Sustainable ceramics?

Pottery is made of clay, which is essentially a type of earth. It is usually glazed, for decorative purposes, to give it a smooth hygienic surface and, depending on the clay and glaze, help it to hold liquid.

From the rest of this site you’ll gather I’m against throw away consumerism. Not a great position from which to set up a selling business! I do however think it’s fine to have useful things designed to last. We live in a throw away culture where business actively make products designed to break, so you buy more! Terrible! We do know however, from all the Roman ceramics and other ancient relics, that pottery can last. If you treat ceramics well they can last a really long time .

In a world full of greenhouse gases and mountains of landfill my mission is to reduce my impact as much as I can. This is what I’m doing so far in terms of pottery:

• With the help of some kind friends, I repurposed bits of an old conservatory and scrap wood from the Bristol wood recycling project to make a studio in my garden. It’s insulated with wool although is still a bit of a work in progress, I definitely need to make it warmer for the winter.

• I throw my pots on a kick wheel so just leg power involved in that! It’s probably good for me too.

• I use water collected from my studio roof and my waste water drains into a raised bed and water a big jasmine bush.

• Firing is the big power eater in pottery. Alas air pollution in Bristol is awful so my kiln is powered by electricity not wood. I am on a green electricity tariff and my kiln is very efficient. The insulation is amazing. It takes over 30 hours to cool down after firing!

• I use mid range firing clay and glazes. Traditionally stoneware clay is fired to cone 10 (around 1300^oC) but many modern clays don’t need to get this hot to vitrify and many glazes have been developed that mature nicely at lower temperatures. I fire to between 1200 and 1220 degrees.

• I single fire my ceramics to save energy (and my short attention span). Clay needs to get to around 1000 degrees to turn into pottery. Since the industrial revolution most pots have been fired twice, once to turn to pot (bisque firing) then once more slightly hotter to glaze. In single fire you just fire once to turn the clay into glazed pottery. Before the industrialisation of pottery this was standard practice but nowadays its considered a bit odd ball and is a bit more fiddly. There’s a whole article on single firing here.

• Until clay is fired it can be reused. over and over again. All my scrap clay goes in a reclaim bucket to be processed and reused. Clay that gets dirt in it ends up dug into my garden.

• Many potters smash their experiments and mistakes as they want to protect their work quality. As a potter some cracked pots are inevitable, I don’t like waste so any that are still usable I sell cheaper as ‘seconds’. Pieces that are not functional, I try to repurpose. (I would love to find a mosaic artist to pass on my utter disasters to! Get in touch if this is you!)

• Re-use packaging. I am yet to buy new bubble wrap. Literally everyone I know has a stash of packaging they don’t know what to do with. This is a potters dream! I shout out on local whatsapp and facebook groups for unwanted packaging and am instantly inundated with other peoples squishy envelopes, brown paper, bubble wrap etc etc!

• Repurpose tools. Tools are really useful in pottery but you don’t often need to buy new tools. Old credit cards, wooden forks, broken spatulas, shelves out of skips, wire drawers, these can all be repurposed for use in my studio!

• Composting! I home compost any scrap paper, card, papertowel, chunks of clay I drop on the floor that are beyond cleaning. I make about 1 small bag of black bin waste a year.

• My jewellery is presented in kraft cardboard boxes that are fully compostable.

• Where I use silver, e.g for my necklaces, I use chains made of recycled silver.

I have tried to trace some supply chains but tbh I haven’t got very far. I buy commercial glazes and would like to start making my own glazes, both for aesthetic reasons but also so I can more easily trace the ingredients. A few years ago I chased a few clay companies to try and get some carbon footprint data for clays etc but I didn’t get much response. I probably need to try again.

N.b. I am not up for greenwashing!  My set up isn’t carbon neutral and is very much a work in progress. 

What have I missed? What do you do to improve your sustainability practice? Let me know!