Some stages of building a pottery studio are easy to see. Equipment arrives. Tables take shape. Boxes of clay stack up.
Other parts happen quietly in the background—but they are just as important. Right now, both kinds of progress are happening at Firebox.
The Brent Wheels Are Here
Eight Brent CXC wheels have arrived at the studio.
These will join the nine Shimpo VL-Whispers planned for Firebox, giving students and members a choice between two excellent wheels with distinctly different feels.
For now, the Brents are still waiting for their permanent places. But seeing them inside the studio makes the wheel rooms feel much more real.
Building the Wedging Tables
We are also building the studio's wedging tables.
Wedging tables are simple pieces of equipment, but they do an important job. They provide a sturdy, absorbent surface for preparing clay, working out air pockets, and getting material ready for the wheel or handbuilding table.
Like so much of a ceramics studio, they need to be durable enough for constant use and easy to clean safely. Building them ourselves lets us size them for the rooms and for the way people will actually move through the studio.
Preparing for Clay and Water
The plaster traps have been ordered.
Clay should never go directly down a sink. Over time, even small amounts settle inside the plumbing and create serious problems. Plaster traps capture clay sediment before it enters the building's drainage system.
The traps are our final line of defense, not our entire clay-management system. We will share more later about how we are approaching reclaim and keeping clay out of the sinks in the first place.
They are not the most visible part of the studio, but they are essential infrastructure—the kind of thing that has to work properly every day for everything else to run smoothly.
Shelving for the Community Room
IKEA HEJNE shelving has been ordered for the community room.
The shelving will give us flexible, practical storage as the room begins to take shape. This will be a shared space, so it needs to accommodate different activities without becoming cluttered or difficult to reset.
Good storage is part of making a shared studio feel calm and usable. Every tool, material, and work in progress needs a place to go.
The Clay Is Here
Our Sheffield Pottery clay order has arrived. They are quick—and this is fantastic.
Clay arriving feels like a milestone. Until now, much of the buildout has been about preparing the space for making. Stacks of clay are a sign of what comes next: classes, practice, experiments, and finished work moving through the studio.
Getting Ready to Open Registration
Behind the scenes, we are setting up class registration.
The goal is to confirm our instructors' availability for the semester, finalize the class schedule, and have every registration page ready to go.
There is still an important step ahead: the studio must complete its inspections before we can welcome everyone inside. But by preparing the schedule and registration system now, we will be ready to move quickly once we have approval.
Firebox is not open yet. But piece by piece, it is starting to feel like a pottery studio.
Current stage: buildout, equipment installation, and pre-opening preparation
