How One Artist Made a Small Space Work for Her Pottery Business Laura Casas

I am constantly trying to reconfigure my small home pottery studio (actually minuscule might be the more accurate word!) to be more user-friendly. It's coming along, but I am always looking for new ideas to make it work better. So I loved Laura Casas' Studio Visit article in the March 2023 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Today I am sharing a great excerpt from that article in which Laura shares how she makes the most of her small studio space. If you have a small home pottery studio, or haven't set one up yet because you don't think you have the space, read on! –Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

Studio

My studio is located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, in the Carter Building. The building has a lot of character and is one of the oldest businesses downtown. It had many lives before becoming a space for artists, galleries, and startups. I rent a room on the first floor, right at the entrance of the building. My space is 150 square feet with one exterior window that hand-cranks open and a long interior window. My rent is currently $350 a month.

I moved to Raleigh in 2020 with my husband, Mason, and was initially presented with two options: working in our rented apartment or just taking a break from clay all together until community studios opened again after the COVID-19 pandemic. I had even gotten permission from our landlady to install an electrical line for a kiln on our concrete patio. Renting space didn’t even occur to me. Renting space seemed serious. I did not think my work was strong enough to be taken seriously. Mason encouraged me to try renting out space to work in. He recalled that the location where he had my engagement ring made, Metamorphosis Metals, was in a large building for artists with a lot of unoccupied rooms. I reached out to the building owner, Mr. Carter himself, through email, and he called me back within the day to schedule a viewing. I was shocked that he responded so quickly, and asked them to give me a month to figure things out. Once I finished writing out my business plan, I felt confident. I was going to operate a small business in downtown Raleigh. 

The personality of the building, its inhabitants, and the opportunity to grow in a city was exciting. The layout of my studio has me running things like a tight ship. Working in a small space requires being efficient and conscious about storage, work schedule, and, most importantly, cleanliness. It’s all connected and reminds me of working in a restaurant. 

My studio is sectioned into three main areas: 

1. Exterior display: This is what folks see when they first come into the building. We can decorate our exterior walls and space however we like. I have a few shelves outside my door to display business cards, postcards, plants, and pots. I have chosen to store my clay boxes here, too; it’s a good talking point for interested customers. 
2. Entrance and gallery space: This space is just big enough for two people to stand in and look around. I have a wall dedicated to my pins, stickers, and jewelry, and then two shelves dedicated to planters and other functional works.
3. Workspace: This is the largest area of the room, where I have my working table, metal shelf, sink, and kiln. 

My favorite aspect of this space is also sometimes my least favorite. The windows. They make the room seem bigger than it is with all of the natural light, but it often feels like I am in a fishbowl. My studio is also open to the public. All of these aspects motivate me to have my studio look clean and presentable. If needed, I have curtains that I can pull down when I want to focus. It is so easy to get caught in an hours-long conversation with neighbors or visitors, especially when deadlines are close!  

When putting my studio together, I drew inspiration from the other studios I worked in previously, particularly the small basement clay studio at The Women’s Studio Workshop. The studio manager, Ruth McKinney Burket, had the small community space efficiently arranged and organized. 

The size of my space has been no issue, since this is still the largest solo studio I have worked in. As long as I have a workspace and then a dedicated clean space, I feel successful with the arrangement. I believe my studio is the perfect size for one person. 

Although handbuilding has the advantage of being low impact and generally using less water than throwing, I still wanted a sink or direct access to water. My rent currently includes electricity and water, but the sinks are in a communal area of the building. Thanks to all the tiny-home YouTube videos my husband and I watch, we decided to make a foot-pump sink system. The sink has a clean-water jug to the side that I refill at the community sink and a dirty-water bucket underneath where clay and debris is collected at the bottom. I siphon off the water from the bucket when needed. I enjoy this system as it has given me a new perspective on my water consumption. 

At home, Mason and I share an office, although I have taken it over with non-clay projects. In the future, I want to expand my studio space so I can host classes, more friends, and guests, and freely make with other materials like fibers, textiles, and metal, etc. I feel interdisciplinary at heart and love to work and create with anything I can get my hands on. 

A typical day in the studio is spent focusing on a series of tasks. I also like to set aside time to reset my studio at the day’s end—tidying up so I can get right back into work the next day. As best as possible, I like having events scheduled in advance so I know when and what work to have ready or what my timeline or piece limit will be. 

My ideal timeline for a batch of work (35 pieces) is 3 months. The first month is for wet clay forming. I start off by prepping a series of measured coils, wedged balls, and cut-out slabs. These are placed in damp boxes and then used to assemble my pots. The second month is spent decorating and glazing. I primarily decorate pots in the greenware phase—using a combination of terra sigillata, colored slip, and underglaze. Because cleanliness is important and also very necessary, while the batch of pots is in the kiln, I deep clean the studio. This whole-day event starts with taking any light furniture out of the room. Then I wipe everything down, mop, reset the sink, access reclaim, and change the air filters. This sets me up for a clean space to photograph, document, and pack work. 

I often squeeze smaller batches in this larger timeline if needed. I get easily distracted, so a paper and digital schedule are very important for me. 

www.lauracarolinecasas.com

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