Studio Guidelines

Welcome to ENTS Pottery Studio!

We’re thrilled to have you join our community of artists and pottery enthusiasts.

This guide is an intro to the space and intended to make things accessible for the member who is brand new to pottery and contains information and norms for people who have more pottery experience. ENTS is a makerspace and welcomes the contributions and expertise of all studio users. If there’s anything in the guide that you’d like to add to or revise, please connect the Pottery Committee.

Best practices in the space:

Clean up! Dust from clay, dried glaze, and sanded ceramics is dangerous and long term exposure to it can cause irreversible lung damage and a condition called silicosis. It’s crucial to clean up after you work. Please don’t dry sand in the space (if you have to sand a fired piece, do it wet).

Wipe down every surface you worked at with a wet sponge. Even if you think you didn’t leave any mess, there is almost always some clay crumbs or left over glaze. Use a spray bottle on the wedging table to help loosen leftover clay. If you use the wheel, you are required to mop around and under the wheel. When you empty your tray from throwing, put that water into the reclaim bucket. There’s important parts of clay (fine particles) in it that help bind the reclaim.

After glazing, wipe down the rim of the glaze jar so it's easier for the next person to open. If you aren’t able to open a glaze bottle, run the rim upside down under warm water and wait a minute or two for the glaze to soften.

Wash all the tools you used and set them to dry. Empty the drying rack and put away tools and containers left there. Rinse sponges and set them to dry.

Aim to leave ENTS cleaner than when you arrived

Notifying the Board of Directors if any supplies are running low, anything that is broken or no operating the way it should. Requests for glazes, tools and other supplies can be submitted to the Pottery Committee for consideration. The Pottery Committee will provide the Board of Directors with a request.

Equipment use and instructions

The wedging table

Glaze and work tables

Wheels

Extruder Watch: How To Use A Wall Mounted Clay Extruder

Slab roller Watch: How To Roll Out Clay In The Slab Roller | Pottery For Beginners | Troy Made It (ours is slightly different)

Sink

Heating/ drying utensils

Storage

Make sure you write your name and date on your clay box, storage bin and greenware work in progress shelve or individual pieces on the communal and overflow shelves.

Glazes and Clay

Communal glazes

ENTS has a glaze library available for members to use. These glazes are contributed by members and it’s asked that members who use the glaze library are regularly contributing glazes.

Personal glaze

Members purchase glaze from Plainsman and a variety of online vendors. When purchasing glaze, check what cone it can be fired to. Look for cone 5-6 glazes.

Glaze can be affected by the placement in the kiln, what clay body it’s on, and if it’s layered with any glazes. Making test tiles can be helpful to find glaze you like.

If you are interested in commercial glaze combinations, there are several facebook groups that may be helpful. AMACO Cone 5-6 Glaze Forum Mayco Mud Room Society Spectrum High Firing Glazes

If you are unsure about any of your glazes or combinations, please reach out to the pottery committee or in chat.

Reclaimed clay ENTS has reclaim for member use. There are two available options. Red/coffee reclaim and white/grey reclaim. Note that the white/grey reclaim will have some amount of speckles (manganese) in it. Place clay scraps, wheel trays, and trimming into either the dark or light clay buckets.

Members reclaim the clay and use a pugmill to process it. Pugged clay is available in blue bins near the reclaim buckets.

Personal clay Most members purchase their clay from Plainsman Clay. For a list of clays that can be fired to cone 6, visit https://plainsmanclays.com/store/index.php?type=10&xyz=

Only commercial cone 6 or higher can be used in the ENTS Pottery Studio.

Community tasks/Pottery Chores

Printable list- Pottery Chores

Kilns and firing

https://bigceramicstore.com/pages/info-ceramics-tips-tip48_load_fire_kilns_part1#:~:text=The %20bottom%20layer%20of%20shelving,allow%20for%20expansion%20during%20firing. Bisque is fired to cone 04 and glaze is fired to cone 6. Read here for more information on what cones are. If you purchase glaze for yourself, make sure it’s midfire to high fire.

ENTS has two kilns. The smaller one with the red panel we call Jack. The larger one with the blue panel we call Jill. Typically we fire bisque in the smaller kiln Jack and glaze in the larger kiln Jill.

Only ENTS certified kiln loaders are authorized to load and unload the kilns.

ENTS does not have a kiln tech. Trained & certified members volunteer their time to load and unload the kilns and do kiln maintenance. Please contact the Pottery Committee to learn more on how to get certified.

Use cookies (aka pucks/patties) Cookies are flat pieces of fired clay with kiln wash applied that serves to protect the kiln shelves from glaze drips and protect your piece. There’s a container of them near the kiln loading carts. When glaze touches or drips on the shelves it fuses with them. Members volunteer to manually grind that glaze off and reapply kiln wash to the shelves. It’s a messy and loud job, so please do everything you can to protect the kiln shelves and other people's pieces.


Revision #1
Created 17 May 2025 20:46:06 by Travis
Updated 17 May 2025 21:19:02 by Travis