Sustainable Studio Series - 1/3

Our community pottery studio was built three years ago from a passionate group of potters with a multi-mission, one that included:

Be mindful of our resources and impact on both the environment and the historic grounds of our studio

In our initial build, we made it our priority to find ways to reuse and recycle during renovations. We were grateful for many incredible donations of equipment and reclaimed building materials from that found a new life in our studio!

But the most important part was yet to come: How would we run our studio day-to-day with sustainability at the forefront?

This series will go through various ways we've brought sustainable practices to our space. We hope that we can inspire others to do the same in their community pottery studios, and also let our members, students, and visitors know how big of an impact they make everyday by working here.

Today's post is all about: WATER

Our studio is on both a septic system and historic grounds - home to a stone labyrinth and century-old burial ground. We knew that how we managed water would be important to the functioning of our studio and the environment surrounding us.

Here are 3 practices we put in place:

1. Reuse Water

2. Reduce Consumption

3. Ethical Disposing

Reuse Water

We have a multi-bucket-system that reduces waste by keeping the water we use circular. Here's how:

Clay Water

We start by getting clean throwing water from the tap. When it's time to dispose of it, it goes into one of two buckets:

1. Throwing Water (thick, sludgy water)

2. Dirty Water (thin, cloudy water)

We let these buckets settle, letting clay sink to the bottom and clear water sit on top. We can use this clear water again for clean-up, and recycle the clay sludge at the bottom.

Glaze Water

We do our absolute best to also keep this water circular in the studio in the same way, to reduce traces of natural oxides and metals from re-entering the environment.

Dirty glaze water is poured into a bucket (with a sieve to catch debris), separated into clear water, and then used again for cleanup. Glaze sludge forms at the bottom of these buckets, which we can recycle.

Reduce Consumption

To reduce water usage, we only use clean water from the tap for:

• Initial bucket of throwing water (we also only recommend filling 1/3 your throwing bucket)

• Mixing glazes

• "Final" stage of washing equipment and surfaces*

• Wet-vacuuming our floors*

*This keeps our studio sparkling clean, and also free of dust!

Ethical Disposing

Ultimately, we do have to dispose of some water and this goes to water our plants outside. An example would be excess clear water that's been settled. For hygienic reasons, we also do not reuse mop water or settled clear water that's 1 week old. But it sure keeps the plant's happy during dry season!

We test the pH of our various waters periodically. This helps us monitor how our water can benefit certain plants (pine trees!) in our garden, or find ways to offset any disruption such as planting compatible species (hydrangeas!).

Far Right: The hydrangeas on the CSC grounds love the pH of our studio water.

All these initiatives above have been put in place thanks to the likeminded individuals on our Board, our supportive members, and the Facility Committee. Ongoing development and improvement to our sustainability practices has been largely thanks to the amazing fundraising efforts from this year's Plant Kindness!

In our next post, we will talk about the process we've developed to recycle all of our "scrap" clay and glaze in the studio. (Yes, we mean ALL of it!)