Down to Earth Clayworks

A new pottery studio opened its doors in 2009 just south of Powell River, holding its grand opening on Valentine’s Day.  Down to Earth Clayworks is the brainchild of Brenda Neall who has morphed from pottery collector to pottery student, then hobbyist potter and now trade potter. 

Brenda is a hometown Powell Riverite who, like many others, relocated to a larger centre for a number of years and then returned.  She knew that she wanted to turn her pottery hobby into a business when she retired from the corporate world so she and her husband, Richard, moved into the home across from Brew Bay that now also houses the pottery studio and retail showroom. 

Not being one to wait for things to happen, Brenda was participating in the business planning workshop at Community Futures within days of moving into their “under renovation” house.  Four months later she was open for business with a state of the art kiln, a well designed, efficient studio and a striking showroom full of beautiful pottery pieces, most of which are also functional.

Brenda loves her small town, home based lifestyle and the view of the ocean through the trees that she enjoys while “behind the wheel”.  In addition to wheel thrown works, she also creates hand built and molded pieces.  The studio’s name, Down to Earth Clayworks, is apt in its description of the process but it’s also a fit with Brenda.  She is very much down to earth, and is more than happy to have visitors tour the studio and/or watch a demonstration of her creativity in process.

Brenda calls herself the CPO (Chief Potter and Owner) and she is part artist, part scientist.  She makes her own glazes, constantly experimenting with new combinations of elements to achieve a certain look she wants.  Sometimes it’s a look that she didn’t expect but loves!  Just documenting how her many glazes are created would be a full time job on its own for most of us.

The product line is both unique and diversified.   Down to Earth offers the expected mugs, bowls, platters, vases and the like, but also offers the somewhat more unusual such as butter bells and salt pigs.  Then there are Brenda’s very unique items, such as her no hole salt & pepper shakers, tiles with a shoreline motif and her “olive thingies” which she has yet to coin a name for.