Member Information

The Guild is a co-operative: we keep it running by doing all the jobs required ourselves. Once you join, you’ll be offered or assigned one of the available jobs, which range from publicity to cleaning up the kitchen area. You cannot be a member without participating in some way. Often on Wednesdays, when there are no scheduled classes or meetings, members meet to work on their projects and talk about pottery stuff. You are welcome to join. It’s a good moment to meet members and ask questions you may have. We encourage you to sign-up on our Facebook Kingston Potters’ Guild Members Forum page. If you join a committee you will meet others too. Our Guild meetings are on Wednesdays, and attending them helps you learn about how we function as a group. We would ask that you attend a minimum of three of these (there are only six per year).

When your work is ready for a bisque or glaze firing, you can put pieces in the kiln room, on one of the shelves marked “members” or take them home until you are ready to do a firing. Leaving your work on the drying or kiln room shelves for too long is not encouraged as space is at a premium. Make sure your name is properly indicated on your work!

• As a member it will be up to you to take care of the glazing and firing of your work.
• Members must purchase their own clay. You can’t buy clay at the Guild except during a specific class or workshops.
• Members can mix their own glazes from scratch. You can buy the ingredients at good prices from our Supply Room. Order forms and a list of materials you can purchase to make glazes can be found in the studio (near the library bookshelves) or you can order online using our Order Form. Once your order is filled you can pay by e-transfer, cash or cheque.
• You can also purchase premixed glazes, from pottery supply stores, (Tuckers or Pottery Supply House) or in Kingston from Amaranth Stoneware.
• To get started with firing, you should take a look at the kiln calendars, (one calendar per kiln), to see who is planning a firing (bisque or glaze). If you know the person you can contact them and see if they might be able to put some pieces of yours into their kiln. You’ll be charged for the amount of space you use in that kiln. Naturally, you would try to help that member out when you are loading a kiln yourself.
• All new members(with the exception of general members) are required to learn how to use the Guild kilns. You will be required to assist at two bisque and two glaze firings with guild member. Firing members will show you the ropes. When you have assisted at two bisque firings and two glaze firings, you can ask to be “tested” and another Guild member will watch you load and program a kiln on your own. You will have then completed three bisque and three glaze firings before you can go it alone.
• It’s not as difficult as it sounds and there is always someone willing to help but you do need to be proactive. You can’t leave your work on the shelves forever and hope someone will take care of it. When members are loading kilns they may add a few of your pieces to fill up the kiln but it is up to you to keep track of them and check the shelves in the kiln room to see if your pieces are ready. If you leave pieces on the kiln room shelves you must label your pieces with your full name otherwise they will not get fired.

As taught in our classes, cleaning up is an important and essential part of using the studio. Leaving clay in the sink, floor, or table, and even tools lying around is not respectful of the studio and fellow potters. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen much because we are all committed to a clean and tidy studio. The area where you work has to be wet-mopped and we usually mop a slightly larger area since dust is always a problem. Think of cleaning up one more thing besides your own mess (like a dirty sink, or taking out the garbage/recycling bins if they’re full).

We recommend that you sweep VERY rarely — only if there are solid materials that can’t get picked up with a mop. By the same token, it is prudent to sand your pots as little as possible and always under water or the spray booth while wearing a mask. When mixing glaze materials, turn on the extractor fan in the glaze room and mix the dry ingredients in the spray booth, wearing a mask.

All members are eligible for a 10% discount on classes and workshops offered by KPG. Please use the promo code “KPGMEMBER2024” when registering for classes on the Corsizio website: https://kpg-classes.corsizio.com/

We all need to work together to have a successful studio: ours has a history of more than 50 years, and all through volunteer efforts. Once you join you can expect to start with simple jobs but eventually you will take on more responsibility as newer members do the simple tasks. The studio is YOUR studio as well as OURS so please behave there with a sense of ownership.