For Rick Mlcak, handmade pottery carries the kind of meaning people can feel as soon as they pick it up.
Visitors often search for pieces that speak to them, he says, since “you have a different sense of connection to the piece than if it’s something you just bought.”
Queenston Pottery opened its doors for its second annual Sip and Shop weekend, bringing visitors into the studio for wheel demonstrations, local art and a close look at the craft that has shaped the family business for nearly 50 years.
The open house offered free cider, baked goods and a chance to see potters at work while highlighting how handmade pieces connect people to the creative process. It continues this coming Saturday and Sunday at the York Road studio in Queenston.
Mlcak, co-owner of Queenston Pottery, said many visitors only understand the value of pottery once they have tried shaping clay themselves.
“You start with this piece of clay, and you learn with your own fingers how to shape it. I don’t think you have a full appreciation for it until you’ve tried it,” he said.
The weekend also featured guest artist Colleen Green, who brought encaustic paintings made with beeswax from her home in Prince Edward County.
Many guests stopped first in the house to browse her work before heading downstairs to watch pottery in progress.
Rick and studio potter Candace Boese guided visitors through the steps of throwing, trimming and glazing. They explained how each piece is handled many times before it reaches a shelf for sale.
The process, they said, is part skill, part patience and part surprise.
“You can’t tell what glazes will look like by the colour of the powder. In the kiln, everything changes, and you need experience to know how it will behave. That makes it more interesting,” said Mlcak.
The unpredictability is not for everyone. Boese said she gravitates to time on the wheel, where rhythm matters more than chemistry.
“Glazing feels more like real labour. I don’t get into a flow state the way I do when I’m making something. Working with clay is much more meditative,” she said.
Throughout the weekend, the studio aimed to show how pottery differs from store bought housewares. Mlcak said many people want an object with a story, whether they make it in a class or pick it from a display.
Mug shapes, handle sizes and glaze combinations all emerge from decades of trial and error at the Queenston site.
Co-owner Lisa Dahl, who’s Mlcak’s wife, said many first-time visitors admitted they had driven past for years without realizing the studio sits down a long shared driveway off York Road.
“One of our biggest obstacles is our driveway. We hear a lot that people have been driving by for years and never knew where to enter. If the sign is open, stop in,” she said.
Inside, Dahl said the goal is to make guests feel welcome. Families and tourists often linger, especially on weekends when demonstrations run between 1 and 4 p.m.
“We really are trying to create community here, that this is the place to go for your gifts and for your own personal needs.”
Queenston Pottery is not just a gallery, but also a full-time production studio and part-time school. Boese teaches three-day workshops where beginners learn to spin clay, create bowls and cups, trim pieces and return later to glaze them.
“I think a lot of people have the itch to do it and don’t really know how to apply it,” she said.
The Sip and Shop runs again this weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering another chance to see demonstrations and browse both pottery and the gallery.
