The Making of A Kentville Pottery Shop

Natasha and I started our pottery journey while living out of an Airstream trailer we were renovating in Seattle. Natasha was working as a studio artist at an art publication company at the time and started taking pottery classes at a community centre to blow off steam. She began bringing home pieces she had made in her class and as she continued posting photos of our airstream renovation projects, people kept asking about her pottery. I encouraged her to maybe try to sell a few of them and she obliged, selling out the whole lot in 5 minutes. I was convinced there was something there.

So when I had an elective credit to fill in the University courses I was taking for my degree, Natasha encouraged me to take a pottery class as well. We spent our evenings in the airstream, she creating new designs and I working on my assignments for pottery class. Natasha continued to sell out every batch of pottery she put up for sale & we quickly outgrew our Airstream living space as we dreamed of living in the woods and having a pottery studio of our very own.

We made plans to drive 3,000 miles across the country to Vermont to build a homestead & start a pottery business from scratch. As usual, we had a little money, but never quite enough to do anything the right way. We had zero connections, very little understanding about what it took to run a small business, all we knew was that people bought Natasha's pottery and that was enough for us to believe that we had a business. 

We gradually built up our little pottery business in Vermont. Natasha working her studio artist job from Seattle remotely while I worked as a social worker and then waited tables, until one day I was able to quit my other job, and just like that we were both full time potters and small business owners.

Our homestead was also doing well, we had a flock of healthy chickens with an impenetrable coop, and we even tapped our own sugar maple trees and made syrup. But one day we realized that Vermont just didn’t feel like home. Natasha eventually expressed a desire to move back to Canada. I am always up for a new adventure and so we decided to sell the homestead and forge a new path for ourselves.

On January 1st 2021 Natasha and I arrived here in Nova Scotia with plans of building a whole new life and that is indeed what we have done, and we feel so grateful to be here. 

We ran our pottery business out of our little farmhouse here in Nova Scotia for three years, but one day we realized that our business needed room to grow. So we began looking around the Annapolis Valley for a place that could serve as our first commercial studio and one day we found a space in the basement of a building in downtown Kentville. After some serious renovation projects, which involved endless hours with a concrete grinder (what a mess that was!), a whole lot of building with 3/4 plywood, and wiggles on top of wiggles we were ready to move in! 

We officially moved into our first commercial studio in September 2023. Yes, there were a few hiccups, but it felt like the best move forward for our business, our employees and customers, and for us as a couple. Just before Christmas of 2023 we also opened up a little store front at the entrance of our pottery studio and it’s been such a joy meeting customers in person.

Fast forward to today and our pottery business continues to grow and evolve, we’re now opening up our space to classes and workshops. That wasn't something we had planned on, but our space just seems perfect for it, and it often seems like some of the greatest things in life are unplanned. We never thought we’d own a home, and we definitely didn’t expect to have such a beautiful commercial studio for our business. But Nova Scotia, and more specifically, The Annapolis Valley has been immensely good to us and we couldn’t be more thankful. If you find yourself in Nova Scotia then by all means, please stop by our pottery shop and see for yourself, We’d love to meet you and hear your story.