The wheel I expected to be the most expensive part of the studio. Many Pottery wheels sell for over $1000 which was well above my budget.

We looked at craigslist and called a few universities but couldn't find anything that was just terrible.

We also played with the idea of building our own. I came close it to it on several occasions but ultimately, I decided they would either be too week or too complicated to build.

Here are a few of the designs we debated on and some of the conclusions we reached.

I kept seeing these cheep wheels on Ebay and Amazon with almost no reviews. At first they were only offered as 220v wheels but some with 120v started to show up. These ranged from $150-$350.

I did a bit a research and decided to risk it on one of these wheels. It worked out great!

So, I know you should have a separate area to wedge, to work, and to dry / store. I just didn't have the space.

I ended up building a work table that was very simple and attached to the frame of the room.

I will walk through exactly how I did it but it was all done using scrap wood and supplies laying around the house.

I did spend a few bucks getting a set of pottery tools and a wedging mat.

There are lots of different materials that can be used for a wedging surface, some I considered included:

• Canvas

• Masonite

• Plywood

• Tile / Slate

I ended up settling on Plywood since I had it laying around. Canvas created way too much dust and tile was not absorbent enough. At the end of the day, I love my small work table.

For storing and drying, a simple $30 plastic shelf from Home Depot worked just fine.

This one is a tough one. there are actually lots of kiln I had seen become available on Craigslist for under $300.

The problem is, I am out of room in my electrical box and most I have seen require 220k.

My pottery room shares space with the furnace and the water heater as well so I don't want to have something operating at 2000 degrees next to all the utilities / in the middle of my basement.

For these reasons, I have 3 possible solutions:

• Firing in a pit

This has been done for 1000's of years and works, but its a bit tricky and I live in a subdivision with an HOA - we are going to do this at some point because it's just fun but have not tried it yet.

• Setting up a Kiln outside

This solves my indoor problem and keeps me from building huge fires in my yard but still requires electricity and budget for the Kiln, that said - if a good one comes around, I will probably spring for it and get it set up.

• Local Pottery / Community Collage

This one is a winer, for $25 a shelf at the local pottery, I can bring unfired pots and have them fired with good equipment safely. Also, when you sign up for a class at the local community college , you can sometimes use the studio to fire all semester without actually needing to attend much. Have not tried this option but will see.

A sink is not required by ANY means, just helpful. I found an old laundry sink that one of my neighbors left out. All I had to do was re-plumb the connections with some new connectors and teflon tape.

I have bad knees and don't love concrete. We found this great bouncy, waterproof and cleanable foam flooring we used for a gym area, I had some left over and it became the floor of my pottery studio.

Look. It's the utility room. I has not natural light so I ran some overhead lighting that would give me a bit more visibility when working but basically, this room is a 10'x12' utility room. I am using about 30% of it for our pottery. It doesn't take a lot. Really.

I did install a carbon monoxide detector just in case and brought a fire extinguisher in but these are things we should have anyway.

We probably could have made a closet work. Seriously.

The only downside is the kids and keeping them away from tools / keeping the rest of the house clean :)