What Say You, Dead Guy?

Dead Guy and The Greedy-Fingers Demon 

Around the studio, one of the things I don't get compensated for but do anyway is clean off the shelves that have been abandoned by former students and studio members. In the month I've been doing it, I've cleared off about forty shelves, some of which were abandoned over two years ago. When I clean off a shelf, I'm supposed to box up the work, tools, etc., label the boxe(s) with the person's name, then put them up on top of the shelves. That's what's supposed to happen. What actually happens is I first smash up the greenware (unfired clay) pieces and put the bisqued and glaze pieces on a cart where abandoned work goes after several months. When it comes to the abandoned tools, The Greedy-Fingers Demon in me takes over and rifles through them to take any that look interesting, offers the remainder to those in the studio at the time, then places what's left in a big bin for people to pick through later.

By this means, I've acquired a gaggle of sponges and wires, a few throwing tools, a couple of stamps, and other small miscellaneous things that I might find useful at some point. I've supplied other people with sponges, wires, needle tools, a few hand-building tools, and other things that they might find useful at some point. 

It's a rogue practice that we engage in, The Greedy-Fingers Demon and I, but I'm okay with it because most people aren't coming back months or years after leaving the studio. They probably aren't going to make a special trip to retrieve their sponges and needle tools. In fact, in the eleven years I've been at the studio, off and on, I've never seen anyone return for their old things. (Dave says he's seen it happen twice.) So, whatever. The way I see it: I had to clean off your shelf for you? Your tools are now mine.

But what about Dead Guy?

First of all, Dead Guy may not actually be dead.  I'm just assuming he's dead from circumstantial evidence. See, Dead Guy paid six months rent late last year, showed up for a month, then stopped showing up. No one has seen him in about eight months. His rent ran out almost three months ago. When I asked about him (because I'd never met him), someone told me that he was quite sick with leukemia the last time they saw him. The logical brain says that either he's already dead or too sick to come back to the studio.

I shouldn't strip Dead Guy's shelves, says my guilty conscience. What if he comes back from the dead? What if he's not really dead? What if he's just very, very sick, makes a recovery, comes back to the studio expecting to find his stuff? What then?

Here's where The Greedy Fingers Demon comes into it. Dead Guy has a lot of nice tools. Really, really nice tools. He's got a top of the line banding wheel, for example, and a set of really nice stamps and stencils. He's got some really nice throwing tools.

 I've picked up and put back and picked up and put back almost every single thing on Dead Guy's shelf. Clearly, I don't hesitate at pilfering, but acquiring tools from the careless living is different from robbing the uncertainly dead.

Oh, I'll do the right thing in the end, of course. I just hate having to think about it.