‘It was love from the first touch’: Artistic duo in Kelowna turning students into ceramic addicts

The studio is called Potters Addict Ceramic Art Centre, and it was given that name for a reason.

“There’s just something about opening a bag of clay and smelling Mother Earth,” said studio co-owner Bonnie Anderson. “Then putting it on a wheel and a lump of clay turns into a beautiful pot. It’s enthralling.”

Anderson runs the Kelowna studio with her partner and pottery co-addict, Anetta Sidorowicz, who fell in love with the art form in university.

“I had to take an elective and it was ceramics. It was love from the first touch,” Sidorowicz said.

The studio offers all types of group and private classes.

“We offer classes in hand-building; that’s using clay slabs and coils technique, sculpture technique, pottery wheel technique, glaze technology,” Anderson said. “So we try to cover the whole gamut of what we do with clay.”

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As a bonus to all students, practice is free of charge.

“When you’re in a registered class here, we offer unlimited studio time free. So you can come in and practice and get to know the clay and the studio,” Anderson said. “Then after two or three classes, you feel confident enough to start doing it by yourself without the instructing, although we’re here to help.”

Anderson has been creating ceramic works of art for about 37 years and says she will never retire.

“My hands get sore but, in my mind, I never get sick of it,” Anderson said.

The studio doubles as a gift shop, selling one-of-a-kind works of art at all price points.

“We have very unique pottery to buy and choose from,” Sidorowicz said. “This is the work of Bonnie Anderson and mine and also our studio members.”

Membership to the studio is a unique offering that allows aspiring and experienced potters and clay artists the chance to use a professional studio at any time.

“Right now, we have 25 studio members,” Sidorowicz said. “They have their own key to the door and they can come and use the studio from eight until 10 o’clock at night and we provide all the equipment and clay.”

Potters Addict Ceramic Art Centre is located at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna.

For those looking to try their hand at pottery, the next workshop is scheduled for April 6.