Pottery Obsession

It's been a minute or two since I last blogged. Got in to pottery in a big. I've taken 3 wheel throwing classes in my life and at the last class, it really clicked for me, so I went ALL IN.
Work Space
My wonderful husband bought me an intro pottery wheel (Vevor 14"). The cost difference between this and the other name brand machines is wild. This wheel does not have bat pins and I definitely wanted to use bats, so I did research and found out that using a shammy works pretty well for keeping the bat stuck on the wheel.
I converted part of my laundry room into a throwing studio. Then I got a work table with and made my own plywood tabletop, then added some carts for glaze. Also had to buy a bunch of buckets and make my own plaster bats for recycling clay. I also bought a bunch of tools from Temu.
Firing
I started out using Kilnshare to rent space in a local kiln. But I got tired of that real quick with the Seattle traffic and constant back and forth. My husband found me a used kiln on FB Marketplace. He polished it up, changed out the elements and controls and it works like a charm! It's a KM-818, so manual kiln that I have to babysit and turn the knob to turn up the temp. It's been a really learning experience. I've melted many a pot and had to replace one control that partially melted.
At first, I thought I might keep the kiln in my garage since it's not that big, but doing research in to the fumes from the kiln, I decided I needed a kiln shed! So more work. Figured out the best spot for a shed and decided on a 4x6' footprint. Made a gravel foundation, bought a cheap metal shed from Amazon, then hired an electrician to install the 240V outlet. That was the most expensive part of this.
Working Studio
So now I have working home pottery studio.