Green, green, my love is green.

I am a potter; a clay artist.  I love to play in the mud.  I am a creator or functional things because I’m a practical gal.  The pleasure I get from eating or drinking from my own (or others’) hand made vessels is enormous.  I don’t ever think how wonderful I am for having made the thing.  I only think of how wonderful a piece it is and how I feel only partly responsible for it.  I give equal credit to the fire and the glaze for transforming the clay piece into a thing of beauty.  When people compliment me on a piece I’m polite and say thank you, but honestly don’t feel 100% responsible for the piece coming into this world.  Of course I realize that I am 100% responsible for if it weren’t for me making it in the first place, there would be no pots coming from my studio.

I can remain objective about a piece, smashing those that don’t make the grade, although I gave up smashing years ago.  I prefer to go the greener route of throwing the dried clay piece into the scrap clay bucket for recycling before it gets fired, because once fired but still ugly, it can only be smashed to bits and used to fill potholes.  I’d rather not waste my time on something that I don’t find appealing from the get-go.

When I was 10 years old I signed up for something called Clean-a Thon.  Neighbourhood parents sponsored kids to go clean up a stretch of road somewhere in our little town.  Teachers and students picked up trash for an entire afternoon behind the Star-Lite Drive-In Theatre.  We were on Pandora Street and we were armed with trash bags.  I think there was one stick with a nail in the end to assist us and we shared it the whole afternoon.  There was such an abundance of trash!  Everything from beer bottles to popcorn boxes to hubcaps to articles of clothing.  Since that day I have been completely disgusted with litter bugs.

As a result I started recycling early.  I was recycling stuff before the blue box was a twinkle in someone’s eye.  I have converted room mates, boyfriends and parents of both into recyclers.  I’m a pack rat because I’m keeping stuff for a time when it might come in handy.  You can make art out of almost anything!  And I’m pretty sure there has been more than one person who has made art from trash.

Speaking of recycling, I do a lot of that in my studio.  I recycle my clay and I also recycle water.  How?  All of my scrap clay goes into a bucket and all of my clay water goes into the scrap clay bucket too.   Once the bucket is filled, I use a paint stirrer on my drill to mix the scrap clay and water into a thick liquid clay and then I pour it out onto a plaster slab for drying.  The plaster leeches moisture out of the clay.  The drying time is anywhere from 4 – 8 days depending on the weather/humidity.  Then I turn the clay out onto my wedging board and cut it into squares to fit into my recycled plastic bags.

Hand-Me-Downs
I’ve been gifted with clay that another potter might find too daunting or time consuming to recycle.  I’ve been given ancient bags of pre-mixed glazes that two potters had on hand and knew they would never use because they just don’t fire to “that temperature.”  I’ve had raw materials and tools, a kiln and vintage pottery magazines fall like manna from the heavens right into my lap.  This is how I knew for certain that pottery was to be my new career and that this work was actually very eco-friendly.

Yes, eco-friendly.  In addition to recycling my clay and clay water, I believe it’s eco-friendly because I fire in an electric kiln which is powered by hydro.  The water falls and energy is created.  No nukes here.

Before one can have recycled clay, one has to buy clay, and I do buy Canadian clay (Plainsman).  I also buy a small supply of clay that is mined in California (Laguna clay).  The Laguna clay is not purchased often.  I bought four boxes of it this fall and before that I bought some in 2007.

I use some locally sourced raw materials for glaze and keep my eyes and ears opened so I can buy retiring potter’s raw materials.  The raw materials I purchased back in 2002 when I started my life as a potter, were purchased as a package deal along with the 2nd hand kiln.  I got a huge stock of raw materials from a retiring potter, most of which I still have plenty.

One thing I use has been shipped overseas to get here.  Cornish stone.  It comes from the U.K. and the last time I bought a bag of Cornish stone it was from a potter who had 50lbs of it that she simply wasn’t using.  I took advantage of that because one of my most popular glazes is made with Cornish stone and because it comes from overseas, it is very costly.

How green is it to buy locally made pottery for the consumer?  Buying locally made anything means you have reduced your carbon footprint because it’s not being shipped from overseas to get to you.  If it breaks, chances are you’ll want to glue it back together rather than throwing it out since you’ve most likely met the potter who made it and there is an emotional attachment to the piece.  You bought a piece of their life, love and art, so gluing makes sense.  If it truly is smashed beyond recognition, then it won’t pollute if you throw it out.  Chances are it’s going to be a piece of human history that’ll be dug up thousands of years from now.