Growing up, being environmentally conscious was part of our regular curriculum… the things you do today will impact our world tomorrow.

As artists I think we are wired to be empathetic… we feel our feelings, we see the concerns and cares of people around us and we want to make a difference. We come up with concepts to raise awareness, when we see problems we use our platforms to try to make a change…

most outsiders probably consider all artists a little hippy dippy if you know what I mean. I used to wonder what people meant when I was being labeled as a hippie… and I would say, “if you mean I love people and I want peace, health and happiness for everyone around me, while being environmentally friendly, then yes… I am a hippie.”

I am a pretty conservative person, an athlete, I love Jesus, I hate shopping, and I am pretty goofy. To put anyone in a category for ease of simplifying the world around you is an easy way to make false judgments and forgo your chance to get to know and understand someone.

But to say all artists are a certain way is wrong… to say anyone is the same as someone else is wrong even identical twins have their own gifts and abilities, personally, likes and dislikes… just ask Randy!

One thing we do all have in common as a human is we live on earth. That is the one thing we all share, use, and rely on. The heavy part about this is, it’s all of our responsibilities to take care of it.

In this podcast I want to share some simple ideas of how you can do your part in that care.

1 reclaim clay that haven’t been fired… easy way is to use a pug mill… harder way is to slake it down and place it on older to dry out then re-wedge it.

2 before you throw something away picture where it is going. In the ceramics world it maybe a bisque fired piece, or even a glazed piece..: something went won’t and it’s not what you had picture…

One way to reuse a broke bisque piece is to use it to test glazed on…

another thing is to break it up or get it pulverized and use it as grog in future sculpture pieces… another thing that has become very popular are succulent plants. I am sure sprinkling some of the pulverized piece on top of the soil in the planted pot would have regulate the slow release of water into the soil.

3for glaze fired pieces, considered repurposing by creating mosaics… I know you can start accumulating so many pieces and it’s hard to keep them around, but picture the alternative… it could be at the bottom of a landfill for eternity… archeologists will be digging these things up thousands of years form now… a bit of a daunting thought when you look at it that way…

4 glaze clean up. Often times we don’t want to just be pour glaze and all of its materials down our water system. A simple and fun way to solve this altogether is to do clean up in a bucket that you keep and over time you will have a beautiful mystery glaze. It’s great cuz it’s a bonus glaze for you and you are helping the environment at the same time.

6 with glass you can even reuse thugs that weren’t projects to begin with… wine bottles, old soda bottles!!!

Randy what are some things to look out for when recycling or reusing glass?

With all this being said… our world is our home. Do what you can to protect it, love it, and honor it.