My Daily Cleaning Routine

Video Description

During my apprenticeship Lisa Hammond used to always tease me about how much I mopped, saying that I was wearing through the paint on the floor. The truth is, I like a tidy workshop, in fact if the place is chaotic and cluttered I can’t quite focus, perhaps this harkens back to those days as an apprentice, as mess was my duty to tidy up, I knew it was something I’d have to do at the end of the day if I left it that late, so I starting to do a big tidy-up each morning and got pretty good at cleaning up as I go. Professional chefs are taught to do that, right? Then, when I started my six-month apprenticeship in Japan with Ken Matsuzaki, this routine of cleaning continued. Me and Doi, Ken’s main apprentice, would sometimes spend hours each morning sweeping up leaves and snow. We’d pluck red and orange leaves out of the bushes, carefully manicure the moss gardens, scour the wooden-clad buildings and generally just kept the grounds spick-and-span. We’d stuff the wood-kiln full of leaves and dry and burn the blasted damp things. Nowadays there’s far less to tidy up. I don’t have an expansive pottery with grounds around it, so it’s just the studio I have to keep on top of, plus as it’s only me here not everything has to be completely orderly and put away, but the wheel is always one area that I do thoroughly clean and mop around each day before leaving for home. That way in the morning I’ll feel content making straight away. #cleaning #workshop #studiopottery #handmade #studio #artstudio #pottery #ceramics