FERGUS – After 16 years of success in Downtown Guelph, a pottery painting and clay-building studio will be expanding a short distance away up Highway 6.
A store in Fergus is closer to home too for Play with Clay owners Nina Kapuscinska and Mario Gonsalves who are able to walk to their new location at 116 St. Andrew St. W. with a planned opening later in February.
The husband and wife duo live in Fergus and Kapuscinska said in an interview in the Downtown Guelph location’s clay bar, they always wanted to bring the studio to their home community and had the opportunity to lease a space downtown as the owner of Joanie’s was retiring and closing shop.
“We knew that Fergus desperately needed something for people to do,” Kapuscinska said. “There’s not much for people to do, even in Elora, when it comes to being creative or going out somewhere on a date or gathering unless you’re going out for drinks or dinner.”
It was 18 years ago when the two were newly dating, Kapuscinska took a pottery course and fell in love with it.
With Gonsalves’ background in business development, he encouraged Kapuscinska to open Play with Clay and within a few months he quit his job due to its success.
“It just became its own entity from this little pottery studio, it became this,” Kapuscinska said, referencing the later expansion in Downtown Guelph which includes the licensed clay bar area. “It just grew and grew.”
Play with Clay has grown to include a location in Cambridge and Hamilton. Both are franchised and operated by others but Fergus will be owned and operated by Kapuscinska and Gonsalves.
“A lot of our customers here in Guelph come from Fergus, Elora and Erin, all those surrounding areas,” she said.
Like the Guelph location, the Fergus Play with Clay will offer pottery painting, with new pieces coming in regularly, and clay building on a drop-in basis.
Kapuscinska said they’ll be approaching the pottery wheel differently, offering it as an open studio to people who have wheel experience but don’t have one or a kiln at home to practice their art on.
“We wanted to be a space where people stay, sit, feel comfortable and do art for hours,” she said, adding projects sometimes take multiple visits to do anyways. “It is always a bit of a commitment working with clay but it’s such a rewarding thing to know that you made something from beginning to end from a lump of clay.”
Kapuscinska never imagined a single pottery class would lead to this and credited the partnership with her husband as critical to their success.
“We’re always passionate about talking about our studio and improvements or incorporating new things,” she said. “That shared passion with me and my husband it’s such a gift to work with your mate.”
Kapuscinska recommended those interested to keep an eye on the Play with Clay Fergus social media page for an opening date announcement.