Pottery has always been about getting your hands dirty, but the Hill Potters Guild in Richmond Hill is taking that idea somewhere very few arts organizations have gone before. And we kinda love it.
The 50-year-old ceramics community, which has spent decades teaching pottery, hosting exhibitions, and bringing people together through clay, has launched an unexpected new campaign designed to introduce the craft to a younger audience: an OnlyFans channel.
“The owner Rob Galletta is the son of one of our members, and they had suggested that we look at a rebranding of our guild that has been around for 50 years, and so that’s how how it basically started,” says Kathy Verbeek-Chawru, from the Hill Potters Guild.
“Ceramics Are Sexy” is a campaign that borrows inspiration from the iconic pottery scene in Ghost while highlighting the more, ahem, sensual and dare we say dirty aspects of working with clay.
“At first, we were like, I don’t know… Is this okay?” Verbeek-Chawru says. “And then we saw what they produced, and we really found it tasteful. The person who’s in the video, he’s a potter who knows how to throw, and clay is a very sensual material, and so we thought, okay, we can be fun, we can be cheeky.”
The goal isn’t what people might expect from an OnlyFans account, which is a subscription-based social platform that allows creators, much of whom are of the pornographic variety, to share photos, videos, and direct messages with fans. The Guild is using the platform, and its own new Ceramicsaresexy.com website to share pottery tutorials, behind-the-scenes content, and educational videos—all with a sexy twist that celebrates the physical connection between artist and material.
For instance, lesson one is “Grip the Base,” and lesson two? “Get Wet.”
Right now, the OnlyFans site is just getting started, and the guild is still deciding what, if anything, to put on it.
“We have had a lot of interest from people and from media calling us about this OnlyFans,” she says. “I mean, just because we’re in the older demographics doesn’t mean we’re that old either, right? Of course, we’ll never be posting our naked bodies on our OnlyFans. I can honestly say that.”
Verbeek-Chawru says there’s a reason pottery has been attracting renewed attention, especially among younger generations. In a world dominated by screens and constant digital distractions, working with clay is refreshingly hands-on.
“We are trying very hard to stay current with the world and with our craft,” Verbeek-Chawru explains. “If this is a platform that we could talk about getting people off of their phones, getting off computers, getting off of websites like OnlyFans, and actually doing the art, I think that helps connect people not only to that work but also to each other.”
The Hill Potters Guild may have found an unusual way to grab attention, but its message is simple: ceramics are for everyone. And yes, they can be pretty sexy, too.
