After relocating to Chicago from Spain, Leonor San Sebastián initially felt disconnected from her neighbors and town’s artwork scene. That modified when she opened her Lincoln Square pottery studio Ceramics by Leo in September 2023.
The response from the neighborhood was prompt: Her weekslong lessons and one-day workshops have been full virtually instantly. As she added extra lessons to satisfy demand, these crammed up too.
San Sebastián stated the studio has allowed her to construct connections with neighbors and the broader ceramics scene in Chicago.
“My life has modified,” she stated.
Different potters in Chicago are also capitalizing on the rising recognition of ceramics. Longtime studio homeowners say their areas are stuffed with hobbyists and skilled artists, citing a surge in curiosity pushed by social media and a need for hands-on, screen-free experiences. Its enchantment has additionally been a boon to new studios like Ceramics by Leo.
Albany Park resident Kelsie Huff was hooked after one ceramics workshop. She’s now taking her second wheel-throwing course at Ceramics by Leo.
“As an grownup, you’re presupposed to be good at issues. I really feel like there’s simply one thing actually cool about being actually dangerous at one thing,” Huff stated. “We’re so remoted and technology-focused at the moment … and that is like getting again to the Earth.”
An eight-week course at Ceramics by Leo is $310, with one-day workshops costing $60 and personal classes $155. The 1,500-square-foot studio can accommodate 12 wheel-throwing college students.
“For me, this isn’t simply working. I adore it,” San Sebastián stated. “However it’s not as simple because it seems, as a result of it’s nonetheless a enterprise.”
It took pottery studio GnarWare in Pilsen about two years to show a revenue after it opened in 2018. Whereas some studios concentrate on date nights or one-off workshops, proprietor Liz McCarthy desires the studio be a spot for established artists.
“I wish to facilitate an area the place folks might type of use vernacular methods, similar to wheel throwing cups and issues like that, but in addition present an area the place artists felt snug to return in and make one thing non-traditional,” McCarthy stated.
Its weekslong lessons are $230, and one-day workshops are $40.
A part of the artwork
When Meg Biddle opened Lincoln Sq. Pottery Studio and Studying Middle in 2003, she nervous about bringing in sufficient cash to maintain the nonprofit’s lights on. Biddle additionally braced herself throughout the Nice Recession, when folks began shedding their properties and jobs.
She anticipated fewer folks would spring for a pottery class, however curiosity continued to develop. The identical was true throughout the pandemic, and the studio has been at-capacity ever since. Now, her eight-week lessons, priced at $340, promote out as quickly as they go surfing.
“Our lives are getting increasingly digital,” stated Biddle, who has been a potter and ceramics trainer for greater than 30 years. “Clay is form of the antithesis to that: It’s tactile; it’s messy. I feel folks began wanting extra of that.”
Jessica McCartney, an Albany Park resident and longtime member of Lincoln Sq. Pottery Studio, stated, “I discover it type of meditative, virtually therapeutic. I work on the wheel lots, and you need to concentrate on solely that. You breathe and heart your self. It’s a fantastic place to cease serious about all the surface crap. You possibly can simply be part of the artwork.”
She stated wheel throwing and pottery has gotten extra consideration on social media, and it’s helped her promote her pottery on Instagram and Etsy.
Zoe Rosenfeld got here to Lincoln Sq. Pottery Studio in 2022 and stayed as a result of the studio celebrates her queer-focused, non-traditional work.
“It’s a really pleasant, experimental neighborhood,” Rosenfeld stated. “Persons are craving for connection, craving for individuality, or simply wish to step away from our mass-produced tradition. It looks as if that’s type of why persons are enthusiastic about ceramics.”
Collaboration, not competitors
Zoe Minzenberger, who co-founded The Digs in West City with Fawn Penn in 2020, stated a part of the studio’s success has come from working with the Chicago pottery neighborhood.
As an alternative of competing with different studios, The Digs will set up occasions like a latest pottery crawl, when studios throughout Chicago hosted open homes and free workshops. When different studios are full, college students get referred to The Digs and vice versa, Minzenberger stated.
“Chicago simply has such a communal, extra collaborative scene,” Minzenberger stated. “It’s much less aggressive, and the artists round listed here are actually welcoming.”
A four-session class at The Digs is $225, and one-day workshops are $75. One-day {couples} workshops are $175.
Since opening, The Digs has grown from 2,000 sq. ft to roughly 6,000 sq. ft. Minzenberger stated an extended wait record for lessons made the growth, accomplished in 2022, a simple selection and allowed it so as to add 16 college students. The studio is now engaged on one other spherical of upgrades to accommodate extra artists and college students.
“All the things’s on social media. All the things is on-line now, and I feel having a playful, muddy, soiled, hands-on expertise will get folks out of their heads,” Minzenberger stated. “With all the brand new studios opening up, having the ability to unfold the attain of pottery has been nice.”
‘Can’t be in your telephone’
Former Chicago Public Faculties artwork trainer Chris Busse began Penguin Foot Pottery in 2010 along with his spouse, Paige, after he was laid off. Pulling collectively a small mortgage and their financial savings, the couple spent about $30,000 to open the studio.
Its four-week lessons are $145. They stated preserving the category costs low permits them to introduce the artwork of ceramics to as many individuals as potential.
“At the beginning, we actually wish to take away loads of the limitations for simply touching clay and seeing if you happen to prefer it as a medium for artwork,” stated Paige Busse, who co-manages the Logan Square studio.
Pottery’s recognition has helped maintain class costs cheap, the couple stated, and allowed them to increase the house in 2017 and 2019. It’s grown from 1,300 sq. ft to round 5,500 sq. ft.
“There’s been a revival of the handmade, and I truthfully assume loads of it’s simply getting off of gadgets and touching issues together with your arms. Once you’re on the wheel, you’ll be able to’t be in your telephone,” Paige Busse stated.
After the pandemic, folks flooded the studio looking for neighborhood, Chris Busse stated.
“In 2021, there was undoubtedly a giant leap of parents ,” Chris Busse stated. “I feel loads of it was folks realizing the significance of that third house — the place the place you’ll be able to go that’s not work or house — and having a bunch of associates there.”
It additionally helped diversify the pottery scene, he stated. When Penguin Foot opened, there have been solely a handful of studios in Chicago. Now, artists and college students of all ranges and backgrounds have extra alternatives to get their arms on clay.
“Ceramics was extra of a boy’s membership,” Chris Busse stated. “There’s been a very nice shift, and it’s type of helped the business explode.”
After opening a string of pottery studios close to Los Angeles, Marshall Blair launched The Pottery Studio Clay and Provide in Bucktown in 2022.
Blair, a businessman who obtained his begin working in Chicago eating places, stated the studio has grow to be a worthwhile enterprise and a spot the place college students can discover neighborhood.
“It’s a brilliant social factor,” Blair stated. “I additionally assume America has misplaced its love of producing just a little bit — the craftsmanship of creating issues and getting your arms soiled. I feel folks missed that and wish to get again to it.”
Biddle, of Lincoln Sq. Pottery Studio, stated she was initially involved about shedding enterprise when extra studios began sprouting up close by. However not anymore.
“I feel the extra folks do pottery, the extra persons are going to be into pottery, and that’s at all times been a part of my mission,” Biddle stated. “Even when folks don’t keep doing ceramics, having a primary understanding of what goes into the artistic course of and gaining access to the a part of your mind that thinks creatively and makes issues occur, I feel is in the end good for everybody.”
