A membership-based pottery studio is expected to open in Denver sometime in the summer of 2022. Co-owners of city mud, Kyle Sayre and Emily Fritze, are still working to lease a space, but they plan to find a location in Denver proper to house the studio.
Fritze has been a potter for about 10 years and moved to Denver several years ago. She began looking for membership studio space, which was difficult to find in Denver. “There’s also a ton of interest in ceramics in the city, so we looked at both things and realized there was a need,” Fritze said.
“We were both at a perfect crossroads in our lives and our careers at the time of the discovery of this market need for a membership pottery studio in Denver and for classes in Denver. So, we saw the opportunity and said, ‘why not?’, and decided to go for it,” Sayre said.
When choosing the name, they decided to lowercase city mud. “I just love lowercase letters, and it just felt right to me,” Fritze said.
“In our mission statement, it says that clay reminds us to never underestimate the little guys, and I feel like our little, bubbly, lowercase city mud logo is representative of that in a way,” Sayre said.
Members will have 24/7 access to the studio, and beginner classes, as well as one-time events, workshops, and private parties, will be held at the space. Beginner classes will be three-hours long once a week for eight weeks. “People will just learn the basics of how to throw and how to hand build,” Fritze said.
One-time events will include couples’ nights and girls’ night, and specialized workshops will be offered for more experienced potters to learn niche pottery techniques. Members and event guests can create something with clay, and city mud will have two or three kilns to fire the creations.
Once they confirm the location for city mud, they will have to build out the space but hope to open sometime in July. They will offer retail space to sell merchandise such as t-shirts, tote bags, and hats. Eventually, city mud will offer pottery for sale, and plans are to add a gallery space and possibly a coffee shop.
City mud will soon have presale memberships available and a pottery sale through a Kickstarter campaign. “We just want this studio to be a space for anyone. We want it to be a place where people want to be hanging out, whether they’re throwing or not,” Sayre said.
“We want to be a warm and welcoming place that people just want to be because of the place it is, and our service will be a bonus to that,” Sayre said.
