Indigo Fire has two locations. Belmont is the original studio. Each has their own personality with pros and cons compared to the other. We, of course, think they both make for a great pottery home.
The Belmont Studio
The Belmont studio is a modest 1,800 square feet, but houses three 10cu.ft. kilns, 16 wheels, a pugmill and reclaim operation, full glaze chemistry room, the Mumford Gallery, and the primary office, which is why we fondly refer to it as HQ. A child in our summer program told us the bathroom feels like a Japanese spa. It's one of the highest compliments we've received.
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Marc once commented that the studio is built out like a submarine. Nearly all the furniture is wood construction and was built out by Ned over several years. The result is that it has a cozy feel. The wheels are a combination of Shimpo lites and whispers. It's a small space, but it's nicely accommodated and laid out well to function efficiently. We have a shared parking lot and there's free street parking on Concord Ave.
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How the Belmont studio compares to Watertown
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The Belmont studio provides communal throwing and hand building tools. One of the ways this studio shines is the large collection of unique stamps, paddles, textures, and miscellaneous scratchy and pokey sticks that it has accumulated over time. What ever mark you want to make, there's a tool for it.
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Class students share communal shelving in the Belmont studio. There's a helpful whiteboard system so that students can track their stored boards. One of the benefits of this storage method is that students can store a lot of boards on the shelves when they need to and it's balanced by students requiring less storage at that time.
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There's also a unique bisque storage area in Belmont that is organized by a stamp system. Each class has a unique stamp and if students use that stamp on their work, it will get put in their class-specific shelf when it comes out of the bisque kiln. This is optional, but it's a nice resource for anyone who struggles to locate their bisqued pots.​
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This studio also sports three utility sinks with clay traps which is convenient for getting water and cleanup.​
The Watertown Studio
The Watertown studio was formally a warehouse before we moved in. During the initial buildout, we installed a new HVAC system, four-faucet utility sink, new entryway with a ramp, kiln room, and kitchenette. In 2024, we added on the soda kiln shed.
It's a 4,000 square foot space housing 30 wheels (two standing), a slab roller, 3 plaster tables (12 slabs) for wedging, two large handbuilding tables, four electric kilns, the soda kiln, pugmill, and retail area for tools and merch. Nearly all our equipment here is Bailey. Bailey wheels, slab roller, electric kilns and soda kiln.
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We've put a lot of effort into making an open, concrete block space feel welcoming. The walls are covered in beautiful murals by Lena Mac, large planters are hanging from the ceiling, and a windowed vestibule keeps the wind out.
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Watertown is where we host almost all of our community events and visiting artist workshops. There are two dock doors that we love to open when the weather is nice, and a large parking lot on site.
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How the Watertown studio compares to Belmont
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Well, most prominently, Watertown is larger. There's more space to move around and all students have a private shelf space. Class students get a 16"x24" shelf and independent study members have 16"x48" shelves. There are more wheels and tables to work on. In place of a canvas wedging table, Watertown has plaster tables on which students can dry and reuse clay that day (we don't allow wet clay to be stored on shelves).
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About 20% of Belmont's students are independent study members vs about 40% in Watertown. This means that more openings become available for independent study shelves in Watertown.
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The Watertown studio provides communal hand building tools, but not communal throwing tools.
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And of course, the new soda kiln means that there will be slips, glazes, wadding and everything else soda-related in Watertown.
