The Dust You Don't See: Silica Safety for UK Potters Working in Small Spaces

There is a moment in every potter's life when the romance meets the mop. You've had a lovely afternoon throwing, the pots are on the shelf, and then you look at the floor. It's coated. The wheel head has a grey film. Your apron looks like it's been through a flour fight. That film is clay, and clay contains silica. Dry it out, disturb it, and a fraction of it will float around at exactly the size your lungs would rather it didn't.

None of this means clay is out to get you. Wet clay is about as harmless as mud. The issue is dust, and dust is a housekeeping problem more than a pottery problem. Get the habits right and you can pot happily for decades without turning your studio into a hazmat site.

Where the dust actually comes from

Most hobby potters assume dust comes from the wheel. It doesn't, really. It comes from everything that happens after the clay dries.

• Trimming and carving. Dry-ish leather-hard clay throws off fine particles under a loop tool.
• Sanding. The big one. Dry sanding a bisque-fired pot is essentially making silica dust on purpose.
• Recycling. Dropping bone-dry scraps into a bin, or letting a bucket of slops dry into a cracked crust, then breaking it up.
• Glaze materials. Silica flour, flint, feldspar and kaolin are all fine powders. Weighing them out in a draughty kitchen is a dusty business.
• Cleaning. Dry sweeping or brushing a bench is the classic own goal.
• Kiln shelves and kiln wash. Scraping shelves sends dust up, and it drifts.

The health concern is the respirable fraction, the particles small enough to travel deep into the lungs. In the UK, workplace exposure to respirable crystalline silica is regulated under COSHH, with a workplace exposure limit set at 0.1 mg/m³ over an eight-hour average. That's a workplace figure, not a hobbyist one, but it tells you the direction of travel: dust is treated as something to control, not something to shrug at.

Why this matters without the fear

Silicosis is a real disease and it takes years of exposure to develop, which is why full-time potters and studio technicians take it seriously. As a hobbyist doing a few hours a week, your risk is low, but it isn't zero, and the fix is mostly boring: keep things wet, keep things covered, and don't breathe in the fine stuff. The goal isn't a sterile laboratory. It's a studio where the floor doesn't puff when you walk across it.

Ventilation: the boring bit that does the most work

If you're in a garage, shed or spare room, the cheapest dust control is a draught. Crack a window, open the door, and let the air move through rather than settle. A fan blowing dust around the room is not ventilation, it's a distribution service.

For any dry sanding, mixing or shelf scraping, you want extraction at the source. In UK terms that means local exhaust ventilation, ideally a proper LEV unit, or failing that doing the job outside, upwind, with a mask on. Kilns are a separate conversation about fumes rather than dust, but they still need a well-ventilated space and a sensible distance from where you store dry materials.

If you're renting a studio space, ask how the air moves. If the answer is a shrug, that's information.

The cleaning routine that does the heavy lifting

The single best habit in pottery is cleaning as you go, while everything is still damp.

• Wipe benches with a damp cloth or sponge, not a brush.
• Mop floors rather than sweeping them. A damp mop beats a broom every time.
• Use a vacuum with proper filtration. In the UK, look for an M-class machine rated for hazardous dust. A domestic cylinder vac will just redistribute the fine particles back into the room.
• Keep slurry wet. Buckets with lids. Scrap bins with water in them. Never let a bucket dry out into a cake you then have to break up.
• Clean the wheel head and splash pan before the clay dries on.
• Don't eat, drink or smoke in the making area. Wash your hands before you do any of those things elsewhere.

PPE: what to wear, and when

You don't need a respirator to sit at the wheel. You do need one for the dusty jobs.

• FFP3 masks for dry mixing, sanding, shelf scraping and deep cleaning. Fit matters more than the rating, and facial hair breaks the seal. If it fogs your glasses, it isn't sitting right.
• A dedicated apron that stays in the studio. Dust travels home on clothes.
• Shoes that live by the door, so you're not tracking clay dust into the kitchen.
• Gloves when handling glaze chemicals, and a decent pair of nitrile ones are fine for most hobby work.

The aim is to avoid dry sanding entirely where you can. Wet sanding, or a damp sponge on bisque, is slower but vastly cleaner. Many UK potters sand under a trickle of water in a sink or a washing-up bowl and never look back.

Smarter choices with clay and glaze

You can reduce dust before it ever exists. Buy clay in moist, sealed bags and keep it wrapped. Choose pre-mixed glazes over raw materials if you're not set up for weighing powders, or mix them in a dedicated, ventilated spot with a mask on. Recycle scraps by dropping them straight into water rather than letting them dry out. Store dry materials in sealed tubs, labelled, off the floor.

None of this is about restricting what you make. It's about making the studio a place you can keep using.

What to ask a UK studio before you join in 2026

If you're signing up for a course or a membership, a few polite questions will tell you a lot:

• Is there a COSHH assessment for the materials used, and can I see it?
• Is the extraction or LEV tested, and when?
• What's the cleaning rota, and who does it?
• Is there a no-dry-sanding rule?
• Are benches wet-wiped between sessions?
• Is there an M-class vacuum, or just a broom?
• Where are glazes mixed, and is it separate from the throwing area?
• Are aprons and masks provided, or should I bring my own?

A good studio will answer these without flinching. A great one will have the answers pinned to the wall.

The short version

Keep clay wet, keep dust down, keep the air moving, and wear a mask for the messy jobs. Silica safety isn't a reason to be frightened of your hobby. It's just another craft skill, like wedging or centring, and it gets easier with practice.