Recycling part 2

I just received a great little letter from Textured Turtle, a mosaic artist on Etsy. The Etsy Mud Team joined forces with other Etsy artists to become a little more environmental while we hone our crafts. It was always a challenge to find something to do with those pots and ceramics that just weren't up to par. Pieces that fired wrong, cracked, weren't food safe, or were just plain fugly often cluttered up a corner of my studio because I just couldn't let them end up at the dump. Many of us potters dread to think that future archaeologists would find our thousand year old pottery rejects in the midst of the petrified landfills our current society has created. So my little pile of rejected works sat in a corner collecting dust. I tried to use them at the bottom of newly potted plants but that only takes care of a small percentage. My little backyard garden is looking rather cluttered with those pieces that are still aesthetically pleasing but not functional enough for indoor use.

So, (pauses for dramatic effect) the EMT and Etsy Mosaic artists made a deal. I sent a box of my rejected work to Textured Turtle to use in her mosaic works. Win-win situation. My dusty corner is now clean, some new mosaics will have a little bit of my ceramics in them, and the landfill will not be getting filled with my pottery shards!

I challenge everyone to rethink their trash. It sure feels rewarding to help reduce waste and at the same time help add more beauty into the world!

Studio Recycling

What a treat it is to get my hands on a box of fresh new clay. I have been reclaiming all of my scrap pieces for the past few months so I haven't played with fresh clay for awhile. I spent all day in the studio and have a bunch of fantastic bowls waiting for me to trim them tomorrow morning.

I love the fact that potters are recyclers by nature. It not only saves a lot of money, I feel that it is my small way to help the environment. I know exactly the kind of waste that I create and know that I do everything that I can to minimize it. I even reuse my broken bowls in the garden so they won't be found centuries later in the dump by some archaeologist. When I get tired of the bowls in my cupboards, I give them to college kids so they have something a little nicer in the kitchen when they first move out on their own. I also donate seconds to the Salvation Army. Why not?

Another way I cut down on waste is to save the water that I clean my glaze brushed in. I decant the water until I have a nice bunch of glaze splooge. Most of my glazes use similar chemicals so they are compatible and I have found a few nice colors by accident. I can't use the splooge for functional ware because I'm not sure that it is food safe, but I can use it for my pendants. The only disappointment so far is that I can never reproduce the same recycled glaze color twice!