Changing Clay

This is the second time in my potter’s life that I’ve changed clay colors. I worked in tan stoneware for 2 years before switching to the white earthenware that I used for about 8 years or so. That switch wasn’t too bad. I mean, I worked in the stoneware and went to shows and all but I hadn’t really hit a production stride so I didn’t have a lot of equipment to wash.

When I was doing the white earthenware I was doing up to 16 shows in a year and producing a lot of pottery. I had 2 wheels, an extruder and a slab roller. That’s not even to mention all the little tools and the batts.

So many batts.

Slowly I’m undertaking cleaning the white off of everything. Filling a sink (that has no warm water, only cold) and washing it all is a trudge. I was about half way through cleaning these 60 batts when I started to regret my choice in doing them all at once.

Now that they’re all done, I’m pretty happy I persevered.

I didn’t say I did a good job but it’s good enough. The only price to pay when I don’t do an impeccable job is a little bit of white on the pots. I’m doing majolica so everything but the foot is dipped in white. This makes me feel confident in my haphazard cleaning.
Maybe I’ll work on the tools next. Yes, I like to splash my clay around. When I get singing while I work I sometimes forget I have clay covered hands and I might gesture a bit…. now you know.