Spring Cleaning Sale!

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Stop in during open hours March 27-April 1 for great pottery deals! 12-8PM, closed Sunday and Wednesday.
Support local makers and local causes at the same time. Most items will be $25 and under.
Studio Member Pottery!
Get the good stuff for a good price! Old designs, small blemishes, and also some perfectly good pots they are tired of looking at, all priced to find a new home.
Clay for Kids Fund
Abandoned workshop pottery for $1 a piece to fund scholarships for local youth for reduced price programming. $5 to fill a brown lunch bag to the brim.
Pottery for a Purpose
Find an eclectic mix of cups, mugs, and other items all sold for $20 each to benefit the @iinewengland in Manchester. They work with refugees and immigrants as they make their new life here.

Spring Session is coming soon

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Wow. We are already half-way through the winter session.

Spring Session starts April 3rd. Many evening pottery classes are already full, but you can email us to be added to the waitlist, as changes certainly do happen. The Summer session begins June 19th, and the classes for that open up about 3 months before the classes start. Sign up early!

Handmade Holiday Market

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December 19-23 (Monday-Friday) from 12-8PM each day (closed Wednesday) we are hosting a Handmade Holiday Market! There will be pottery and glass art made by studio members and staff!

 

Find handmade mugs, bowls, ornaments, and serving ware for your centerpiece entrees and appetizers! This will be a great place to find last-minute gifts, pottery for your table, and housewarming gifts. 

 

Enter through the Studio 550 Handmade gift shop at 550 Elm, and follow the signs to the Holiday Market.

 

Art in the Street

The makers who are selling their work at the Market have crafted mini-mugs and ceramic ornaments that will be hidden around downtown all week. Find some art out in the wild, bring it back to us during market hours and win a prize!

 

In addition, there will be:

– live maker demos (stained glass and pottery)

– Free “Shop Small” tote bag for the first 10 shoppers

– a fully stocked handmade gift shop to browse and buy (pottery, stained glass, plants, soaps, stickers, knit goods, woodworking, and more…)

 

For those who give experiences rather than things, Studio 550 is a teaching space! Gift cards can be purchased for any 1-day workshops or 10-week classes. If you are looking for something to do together, Studio 550 also offers Art-at-Home Kits with everything you need to make a project at home, the Paint-Your-Own-Handmade-Pottery tables are open for booking, and there are a handful of wheel workshops being offered (pre-registration required.)

Make Handmade gifts for the holidays!

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What: Make gifts for as many people on your holiday list as possible! To get you started, we are hosting a buffet of drop-in workshops!

When: Small Business Saturday, November 26, 2022, 11-6PM.

Price:  $15 to $35 each, and each allows plenty of space for customization and creativity

Age: With adult assistance, all ages are welcome to participate!

Where: 550 Elm Street in Manchester, NH

 

There will be stations set up to make your own:

– Milk & cookies cup and plate set (for Santa, of course)

– Custom coffee or cocoa mug

– Large decorative paper snowflakes

– Winter fairy houses or treasure boxes

– Paint your own handmade pottery 

– Paint your own ornaments

– Succulent Plant arrangements at our plant bar (with fairy garden add-ons)

– Pottery on the wheel (pre-registration required for this option, book here: families and couples)

 

In addition, there will be:

– $1 pottery sale to benefit the Clay for Kids Fund

– live maker demos (stained glass and pottery)

– Free prize to the first 10 shoppers/makers

– a fully stocked handmade gift shop to browse and buy

– maybe even more… 

 

All pieces made this day will be ready for pick up by the holiday break.

December 19-23 we will be hosting a Handmade Holiday Market of Pottery and Glass made by 10+ different makers!

Mini-Mural Monster Search

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Find mini-monster murals in downtown between August 29th to Sept 16th. After the clay monster hunt on August 27th, the fun continues!

During those two weeks, nine businesses will be hosting a mini-monster mural. Find all monster murals and be entered into a drawing for a gift card from one of the participating businesses. No purchase necessary, just a keen eye and a love for the hunt. Please check the individual businesses for open hours before stopping by.

Click here for a PDF of the official Monster Map. You can also pick one up at any of the participating mini-monster businesses during the dates of the hunt 8/29-9/16.

The businesses hosting a mini-monster mural (from North to South) are:

Terracotta Room: 1361 Elm St

Boards & Brews: 941 Elm St

Beeze Tees: 36 Hanover St

Shadow & Soul Emporium: 20 Hanover St

Diz’s Cafe: 860 Elm St

Bookery Manchester: 844 Elm St

Wild Orchid Bakery: 836 Elm St

Granite State Candy Shoppe: 832 Elm St

Pop of Color: 816 Elm St

Studio 550: 550 Elm St

The mini-mural will be painted by these local artists: Jyl Dittbenner, Fallon Rae, Rachel Litzinger, Nicole Rocha, Debi Funk, and Tamara Morris, Monica & Leah Leap, and Jazmine Jade.

All monster murals will be together on August 27th at Studio 550’s Monster hunt and then will disperse across downtown. They’ll come together again the weekend of Sept 17-18 at the Manchester City Arts Fest for the drawing of the winners. They’ll be ready for hugs and photos!

Monster Hunt 2022 – with a twist

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Find one. Keep one. Discover Downtown & win prizes from small businesses.
For the 10th year, Studio 550 is again making 100 unique red clay monsters and releasing them downtown.
We hope that by bringing art to the streets, we can encourage people to slow down and find joy in walking their city in search of the out-of-the-ordinary.
They will be hidden in public spaces on Elm Street from Studio 550 up north to Bridge St. All Monsters will be placed in public places with a lot of foot traffic and in locations that are easily visible to pedestrians. Typically, monsters like to hide in places that people see every day, but normally do not have a reason to keep looking. A windowsill, the corner of a bench, or a flower planter are all places Monsters like to hide, but they could be anywhere.  They love public art.
The hunt begins at 10AM, is open to all ages, and goes very quick!
From 10AM-12PM Studio 550 is hosting a number of low-cost monster-themed activities.
Anyone who finds the single colorful monster automatically wins a free 1-day workshop at Studio 550.
Share this with friends! The FB event link.
CHANGES FOR 2022:
1) There will be a “kids under 5” mini-search in the green space in front of the DoubleTree Hotel before the public hunt along Elm Street. Kids hunt starts at 9:45AM.
2) We are hiding “Monster Medallions” in lieu of the actual monsters. Trade in your medallion at Studio 550 on the day of the hunt to get your real monster!
3) NEW: Mini-Monster Mural hunt. Find all 9 mini-monster murals hiding in downtown businesses between August 29th and the Manchester City ArtsFest on Sept 17-18 and be entered to win a prize. Details coming soon.

Other business partners hosting Monster specials/events that day (contact them for details):

Bookery Manchester

 

 Monster book reading, Monster themed booklist
Beeze Tees Monster games, monster merch
Cafe la Reine – Downtown Monster themed beverage
Dancing Lion Chocolate Artful handmade chocolate coin
Manchester City Library Bookmobile Live at 550 Elm St
Granite State Candy Shoppe Super cool monster sundae
Queen City Cupcakes Monster cupcake
Studio 550 Art Center Monster medallion trade in, raffle, Monster craft bags for sale, Monster clay sculpting, pottery demos, sidewalk chalk, Monster plant habitat
Shadow & Soul Monster themed vinyl stickers & enamel pins
Wild Orchid Bakery cookie monster donut special, cookie monster latte

Summer Programming!

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Youth camps, 2-D skills workshop series, adult classes, and a Monster Hunt… it is going to be a packed summer!

Check out dates for youth art enrichment camps for 9+ here.

Build your skills in sketching, or explore illustration and watercolors in a series of 3 workshops.

Sign up for a a clay wheel throwing or sculpting class here

(Unfortunately, the stained glass and watercolor/drawing classes on hold in the summer due to the teachers’ schedules. If you are interested in signing up for Fall session, let us know now!).

Benefit Spring Cleaning Sale!

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Discount pottery all for a good cause!

Sale is live during normal studio open hours from March 28-April 2nd.  Closed Sunday and Wednesday. Open 12-8pm. Stop in for early Mother’s Day gifts, you gifts, or just to support a good cause and some local makers.

 

Pottery for a Purpose: 

Community-made Mugs & Bowls at $20 per piece. Proceeds go to The International Institute of New England. This organization creates opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement and pathways to citizenship.  

Clay for Kids Scholarship:  

$1 pottery sale of old abandoned workshop pots that funds scholarships for kids to attend our after school or camp programs.  Fill a brown bag for $5!

Studio Member & Staff Spring Cleaning!  

Old designs, less than exciting glazes, small blemishes… all reasons to clear it out and sell it at a discount! Most work will be priced between $5 and $25. 

 

Share the event on Facebook!  

 

3 ways to get started

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If you are itching to get into the studio, here are the 3 ways to involved:

  1. Just try it out for a day. We offer 1-day workshops that are great introductions to the studio and the process. They are available for clay and stained glass every weekend, and we can offer mosaic, plant arrangement, and drawing and painting workshops by request. Though many workshops are full in the next few weeks, we often have space available in the Paint-Your-Own Handmade Pottery Room.
  2. Take a 10-week class. We offer a class session every season. They are longer and more in depth. You learn the whole process from beginning to end.
  3. Join as a member. This option is only open for the clay studio and only to those who have either been through 3-4 full class sessions with us, or who have several semesters of college level clay experience.

Booking a Workshop FYI

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Weekend workshops have been very full here these past few weeks, and look mostly booked until March!

This is partly because this is the busy time of year when folks are redeeming holiday gifts, and also because we keep class sizes small.  Classes are small so that 1) the instructor can better reach all the students, 2) because of the state of community health, we limit the number of people in the room, and 3) because specialized equipment is required for these classes and only so much stuff will fit in the room!

If you are interested in trying the wheel, stained glass, or one of our other offerings here, we recommend booking well in advance (meaning: reserve your workshop for the next available date now, even if it is not til springtime), OR get a group of 6 or more together and touch base via email about a private party.  Sometimes we can host private parties at a time that workshops are not normally offered, and sometimes we can bring in a second staff member to make it work.

Either way, whether you are coming in now or later, we can’t wait to work with you and get you started in the studio!