Pottery Studio Water Systems — My eco-friendly at home pottery studio WITHOUT a sink!

How to manage water in your pottery studio! This is a vital question for anyone setting up a pottery studio at home. In this video, I will share with you my ENTIRE studio water system, how I manage a pottery studio without a sink, how to dispose of ceramic glaze responsibly, and how I reclaim my clay. Enjoy!

//MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO:
Gravity Filter:
(I couldn’t find a model like the one I am using, but after some research it seems like this is a popular sink trap alternative).

//ONLINE CLASSES

//SHOP

//TOOLS & CLAY
Stuff I use and recommend:

//SAY HI!

0:00 - intro
0:30 - my studio ethos (simplicity & sustainability)
1:24 - reclaim
4:22 - glaze waste
7:05 - glaze disposal options
11:40 - everything else (waste water)
13:00 - gravity filter for waste water
16:12 - how to clean the gravity filter
17:53 - get the printout!

[andrearoberts]

Putting the buckets on rolling bases - that was an aha moment for me, thank you! Also the "Mystery glaze" - that's something I'll really enjoy trying out.

[missprettysunshine]

TIP : I gently scrap the bottom of my pots above it's glaze bucket before wiping with a sponge. The powdered glaze just falls back into it's bucket. You can use any flat surface tool, like a trimming tool, knife, etc.

[brighterdays]

Thank you SO MUCH for this video. I am an art teacher with almost 0 ceramics experience, and I was thrown into teaching a high school ceramics class this year. There are so many videos on how to make pottery, but not enough videos about managing a studio! I can't believe it took me half a school year to find this. So anyway, THANK YOU!!!!

[MissMoDean]

Such a helpful video, thank you! I love how you’ve set up your reclaim system!

I do want to clear up one very common misconception! I also learned early on that firing glaze waste makes the chemicals inert; however, this isn’t true! Firing your glaze waste does not neutralize toxic chemicals or make them any less likely to leach into groundwater, etc. Only chemically stable glazes will not leach (this is true for the glazes we use on our pottery too!), and a mix of various glazes is very, very unlikely to be chemically stable once fired. IF your glazes contain toxic metals (many don’t!), treating them as hazardous waste (option 1) is really the only way to safely dispose of them, if you don’t use them up as a mystery glaze (option 3). Learning about glaze chemistry has really opened my eyes to analyze a lot of the “lore” we learn as potters, and I just like to spread the knowledge wealth where I can.

Thanks again for this super helpful breakdown of your studio setup!

[naominandn]

you are a galaxy brained genius for sharing all these details!!! I am already thing of how i can adapt some of your tips for my own little studio. Thank you for sharing💖

[MsBlulucky]

I want to try pottery at home. So far I've only bought clay and some tools. Without your videos I probably would have never thought about the waste water and how to deal with it. It's all a bit daunting but thanks to your videos I feel prepared to tackle all these things!

[elivean]

That was a great video! I am setting up my studio in an independent room from my house, where there's no water connection whatsoever haha so I've been designing the water system for a couple months. One thing I recommend for your water "stinkiness" is to attach a filter on the exit of your existing gravity filter, with activated charcoal pellets or granulate; it is an excellent odor remover. :)

[blabla]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your knowledge! What you´re doing with these videos is so helpful!

[kayewinfindale]

Thanks for this. Really interesting to see how other people run their studio. Will watch more as you post. Live the environmental aspect as well. ❤

[Manniemo]

I just left dump the slop from my water bucket into a 5 gallon bucket and let the water evaporate, works great and cuts out so many steps. Good tips for glaze waste thank you

[isabelmujica]

Door number 2 for me, thank you. It started me thinking that the glazes then aren't such a good idea for tableware but you got to watch the whole thing to understand everything 🤗

[Brendonluvr]

thank you for all that do not just for the online community but for out planet <3

[donadonohoe]

I am soo happy I found your videos!!! Thank you so much for breaking down all the questions that come up for a newbie! I’ve learned soo much! Thank you friend!👍🏼 18:14

[karinkeeble]

I grew up where we had to pay the fire brigade to fill a cistern for our house. So I really approve of your water systems!

[damonmanni]

Great video Mia & thank you for sharing your knowledge. I’ve watched a few of your vid’s and you have many buckets each with criteria, steps, process, etc, and frankly I’m all confused by the end of the lengthy video, so a request: Can you make a Summary cheat sheet that I can print out containing: A list of each bucket name; what its purpose is/contains; and the process steps to get to the purpose of the bucket? A summary will help greatly. Cheers

[tobiasrankin]

Thank you very much great explanation and helping me prepare for my own home studio.

[lisanelhiebel]

Thank you for this great video and for showing techniques to limit waste as much as possible. Do you also use a specific technique to throw and trim your pieces so you generate less waste, e.g. water usage, form creation optimized for minimal trimming? Would be super interesting to see!!!

[maricotera]

Mia, thank you! This is so informative and useful. I have a home studio with no sink so I use buckets, but I've never made it truly recyclable or functional. I'll be trying out many of your suggestions.

[oliviablanc]

This video is gold!! I do pottery in my backyard so this is so helpful. I use a lot of underglazes and always wondered is there any special way to dispose of the underglaze water. Or would it just go into the waste bucket?

[jennyp]

Mia, thank you! That was a super informative video. I don’t have a studio yet. At the moment I use a community studio where there is no limit on water use so I’d not given waste water much thought. Now I’m going to try to limit my water use there as a start.