6 Money-Saving Tips for Potters

We invest a lot of money in our artwork, and rightfully so! But there's no reason to spend more than you have to. Here are some starting tips to help you keep more money in your pocket when you sell your work.

1. Use a Pug Mill to Recycle Clay

 Save your scraps! Potters who use Pug Mills save huge amounts of scrap clay from hand building, trimming, and throwing. Pug mills make it possible to re-hydrate all of those icky, dried out scraps of clay that you would otherwise just throw away! Since clay can get expensive, we don't want our members to have to do that. That's why we will be buying a Pug Mill for our pottery studio! 

2. Make "Mystery Glazes"

 Stop throwing away the last bits of glaze because its "not enough to use on anything." You can recycle glaze remnants by making "mystery glazes."

Combine glazes of the same firing range to create unique, experimental glazes.

Making mystery Glazes is not only a great penny-pinching strategy, its also good for the environment! Glazes are full of trace elements that are not very healthy for our water, so keeping them out of landfills is a plus for the green-minded potter (and the baby sea turtles)!

3. Learn About the Kiln

Investing a little bit of time and energy into learning the details of the firing process can save you a lot of pots! When you know how to load and fire your kiln properly, you could save a lot of art work. We will be offering free firing lessons for members at our new pottery studio in august.

4. Re-purpose Tools

 Find creative ways to make your own pottery tools and invent things to suit your needs. re-purpose miscellaneous items into pottery tools. Dental tools make good carving and texture tools. Junk credit cards and gift cards can be cut to make unique ribs and forming tools The list goes on!

5. Preserve your Green-Ware Properly

 If you are a busy person, it can be hard to get into the studio at just the right moment in the drying process to catch your green-ware.  A lot of pieces may get wasted because they died out before you were ready.

 You can extend the life of your green-ware by extending the drying time of your clay. Clay should be stored in a cool, moist environment. Store your green-ware  in thick bags, and keep them out of the sun and heat. 

Keeping you clay in an airtight container, such as an old refrigerator, or a cooler keeps your clay workable for much longer. 

6. Commit to Your Artwork

When you commit to year of studio membership, you will be able to buy all of your clay and glazes at wholesale price plus shipping. That's about half off of what you may be currently paying. 

If you're dedicated to your work, and you use a lot of clay and glazes, then our year-long membership is a great way to save hundreds. For more information about our Pottery Studio Memberships, visit our Pottery Studio Page.