the search for great pottery tools

Ok, pottery tools people! This is an area that I have been slacking on as of late, and I am starting to get my act together. Not only are most of my pottery tools old, cobbled together, but in a general, big sloppy mess inside of a bin that I believe used to hold bath supplies.

​When I look around the studio that I frequent, most of the cool pottery kids have nice pottery tool bags. They look like giant electrician or tool bags. You can get one of these at Lowes or Home Depot. I didn't realize how important this was until I finally got one myself... a game changer! Now I can finally locate my stuff!

​Besides these bags, I am starting to have a greater appreciation of high quality, well made, pottery tools. Sure you can always use average tools. I have used a handful of these tools over the years and I have gotten by. You can make your own texture molds that you see above and get some good results, but one of my studio friends pointed me to some MKM tools that are fantastic.

​When I pulled these tools out of the box, I immediately smelled a nice woody, linseed oil smell... yumm! These people are not messing around and take great care in crafting their tools.

​So, these tools are kind of expensive. I might have to start a second job to support by MKM habit, but I am happy to say, that I do need to branch out and collect some more of these wooden masterpieces.

​The roller and texture blocks on the right would be great for slab construction pieces or would provide subtle textural details to wheel thrown functional pieces. Either way, it's worth a try.

​I know that in my art classroom the K/1 kids LOVE texturizing clay. I think they would be all about these texture rollers. I have to see if I can work some art budget magic and purchase some of these for next year!

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