
two guys who shared the shop, one loved it (the one who
requested it in the first place) and the other was ambivalent.
I took to wearing a baseball cap, which seemed to help but
felt silly. Eventually the guy who wanted them decided he'd
had enough and out they came.

Having said all that, one of the main virtues of these lamps
was color rendition. We were doing electronics, having to read
tiny color code lines on resistors. The bodies of one type of
resistor were blue, and a red band looked nearly identical to
a brown band under regular fluorescents, but under the daylight
balanced you could tell them apart instantly. So there may be
some operations where color rendition will make a difference
to your work.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the only colors that
matter are the ones that come out of the glaze firing, which
of course are never even remotely the way they look when
you apply them in the first place. Not much hope for a lamp
to change that situation!


Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com

A very cheap alternative to using a sink trap is to use a 5 gallon
bucket for cleaning tools and dump that outside as needed. Don't wash
up in your sink which will at some point get clogged with clay. I have
a faucet to fill up the bucket but no sink in my cellar where I work.

A good piece of kit to make is a sludge trap made from a large plastic
storage box with a bucket sitting inside it under the sink outlet. You
put a plastic pipe though the side of the box, with a right angle bend
so that the end faces upwards, about 2 inches BELOW the edge of the
bucket. Seal where it goes through the box very thoroughly.
The principle is that heavy crud get caught in the bucket, and lighter
stuff flows over the edge and settles out in the box. The almost clean
water then spills over into the pipe and thence into the drain.
The bucket can be lifted out and decanted, and the rest shovelled out of
the box.
This is a very cheap piece of do-it-yourself kit. If you want a drawing
email me but remember to remove the remove this bit in my address.

Steve
Bath
UK


In article .com,
writes
A very cheap alternative to using a sink trap is to use a 5 gallon
bucket for cleaning tools and dump that outside as needed. Don't wash
up in your sink which will at some point get clogged with clay. I have
a faucet to fill up the bucket but no sink in my cellar where I work.


--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK