There’s a charm to homemade pottery that many of its enthusiasts enjoy. For Melissa Triefstra, who took part in Queenston Pottery’s cup sculpting workshop on the weekend, the appeal was getting to take home something personal, rather than buying something on Amazon.
“It’s nice making something that can be in your house, because every time you look at it, it’s like, ‘Oh, I made that,’” she said.
Queenston Pottery’s workshop was hosted Saturday and Sunday as part of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Icewine Festival, with the aim of attracting festivalgoers while continuing a push to expand hands-on experiences at the York Road gallery and studio.
Co-owner Rick Mlcak said the workshop was designed as an easy entry point for beginners, with cups prepared ahead of time so guests could focus on sculpting details.
Participants worked with cups preset with a “leather-hard” density, firm enough to handle without collapsing but still soft enough to carve and attach features. Mlcak warned guests not to bend the clay, since visible flexing can create cracks that reappear after firing.
“It gives you a chance to really be creative and do something with your hands, but it’s a little bit easier than just starting with a lump of clay, because it’s much harder to make something without the canvas that you start with,” he said.
Using soft clay, tools and stamps, guests scored the cup surface, applied slip and pressed on new pieces for noses, eyes and other features.
Elka Kroch, a dentist from Niagara-on-the-Lake and based in Chippawa, shaped a pig face onto her cup. This wasn’t her first pottery workshop. She said she grew up in Germany, where school included more hands-on crafts like sewing and creative courses.
“I was always very inquisitive about science things, and I always liked working with my hands. So I thought, okay, what can combine that?” said Kroch.
Mlcak said the Icewine Festival timing was meant to bring in more visitors and tourists, but limited promotion kept the turnout mostly local. Five people attended on Sunday and 11 joined on Saturday.
The Lake Report also received a behind-the-scenes tour of the production areas beneath the studio, including the kiln room, elevator system and workshop spaces not yet open to public tours for safety. Mlcak said renovations are underway with the goal of letting more visitors see how pottery is made.
Mlcak believes people’s interest in the workshops reflects a desire to step away from online content and make something tangible in person.
“I see more people, perhaps because of all the artificial content online, and we’re sort of saturated by just more and more of the same stuff, getting more interested again in doing something real with their hands, with other real people,” said Mlcak.
Queenston Pottery will run the sculpted wine cup workshop again next weekend from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Jan. 24 and 25, with spaces still available.
