my Story

Kimberly Hardy

4th generation potter

I grew up following my mother and grandmother around the pottery studio from the age of one—the house I grew up in was literally nestled between the studio and our shop, separated only by doorways. For me, pottery is more than my craft and profession, it is also my home.

While I am primarily a self-taught potter, the foundations were all laid in distant memories of what my grandmother Trudy taught me as a small child. From there, I learned through a lifetime of observation of my mother, older brothers and all of the talented potters who have lived and worked with us at Orcas Island Pottery throughout the years.

It took me a long time to come back to my roots. I spent more than a decade working in science— studying infectious diseases and developing treatments for auto-immune diseases and cancers, and initially thought that making pottery would be an important but short-term period of my life between career transitions. As recently as 2021 I was pursuing a graduate degree in communications and data science, but the further I went down that path the less I felt like myself. After a lot of soul-searching I was finally ready to give myself permission to do what I love instead of what I believed the world expected of me, and I can now say that I am choosing pottery with my whole heart, and it is my intention to spend the rest of my life becoming the best potter I can be.

I feel grateful to practice a craft which connects me to my family history as well as one of the oldest traditions of human civilization.

I hope the pieces I make with my hands and heart bring you joy in your daily life.

Kimi