Queer-Owned Studio The Northern Pottery Loves Community, Care, and Clay

Located in Sydney’s upper north shore, The Northern Pottery is a newly opened ceramics studio and gallery that wants to help you get your hands dirty and lose control.

“Clay gets me very excited in all its forms,” says owner and founder Daniel D’Appio. “Seeing how that gets other people excited, it’s just the best thing to bring those people together to do that.”

Queer-run and owned, The Northern Pottery is made up of two levels: on the ground floor, is a studio and workshop space, with eight pottery wheels and a hand building area. The upper level features a gallery where local artists can showcase their work and, in the coming months, sell some of their pieces.

Daniel got into pottery at a young age, attending classes and workshops with his mum.

“We’ve kind of always had a creative streak in the family,” he said.

He didn’t have much of a chance to foster that creativity in school, but when he was 22, Daniel earned a scholarship to study ceramics in Montelupo Fiorentino, a town about twenty kilometres south of Florence, and one of the most important centres of pottery production during the Italian Renaissance.

“I got to spend six months with this family business, learning how they do ceramics and all their tricks,” he said. “That kind of shifted me very much in that direction.”

Creating meaning and letting go

Although Daniel took part in ceramics classes, it wasn’t until he was approaching his 50th birthday that he decided to take the leap and create a studio of his own. He completed a diploma in ceramics, switched to working his office job part time, and opened The Northern Pottery at the beginning of this year.

In such a fast-paced, consumerist world, Daniel says he relishes in the skills pottery teaches- not only the steps that go into making a piece of art or a functional object, but what it means to build something and create meaning from a lump of earth.

“Ceramics is very much a lesson in letting go,” he said. “Honestly, it’s about creating an intention, and putting all your energy and effort into something, knowing full well that tomorrow it could crack, break, explode, or you could glaze it and it just doesn’t come out the way you want. And I think there’s a resilience lesson in that too.”

As well as running regular weekly classes, one-off workshops, community events, and private bookings, Daniel’s really excited about fostering an inclusive, welcoming community of potters and ceramicists. He’s been hosting monthly social nights where fellow clay enthusiasts can gather around a cheese board and talk through issues they’re having with their projects, new glaze recipes, or share stories of their craft.

“What I love is that ceramics give people a reason to sit side by side and talk, even if they’re from totally different walks of life,” he said.

“You don’t need to have much in common except a love of ceramics. Suddenly you’re both focused on a lump of clay, swapping tips or laughing about something that collapsed in the kiln, and that shared experience makes a connection that might not have happened otherwise.”