A couple of years after I started my hiatus from the potter’s wheel, my husband took over my studio space with an office. All of my tools and equipment (except the extruder, that’s still hanging on the wall of his office for some reason) got packed up. Some of it hastily and well, things broke. Rubber ribs don’t last forever and neither did some of my more delicate tools that I’ve made from recycled materials.
I’m working at replacing things. Namely all my “ribs” made from hotel cards. I used to save these for the kids to play “store”. This past year I decided not to turn in cards a few times when checking out for pottery tools.
They’re handy. As I need a new shape, I have a card sitting there to cut up as needed. One for smoothing different shapes. One for the slabs fresh out of the slab roller. One for smoothing edges. As I settle into new shapes for mugs and bowls, I’ll cut up more to make smoothing those shapes easier. I particularly like the little keyfob cards.
They’re a little fussy when your hands are slippery but they work well getting into small spots or smoothing little bits at a time.
Spunky Eclectic Pottery 