My Experience as a Cycle Pottery Studio Assistant

In January 2019, I had completed all my classes to graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For the last three semesters of my undergraduate experience, I took ceramic classes - handbuilding, throwing, and intermediate ceramics. I never expected it to become something that I continuously enjoyed participating in, but it did.

Fast forward to winter break, I found myself craving more and more experience in the potters' studio, so I looked for different clay studios in the area to see if anyone needed studio assistance. I had probably contacted at least five studios (which is a decent amount, seeing that the Pioneer Valley is fairly rural), and most of them already had the assistance they needed. Kathryn, owner and founder of Cycle Pottery, was the only one who got back to me. I was ecstatic! I met with her one evening after I had completed a shift at my on-campus job, expecting an interview, but she let me start right away as her studio assistant. She allowed me to take an adult throwing class and in exchange, I would help teach the childrens' and teen classes, along with helping finish workshop pieces, loading bisque and glaze kilns, and recycling clay. I eventually got to the point of being offered to teach a private lesson with two young girls, one of whom was gifted the experience for her birthday and brought her friend along.

What teaching has done for me is beyond what I thought I was capable of. From teaching classes and private lessons to simply just sharing the knowledge I picked up with fellow potters, I realized how much I valued the concept of sharing knowledge and how much an impact you can have by passing it on. Although my intended-future-profession is not strictly teaching, I will continue this endeavor to help teach whenever I can!

For the duration of the seven months that I was at Cycle Pottery, I not only learned valuable skills to take along with me to a new studio in Philadelphia, but was also able to create connections with the people I interacted with. No matter the age gap, whether I was working with early middle-school aged children, preteens, or matured adults, I created connections I would have never been able to make without the mutual interest of clay.

For more about Cycle Pottery in Florence, MA, please visit cyclepottery.com. Kathryn and all the other studio potters have taught me so much and I will continue to support them. The environment they created was a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to see what is in store for them next!