Shoalhaven Potters Studio
opens 9:30am to 2pm
Mondays & Fridays

Get your hands dirty!

From newbie to seasoned ceramicist, you'll find a group of clay enthusiasts ready to share the love for pottery in a fun, supportive environment.We're a non-profit association, powered by the dedication of volunteers.The only thing more fired up than the kiln is our passion for pottery!UNFORTUNATELY WE DO NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPT NEW MEMBERS.

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Our Makers Market

The Shoalhaven Potters market, organised by our members, takes place once a month right outside the Shoalhaven Potters Workshop.It’s a treasure trove of handmade goodies, with stalls offering everything from local produce, arts, crafts, pottery, and woodwork, to needlecraft, natural fibre baskets, plants, cakes, jams, clothing—and that’s just scratching the surface!Grab some tasty food and drinks, and bring your dog along for the fun.Interested in holding a stall at Pyree markets?

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Pyree Village Markets
4th Sunday of each month*
9am to 1:30pm

*3rd Sunday in December

About Shoalhaven Potters

Shoalhaven Potters Incorporated is a not-for-profit pottery association.In 1973 the Shoalhaven Potters Society (currently known as Shoalhaven Potters Incorporated) moved to its current location of the Pyree School classroom.
We provide a workshop space to support the community. Our members have access to pottery wheels, work space, moulds, wedging tables, a slab roller and our electric kilns.Shoalhaven Potters Inc. is all about creating a welcoming and inspiring space. It's the perfect place to connect with fellow pottery and ceramics enthusiasts and get some encouragement from a community of like-minded artists.The studio operates on a volunteer basis, with all members contributing to its functioning. Bisque firing at 1000°C and High fire at cone 10. Clay is available for purchase.The studio does not offer a firing-only membership. Members who don't engage with the community aside from firing, may have their membership canceled due to limited availability. Firings are volunteer-run, so frequency can't be guaranteed.We host a variety of events throughout the year, including the Pyree markets on the 4th Sunday of every month (3rd Sunday in December).

• Meet some of our members

Meet Betty "Pat"

It is a Friday morning at Shoalhaven Potters Inc, an Open Workshop day for Members. A hum of conversation builds in the old Pyree School classroom that has served as the regional base for the craft of pottery since 1973 and as the morning progresses and more members drift in.This writer is seated in the kitchen area with Betty, the longest-running member of this community organisation. Betty remembers the founding committee with great warmth and fondness. They wanted a space and a place for Potters to be and to connect.
Betty is drinking green tea, a taste she developed in China, when she travelled there (not one but two trips!) to expand her pottery interests and add to her skills and techniques. Next week Betty is running a Workshop on Brushstrokes and she will be referencing techniques that she picked up on her travels in China.
“Pottery is a very lonely business” explains Betty. “People do courses and then they can’t progress because they need somewhere to meet and to discuss things.” That is where the Shoalhaven Potters Inc comes in. “A lot of the Potters come to do demonstrations and discuss our work. We help each other. Older Members will mentor younger Members".Betty reflects on the growth of the Shoalhaven Potters over the years, “We started off with just one room, you know?”

We talk about Betty’s exceptionally creative life. As a child her dream was to be a Ballerina. But the war intervened and Betty and her younger brother had to be evacuated from Birmingham for three years. They spent three very happy years with an uncle in Wales but by the time Betty was back in Birmingham, at age 11, she was too old for a ballet career. It broke her heart at the time. But life had other plans for Betty. She was very fortunate to gain admission to the Mosely Junior Art School in Birmingham and she spent three years completing a Draughtsman’s Course.From this base Betty built a career as a scenic artist painting stage scenery “all over the place”.
That is how Betty earned her living until retirement. From Birmingham to Adelaide (as a 10-pound Pom!) and on to Sydney where she worked ultimately as Head of the Scenic Department of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. This was a role that allowed her to travel with productions to Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide. This was also where Betty met her future husband, the Head Carpenter for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust.Betty retired from her career in scenic design but not from her artistic pursuits. She was 65 years young and started a three-year TAFE programme in Pottery. “I’d always done things at night school” she said “oil painting, sculpture, life drawing. The Pottery programme was just a continuation of what I had always done”.Betty relocated to Vincentia on the shores of beautiful Jervis Bay. The arrival of the Shoalhaven Potters could not have been better timed to support Betty’s budding interests in all things Pottery. At 97 years of age today (yes, you got that right, born in 1928!), Betty thrives off her creative community connections and “bouncing off other people for ideas”. She is returning to Life Drawing again soon.Betty loves it when, for an exhibition, a theme or motif is established for artists to work around. “You get an idea, work on it, and expand” says Betty. “You don’t realise but everything is connected” explains Betty and “it all goes back into your pottery.”Words by Dianne Martin