Portland Pottery is a full-service pottery supply shop and ceramics studio. Our goal is to get as many hands messy with clay as possible. We hope you can come get messy with us soon!
Locations
Studio & Gallery in Portland, Maine
Our studio location at 118 Washington Avenue in Portland, Maine offers classes, workshops, kids camps, private lessons, group parties, and more. We have 5 studios for our students and members to work, 370 students and members, and a beloved summer camp program that over 400 kids attend each year.
Our studio location also has a gallery space open 7 days a week from 10am-5pm that features the work of our staff, teachers and students for purchase.
Supply Shops in Portland, Maine and Braintree, Massachusetts
Our two Portland Pottery Supply Stores offer a wide range of materials and products for any potter, beginner to professional. Stop by one of our stores in Portland, Maine or Braintree, MA to buy supplies, or give us a call to place an order.
Both supply stores offer paid firing services and repair services for a variety of ceramic equipment such as kilns and wheels.
History
Portland Pottery was conceived about 29 years ago when Lisa Bonarrigo opened a teaching studio in her 2nd floor apartment in Portland, Maine. Lisa had a passion for ceramics and wanted to share that love with others. Over the years, the small studio in her apartment grew to the Portland Pottery Studio that it is today on Washington Avenue.
Around the time that Lisa started teaching pottery out of her apartment, she and her husband, Chris Bruni, started Portland Pottery Supply to address the challenges they were facing with accessing pottery supplies in Maine. It quickly became clear that they were not alone in their search for a reliable source of clay and supplies, and very quickly, they had a long list of customers. Over the next ten years, Portland Pottery Supply expanded into one of the Northeast’s largest clay suppliers.
Chris and Lisa enjoyed working and growing Portland Pottery over the decades with a focus on offering high quality products and services. Lisa and Chris expanded the business with the purchase of a second supply shop location in Braintree, Massachusetts in December 2002. The two stores service customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and the Canadian Maritimes.
On January 1st, 2023, the longtime managers of the Portland and Braintree locations, Karen Dicenso and Jennifer Martini, purchased the business from Chris and Lisa. Chris and Lisa had decided to retire, knowing that Karen and Jennifer would continue to honor their vision of providing high quality products and services while sharing the wonderful world of pottery with as many people as possible.
Chris, Lisa, Karen, and Jennifer are all so grateful to the employees and talented instructors who have worked at Portland Pottery over the years. The staff are a hard working and reliable group, who use both their heads and their backs to meet the daily demands of the clay supply business. We hope you get a chance to meet them and appreciate them as much as we do.
Thank you for your patronage and interest in Portland Pottery!