On September 3rd, 2025 we celebrated one full year in Portugal. If you're new here, my husband Nick and I moved with the goal of opening a small community studio and art residency program. We bought a house, that's actually two houses with great spaces for a ceramics studio, and residency house on a large plot of land, and we have been working non stop to transform it into a place we can share with artists at all stages of their ceramics journey.
This is a long over due update on what we have been up to, how we are spending the money raised last year, and where the project is headed as we roll into 2026.
In 2024, I asked several artist to collaborate on one of a kind pieces of art with me so that I could raffle them off as a means to raise money for studio equipment. My collaborators were Diana Adams, Ryan Rhakshan, Cori Jacobs, Alexis Mixter, Mariana Sampaio, Tony Young, Adrienne Oates and together we made 11 pieces!
Money Raised in 2024
(between gifts and raffle tickets)
$15,273
One tricky thing that factors into the equation- the exchange rate. The US dollar has decreased against the Euro in a sizable way. At the time I'm writing this $1.00 = .84€, that means we lose $.16 on every Euro we spend buying equipment. With that calculation we will lose $2443.68 in currency exchange (I'm personally covering the additional transfer fees). Beyond that, here's how we have spent that money so far:
- Card processing fees and US 2024 Taxes (since we are not a non-profit Uncle Sam gets a cut $3,273)
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Studio Equipment Purchases:
- 3) BTH pottery wheels @921€ each (2,763 €)
- Slab Roller 1,199 €
- used kiln brick and large Raku kiln 500€ (there's a cool story about this here)
- Rental truck to move giant kiln 125€
- 2) stools for pottery wheels 79€ each (158€)
- banding wheels, pottery tools, heat gloves, buckets, etc 1,297€
- Material to build studio tables 400€
- Which leaves us with $4,626 (this is before calculating exchange rates) which we plan to use towards the electrical upgrade so we can fire a bigger electric kiln.
New goals between now and April 2026
We have big plans to build a soda fire gas kiln here next July! What is a soda kiln, and why do we want one?
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"Soda-firing is the process in which sodium oxide (soda) is introduced into the hot kiln. Once inside, it will vaporize and interact with the red hot surfaces of the work leaving beautiful flashes of color and glaze. As the sodium vapor flows through and around the glowing hot pottery, it binds to the silica molecules on their surfaces to create a glassy glaze which tapers into gradients of color called flashing. Since the soda fuses to the surfaces of the work in this way, it blurs the line between pot and glaze/surface; they become one. The introduction of this soda vapor into the kiln’s atmosphere which then has a dramatic effect on the pots makes this process, much like wood-firing, an atmospheric firing process."
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Atmospheric kiln builder and good friend Chris Pate visited us this summer to help us build a plan for the kiln and price out materials. We'll build the kiln with him. next summer, and host a kiln building and firing workshop to help cover some of the costs of his time and knowledge, but we still need to raise the money for most of the materials. So far we have 500 used, high-refractory kiln bricks, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. We're still getting materials estimates here, but the brick alone will be about 7,000€, we still need to build a platform, and shed to cover it, plus fuel, stilts, shelves, gas tanks, metal and tools, so our current estimate is about 15,000€
Once this kiln is built we'll use it for community firings and workshops with local ceramic artists, and for visiting artists. It's not a type of kiln that's common or easily accessible here, and we're excited to have the opportunity to share it with other artists and studios on our community.
How will we raise this money?
Through new artist collaborations- both raffles and silent auctions, special events, and requests for gifts/donations. Plus I'm planning something fun for the NCECA in Detroit next March! If you'd like to pitch in you can gift us money towards the kiln here. Or stay tuned for new artist collaborations here.
The first year was not easy, and so many things have changed from our original plans and ideas. My business partner here had some significant life changes and incredible opportunities with her own ceramics career, that had her shifting her focus shortly after I arrived. So rather than looking for a studio space in one of the nearby cities, Nick and I decided to focus on making a great studio space in the space we have. This means less money on rent, and more money to spend on equipment and utilities (and upgrades).