Pottery classes relieve stress, open creativity
By Kaila Mellos
What started as a dream in 2010 has become a passion project for Christina Edwards. Christina and her partner, Taylor Edwards, run a small pottery business called Little Pots Art Studio out of their garage, primarily for kids and some adults who want to experience the art form.
Christina, who went to Mesa College initially to become an X-ray technician, decided to take an elective pottery class, and that was when she fell in love with the art.
“I took pottery for fun, just because the classes I took were challenging and I needed an outlet,” Christina said. “It changed my life. I loved the art form, I loved the people, and so I eventually went to speak with my counselor and told her I needed to change my major right away.”
Christina became a fine art major after this change and began to help the professor during her time in the pottery class. She got a handle on what it would be like to teach the art and the skills needed, such as making different glazes. She knew teaching was the path she wanted to follow while expressing herself through pottery and, hopefully, one day be able to sell her work.
“I worked for a woman in Ocean Beach at her at-home studio and thought I could do that,” Christina said. “I converted my garage at the time into a studio in 2014 when I lived in Serra Mesa. We moved and closed that version down after about four years, and we just opened back up in August last year in Scripps Ranch, so a little over a year ago now.”
Since starting over again a year ago, they have slowly been seeing a small group of kids and adults fall in love with pottery through throwing on their two wheels or even just painting premade pieces and watching them get fired in their kiln.
“I think for the first month, we had only one student that came every Saturday, and then we had two, finally shortly after. Since then, we’ve slowly grown,” Christina said. “We do a lot of group kid’s classes. However, I’m starting to see a transition in doing private adult classes.”
Little Pots Art Studio offers multiple class experiences, including two-hour classes, private lessons, adult sessions and private birthday parties.
They usually host around four kids per class, but saw more than 80 kids daily during the summer.
“It varies on how many kids we see per class, per day. By the end of summer camp, there were days when we had like 10 or 11 kids. But we recently hosted a Girl Scout troop with 12 girls all making pumpkins for Halloween,” Christina said. “The average, I would say, is probably four kids. But during summer camp, the average was around 85.”
With the help of multiple volunteers from Scripps Ranch High School and other connections, they can run the studio smoothly. Megan Tomasi, one of their first volunteers, has been able to help students grow.
“One of my favorite things about this place is that we have a lot of kids who are neurodivergent, and the three of us recognize that, and we tend to that. We cultivate an environment where they’re safe,” Tomasi said.
“We’ve had a lot of kids who maybe aren’t treated that well at school by their peers, and their teachers come here, and then their parents come to us afterward, and they’re like, ‘My kid won’t stop talking about how great this was and how much they feel like they were seen and heard by the teachers and respected by the other kids.’ It’s because we’re in such a small space where we can curate that environment and pay attention to each individual’s needs when they are here.”
Christina hopes to expand her business to more people, including art class at Scripps Ranch High School, where Taylor is also a physical education teacher and coach.
Visit littlepotsartstudio.org.