Table of Contents

Age Restrictions

The Ceramics area is on the Warehouse side of DMS. Ceramics has sharp tools, many breakable items, and departments nearby with blow torches and heavy equipment. 

• Members who are 16+ years old can use the space unsupervised. 
• People 12+ years old must be directly supervised by their accompanying adult during the visit. I thought the rule was 13-16 must have a parent with them. Teachers can decide if they will teach under 16 or not at their discretion. 
• DMS-wide age restrictions supersede committee rules.

21 Day Rule

In-progress pieces will be disposed of 21 days after the labeled creation/throwing date. n bats for more than a week will be discarded.

It’s a community space, and we have to make room for everybody’s latest work.

• This rule applies even to items with a name and a date. We’re responsible for tracking our own work. 
• Items without labels will be discarded on the next discard date.
• Pieces can remain on bats for a maximum of 7 days.
• Discard dates/times are up to the discretion of the Shelf Cleaning Lead, and are not on the calendar.
• Disposal dates are not for a “last call”, they’re for disposal.
• Discarded pieces are not “up for grabs”, no matter how beautiful.  This is someone else’s art. 

Finished pieces also have a 21-day rule. 

• The “timer” starts when that piece is removed from the kiln. 
• Abandoned bisque-fired pieces will be disposed of after 21 days on the pick-up shelf.
• Abandoned glaze-fired pieces will be disposed of after 21 days on the pick-up shelf
• Please place the little star/balloon/etc..(call these things what you like) In the glass dish for reuse 

In total, all pieces essentially have a generous 63 total days allowed to be on a shelf in the space (21 in progress, 21 bisque, and 21 fired), but it’s risky to wait until the last second to pick up your pieces, and it’s easy to forget your pieces are even there. 

We recommend taking a photo of your pieces when you put them on a shelf as a “record” for yourself to check if you don’t remember what or how much you dropped off. 

The Shelving System

There are a few kinds of shelves, and each has specific requirements. 

• In-Progress
• Drop Off Bisque Greenware to be fired - items are fired to bisque
• Drop Off Glaze Glaze to be fired
• Needs Attention
• Pick-Up Bisque & Glaze Finished glaze and bisque work

In-Progress Shelves

• Bats/wareboards must be labeled with name and date when the piece was thrown/created. 
• Use the masking tape and sharpie provided. Use a small amount of masking tape
• It’s safest to add 2 labels if the piece is covered (one on the bat/wareboard and one on the covering of your piece).

Unlabeled pieces are considered abandoned and will be disposed of.Pieces can remain on bats for a maximum of one week before being moved onto ware boards.After a week on the bat at most, move your piece to a ware board to continue drying.If you need to change the label, do not change the date. Use the same label and date as the creation date - labels must be transferred from bats to ware boards. If your piece is going to take longer than the 21 days to dry due to size or humidity, please change your date so we know you have not abandoned your item and have been monitoring it. Pieces on labeled ware boards will be disposed of 21 days after the labeled date.

• Ware boards should be cleaned after you use them and put back in the correct space at our storage table.

Drop Off (Bisque and Glaze)

Communication is key. For both shelves, add a note to your piece if it seems to break a rule, or has special handling needs. If the kiln team isn’t comfortable loading that piece (at their discretion), it will be placed on the Needs Attention shelf.

Kiln team members may load the kilns at any time of the day or night, so these rules are in effect at all times. 

Bisque

Where you place greenware pieces that need to be fired/re-fired. 

• Ensure your pieces are completely dry before placing them on this shelf. This shelf is not for drying, but for immediate firing.
• Wet pieces (or pieces we suspect may be wet) will be placed on the Needs Attention shelf. The kiln team doesn’t want to be responsible for blowing up others’ pieces.  And wet pieces warp the boards on the shelf.

Glaze

Where you place glazed/re-glazed pieces that need to be fired/re-fired. 

• Ensure your pieces are completely dry before placing them on this shelf. This shelf is not for drying, but for immediate firing.
• Anything out of the ordinary should have a note communicating what you are doing for the kiln team. 
• If your piece is taking too long to dry and you need to go, use a heat gun to carefully dry the glaze. This may cause the glaze to dry with cracks and flake off, so use this sparingly. Not necessarily true…..glaze that is old, too much water added, or other factors can flake. Items with flaking glaze will require your own cookie or to be glazed in another way. 
• Wet pieces (or pieces we suspect may be wet) might get glaze on the kiln team members’ hands as they’re loading them, and are prohibited. 
• You must follow the rules for glazing covered in the Orientation class, providing your own cookie if you have glaze lower than ¼” from the bottom of the piece. 
• All posted or stilted items require you to provide your own cookie for firing. 

Needs Attention Shelf 

Any item that is too wet to load in bisque will be placed here

Glaze that does not follow the rules; not own your own cookie, no note explaining what you are doing, will be placed on needs attention.

Pick-up Shelves

• When a kiln team member unloads the bisque/glaze kiln, they take photos of each shelf and post them on Talk so you can check whether your pieces have been fired. This is when the “timer” starts for those pieces. 
• Do not pick up or move others’ pieces unless it’s absolutely necessary to access your piece. Nothing is worse than accidentally destroying someone else’s hard work. 
• Use your judgment and a great deal of care to move others’ pieces if you have to. Don’t drag them across the shelf, or just push them around (some may be fragile).  
• Any abandoned bisque-fired or glaze-fired pieces on the pick-up shelves will be disposed of after 21 days )
• If you provided a cookie and it’s not with the piece, look on the pickup shelves for it. It may have been moved to make room for others’ pieces, or because the kiln team needed to use a different cookie. 

Maintaining and Cleaning the Space

The Ceramics space is a community, nobody “owns” it. Committee members volunteer to hold positions, but are not obligated to clean up after us. There’s no Ceramics cleaning staff, just occasional sweeping/mopping and trash disposal. 

General

• Reset any space you use so that it’s clean for the next member. 
• Members are responsible for cleaning the tools and machines they use, and putting things back in their proper place.
• A few times a year, the community comes together to clean the entire space. Day to day cleaning has to be done by the member who made the mess. 
• All buckets, tools, and sponges are to be taken to the utility sink for cleaning, then put back where you got them. 
• Throw lumps of clay in the trash can. The sink's clay trap is only meant to capture small amounts of clay and glaze, not clumps.
• Sweep or mop any trimmings, clay, slip splatters, or other messes. 
• Use a damp sponge to clean any place you worked with clay, we should not be able to see the color of clay you used. .
• If you find someone’s left a tool behind, it’s a kindness to post a photo on Talk and let them know you found it, and where it is now. 

Slab Roller

• Clean up the slab roller after use by wiping the surface with a damp (not too wet) sponge to remove any dust, clumps, or smudges.
• Reset the height of the roller to ½" if it’s extremely low. 
• Leave the canvases on the slab roller table, wet side open so they can dry.
• Use the side of the canvas marked DARK or LIGHT for rolling the color of clay you’re working with. 
• Do not cut anything or use metal tools on the table’s canvas or rolling canvases. These can tear and snag the canvas. 
• If the canvases get super dirty, post on Talk, or wash it yourself with cold water. The washing machines at the makerspace use hot water, and shrink/warp the canvases. 

Slipcasting

• Use only plastic or wooden tools on the edges of the slip casting molds.
• Tools should never touch the interior of a mold.
• Rule about shelf placement of molds that have slip. Any mold (hump, slump, slip casting) can be occupied for no longer than 48 hours. If it is placed on in progress it should be on a ware board and labeled like any other work 
• Other slipcasting rules? Bring your own slip, Slip at the space is for classes (i don't think we are selling slip)

Cleaning After Throwing on the Wheel

• All buckets, tools, and sponges are to be taken to the utility sink for cleaning, then put back where you got them.
• Throw lumps of clay in the trash can. The sink's clay trap is only meant to capture small amounts of clay and glaze, not clumps.
• Bins are to be cleaned and stored on the back of the wheels not on the wire rack
• We should not know what color clay you used, if your wheel is clean.