All financial and moral obligations aside, here are some things I would like to buy.
(I never grew out of the art & crafts kid phase, so brace yourself)
POTTERY WHEEL: $400 – $1000
I refuse to die before I throw clay on a pottery wheel. This has been a long term dream, and I felt my world shatter when I found out that neither Ceramics 1 or 2 are allowed to use the wheel. I still enjoyed my Ceramics 1 experience even though I will have to outsource my pottery wheel access. My upper level Ceramics friends (Meg and Evelyn) have recounted their own difficulties and challenges with using the wheel. However, I grew up playing “Let’s Create! Pottery” on my iPod, so I am filled with groundless confidence that I would thrive. Hours spent shaping digital pottery must translate to something.
I would make masterpieces. Price aside, strength could also be an obstacle here, as throwing pottery might be physically demanding. However this would help justify the price, because then the pottery wheel would also be an investment in my personal health. All jokes aside, if I don’t find a studio that I can work in/rent from within the next few decades, I might just have to buy my own materials.
KILN: $700 – $15,000
Having art as your hobby is somewhat like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; all materials necessitate the purchase of other materials. Now that I’ve bought the wheel, I need a way to fire my pieces. Unless I use air drying or oven bake clay, buying a kiln is non negotiable. Real clay needs to be fired at 1,800 F to 2,400 F— temperatures that my convection oven will not be reaching. The price range suggests a wide variety of kiln options. However, the lower end of the spectrum is listed as “small tabletop kilns” which aren’t going to cut it. I’d like a medium-sized one, ringing up at around $2,000-$3,000 (this is much more reasonable than fifteen thousand). Energy bills and other externalities will not be included in the calculation.
PHOTOBOOTH: $1,000 to $11,000+
I love photobooths with my whole heart. Reasonably, you might question spending $5-7 on photos that your phone can take for free, but my photostrips remain as some of my most treasured memories. Something about the randomness, the spontaneity, and the unconventional nature makes photo booths so fun. I might have to use the booth at least 2,200 times to break even, but maybe I could make it happen in the long run. Better to start early! Having my own would make it incredibly more accessible, but I do wonder whether owning one would dull the magic.
SCREEN PRINTING SUPPLIES: (MANY SMALL THINGS) $$-$$$
My first exposure to screen printing was at Highlands Elementary school. Despite how horribly my designs turned out the first time, I am filled with determination to try again. It will be better on the second try! My Pinterest and Instagram explore pages are filled with screen printed apparel, and I love both the process and the product. I’ve painted and upcycled clothing in other ways, and I’d love to expand into screen printing. The main barrier is the variety of materials I’d need to gather, including but not limited to a screen/wooden frame, a squeegee, ink, a stencil (either cut from paper or a printed graphic), and emulsion. However after listing these out, the list seems less daunting: maybe I’ll invest soon. There are other types of printing that I’d love to try, such as sun printing! But one thing at a time.
RUG MAKING SUPPLIES: $200+?
There was a brief moment in time when I was obsessed with DIY rugs. They can be made by hand with a tufting hook (not sure if that is the right name) or a tufting gun (automated version, but this adds to the price). From there, a list of necessitated supplies would include:
- Foundation fabric
- Tufting frame
- Yarn
- Some sort of adhesive?
- A backing fabric
However, after watching videos of rug creations, I was reminded of how I have no patience for this sort of tedious thing. I used to have a tapestry maker, and spoiler alert: no tapestry was ever completed by Grace Carsello. Know your own shortcomings. But maybe I could pull through if the rug was not too large and I had the automated gun.
BLACKSMITHING MATERIALS: (PROBABLY VERY EXPENSIVE)
I have always wanted to be a blacksmith. It might be more appropriate to say I have always wanted to weld, but blacksmithing has a nice ring to it. Do I want to make swords or just make cute little metal jewelry? I’m down for either. I’m not sure what the requirements are for metalworking, but let’s dive in further.
After some minimal research, it turns out that blacksmithing is one of the more attainable options on this list. I’m not sure that I would trust tools made by myself, but who knows!
This is not an exhaustive list (I didn’t even get into having my own glassblowing studio) but this will suffice for now! Goodbye and goodluck!
Hi Grace!! For starters, your blog immediately piqued my interest. I am the type of person to bounce from hobby to hobby to hobby until I find one I don’t get bored of immediately… until I inevitably get bored again and have to find another one. I had no idea how expensive some of these things were! In my mind, a pottery wheel was just a big plate on a kind of pulley system and then you push the pedal and it spins. $400??? To even a THOUSAND dollars??? One would have to believe that eventually the masterpieces would justify and make back the money, but holy cow that is way more than I ever would have thought for a plate on a pulley. I too had a rug phase, and considering the copious amount of yarn I own from crocheting alone, I had thought about looking into it, but $200 for just the gun? Not including yarn and canvas and the weird board thing they stretch it on??? I would lose my mind. I appreciate you bringing me back to earth and reminding me how much I can appreciate worrying about solely the cost of yarn when crocheting. Thank you Grace!
Hiiii Grace! As someone who also has not grown out of the arts and crafts phase, I totally agree with all of these. I absolutely love the tiny tiny pottery wheels and to be honest I would pay 40 dollars just to make tiny pots. I know a lot of our friends absolutely adore ceramics and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hop on that bandwagon. SCREEN PRINTING SUPPLIES. Oh my god, I see this all over my TikTok. I don’t know why but it kind of reminds me of making paper from scraps. It seems kind of annoying when mass printing but there’s always the personal touch with the colors and technique. I was actually considering trying out rug making but then I thought about it more because what would I do with them? I would make rugs for friends but I only have so many friends. Blacksmithing is also really good. I’ve watched plenty of videos where they like to melt stuff and then mold it into something else. I remember going to naper settlement and watching the person mold a little wrench it was pretty cool but it was terrifying. I really enjoyed your post! It was a fun read!
Hi Grace,
As somebody who has been spending my summer earnings with reckless abandon and cannot wait for my summer job to start soon enough, I really loved this blog. Like, you, I have a long list of things I want/need to buy, but I simply have no justification for any of them. Unfortuantely, mine are less interesting, such as a college closet refresh and a new computer. What I loved about your list was how it aligned with your passions and interests.
Ceramics these days gives me cultish vibes, if we’re being honest, but I find it hard to believe you wouldn’t destroy it on the wheel. It seems like a reasonable price point, and will help realize your digital dreams from years past. If there’s anything on this list that you buy, I feel like this has to be the one. I also find the screenprinting project to be very appealing. The list is longish, but you could probably spread out the purchases so as to reduce the embarrassment factor when you get your bank statement back.
On the other hand, the $15,000 kiln might be a little excessive. Maybe there’s some sort of communal option? I’m sure you’d find access if you needed one, and it would save you a lot of bank-breaking. And you’re right about the photo booth; owning one yourself ruins the magic. I like taking random .5 zoom photos as an alternative option.
Overall, I loved your blog, and I can’t wait to start buying from your etsy shop when all these dreams become realized. And if you do go the etsy route, it’s a tax write-off! So go ahead and buy that kiln.