Maybe you could put your drill press in the kitchen… I did! ;D

That’s a good point about the sink, too. The bedroom I converted is right next to a bathroom so it’s OK for filling and emptying the water containers I use for sanding in the studio, but it was nice having big sinks to work at. Luckily I don’t need to hand-sand much as my tumbler does most of the work, but for my next house I’ll definitely want a sink in the studio.

The other thing that the kitchen was good for was access to ice for treating translucent clay… so it must be time to buy a bar fridge! LOL

FYI: This website is filled with tips, advice, and fantastic tutorial videos on just about everything polymer clay (especially when it comes to beads/jewelry.) You can use the search function at the top of each page to find specific info (type in “clay storage”, “holiday ornaments”, etc. to get articles or comments/Q & A about the topic of your choice.) Or ask questions as you did here.

A “cool” thing: Cindy has a Polymer Clay Newsletter (link at top of page,) check it out! You’ll get 3 free videos when you sign up, and then get 2 free color recipes each week (from Cindy’s coordinated color palettes.)
~Kat

I used to clay in the kitchen and had beads, craft and art supplies lurking in three other rooms. It got to the chaos stage before I decided to get my act together and organise it all, but I’m glad I did and now wish I’d done it sooner. It’s just so nice to have everything at hand and plenty of room to mess about in.

I was lucky enough to have a spare bedroom to convert… the other alternative I considered was to use part of my garage: paint the cement floor and cement render and paint the walls so it didn’t look garage-y, put bench-height-to-ceiling shallow storage all along one side wall, put flip-up or flip-down benches along the same wall so as not to encroach on parking space if I did need to get another car in there, and install more lighting, but it wouldn’t have been as nice and would have been more work to set up. But maybe those ideas will be helpful to someone anyway.

@aims: It’s hard to see even in the full size photo (which is much bigger than even the large version I uploaded), but neither piece is raku (unfortunately, because I like raku). The piece at the far right is some sort of ceramic, but don’t ask me what! LOL It has a metallic finish so it picks up colours from the dark brown bookcases and surrounds, but because it’s also covered in fine lines you get interesting colour shifts rather than an obvious reflection. The other piece is actually the same as the low bowl that’s standing vertically (third piece from the left); they have a wooden base covered in metal leaf topped with several layers of laquer. The horizontal one is reflecting the bookcase it’s sitting on, which gives that interesting visual effect. I’m a bit of a sucker for “decorator items” and all those pieces were spares that weren’t in use anywhere else in my house at the time, so I figured it would be more interesting to put them up there than back in a cupboard.

My brother is a potter who specializes in barrel-fired raku. The two pieces on the far right of your picture look like that. Am I correct?