Saturday, June 28, 2014

My new Clay Trap

Just putting the finishing touches on my new outdoor clay trap.

It's a biggie! 

It's a design based on the Pottery Making Illustrated magazine article - How to Build a Better Home Made Sink for Your Pottery Studio. I had this type of sink and trap in my old studio in the city which was connected to city sewer. Hubby balked at installing a similar setup when we built the new studio six years ago. Here we are on a septic system and also because the basement (where the studio is) is below grade, we have a sump pump that pushes waste up to the septic system. Both the sump and the septic tank are points where escaping and settling clay sediment could cause us grief. As a result a I end up with a collection of smelly muck buckets here, there, and everywhere in the studio - mostly because I am terribly lazy about hoisting them and taking them out to the back forty to dump.

Gardener hubby has several rain barrels hanging about his veggie garden. I was on the back deck having an afternoon beverage a few weeks back when I locked in on one of the rain barrels, went 'hmmmm' and a clay trap plan was hatched ..... why not put a 5 gal bucket, with holes drilled near the top, inside a rain barrel. I ran it by hubby, and in his wonderful way, he made it happen. The hardest part was getting him to give up the rain barrel ;)

Now I can step out the door, dump my clay water into the barrel (using my handy dandy milk jug funnel) and be done with it. As the water filters off the pail and into the barrel, we will use the barrel tap to water the deck plants ... brilliant!

5 comments:

  1. as one who does not have running water in her studio this is brilliant!! Seriously stealing this idea.... I will post what I do and you can have a good laugh! Honestly write this up in article for Clay Times or CM..... bet they pay for you it!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steal away ... the 'rain barrel' was originally a food barrel (pickles? ... who knows). Rick picked up a few some years back and converted them by adding the faucet, the overflow and drilling holes in the lid (which I've now covered).

      Delete
    2. jeepers I was so excited at the end of that comment I couldn't even talk! I am using the legs of old jeans to filter out the water, In a day or two I turn it inside out and have a perfect sleeve of clay. It's really a pain......
      and I have a lovely blue 55 gallon barrel sitting next to the studio!! Thanks!!

      Delete
  2. Ditto on the Brilliant!! :).. and, re: your last post: ... So true!..trying to get things done, life gets exciting, people are waiting.. but happy customers still. :).. enjoy the summer.. T.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there, I love this idea and want to use this for my own personal space as well, such a good idea and I love that it's in a barrel. I noticed that this post was made in 2014, how do you feel about the barrel method after using this for that long or have you upgraded it? Anyway, awesome idea!

    ReplyDelete