After teaching pottery classes at a university in upstate New York for seven years, Kathryn Lanier Hunt moved to Texas to be closer to her family. She then opened The Potter’s Wheel on FM 1960 in the late 1990s. Hunt said she enjoyed the transition from teaching university students to customers from the community.

“It’s delightful,” Hunt said. “My students come to me because they want to learn something, not because they need an A.”

Hunt started the business as a small pottery studio where she taught classes. Over the years, Hunt began selling gifts and offered a service allowing customers to paint premade pottery. But, she said, the space was too small to do all of these things.

This spurred Hunt to move her shop to its current, larger location in Vintage Park about five years ago.

Hunt offers all of the same services the studio offered on FM 1960, but she now has space to accommodate more customers.

The new space also allowed Hunt to expand the selection of merchandise in the store, which primarily consists of jewelry and pottery, including some Hunt has made. When it comes to her own work, Hunt said she draws inspiration from various sources.

“I’ve been doing pottery for 40 years, so I’m influenced by all of the old potters, by paintings, by my own personal experiences—I have a lot of sources for that,” Hunt said.

As an artist who did not take business classes in college, Hunt said one of the more difficult aspects of starting her studio was a lack of formal business training. To make up for this, Hunt said she had to do a lot of research, seek advice from experts and continue to learn over the course of her 20 years in business.

“I’m an artist—which worked well for me—but I had to learn business classes on the fly,” Hunt said.

The Potter’s Wheel

106 Vintage Park Blvd., Houston
281-537-8447
www.giftedpotter.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., closed Sundays