necessity is the mother of invention

At a nearby construction site, I pinched a piece of scrap drywall from the dumpster, cut it into two equal-sized pieces, screwed them together, duct-taped the edges, and voila! a decent working surface. Well, two working surfaces.



I added a later refinement when it occurred to me that I might want to roll out clay sometimes for hand-building. I happened to have some muslin cloth (leftovers from another longstanding project), so I glued on enough to cover one side of my new working board.



One thing leads to another--- now I needed a roller for clay. A friend picked up an old kitchen rolling pin for me from a thrift store or garage sale. It was well-used so its surface was pitted and uneven, as rolling pins often end up. I took it to a woodworking shop and had them lathe it down smooth. Some might argue that it would have been less expensive to buy a brand new rolling pin (I never checked) but I happen to get a charge from recycling old things and putting them back to use, or to a new use. So far, I've only had one or two occasions to use my clay roller, but it works fine--- and it's a helluva lot cheaper than a professional slab roller!