You wouldn't know it from this photograph, but we are open.
There was no sign above the door—and there still isn't. I took this picture from my car as I drove away after a 12-hour day at the studio. From the outside, the space looked anonymous: more construction site than ceramics studio.
But inside, something significant had begun.
That evening, David LaPierre taught our first class: intermediate and advanced wheel throwing. David began working in clay in 1976. He studied ceramics at UConn, managed the Wesleyan Pottery Association, apprenticed in England, and for more than 30 years has taught wheel throwing at Mudflat in Somerville. Generations of local potters have learned at Mudflat since 1971, and many of them went on to teach and open studios of their own.
So while this was Firebox's first class, it did not begin from nothing. David brought decades of practice with him—and a loyal following of students.
It took almost a year of looking at spaces throughout Greater Boston, then securing funding alongside. Through a series of (sometimes unpleasant) coincidences, I found a building that mostly worked. Over two months, we converted a former media center into a pottery studio: renovations, permits, infrastructure, equipment, and all the small decisions that go into making a place where people can work with clay.
The studio wasn't—and still isn't—finished. There was no perfect moment when every detail fell into place. That was deliberate. I can build the infrastructure, but without a community, there is no studio.
We opened our doors on October 21, and that was enough.
Our first students placed an immense amount of faith in us. We work every day to make this space worthy of it.
We're open. We're still building. And we're glad to be part of this region's clay community.
