By Rachael Lindley
Photos by Crystal Wise and Gary Logan
Savor Ceramics is right off busy Montgomery Street and Byers Avenue, conveniently located across the street from Fort Works and Hotel Dryce.
Owner Kim Oaks opened up shop in March, just in time for Spring Gallery Night, where Fort Worth’s art community mixed and mingled.
We were swamped. It was fantastic!” says Oaks.
The event did more than introduce her pottery to the neighborhood; it stitched her right back into the Fort Worth fabric that she and her family had missed while living abroad.
Oaks has been working in pottery for more than 30 years. To her, molding clay is much more than creating beautiful bowls and mugs. Growing up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Oaks is accustomed to observing beauty all around her, but it’s never been about just aesthetics to her.
“My goal was to create a space that felt inviting to anybody — at any pottery level, physical level, mental level,” she says. “This is a place where I want you to feel safe, encouraged, and creative.”
That sense of community is threaded into every part of the studio, from wheel-throwing date nights to Saturday workshops where beginners and seasoned potters swap stories across the table.
“Art is a little like you got naked and said, ‘Hey, what do you think of me?’” she laughs. “So you have to have a place where you feel safe to be vulnerable. That’s what I want this studio to be.”
Community runs deep in Oaks’ story. After calling Cowtown home 20 years ago, the Oaks family spent years living away in China and Wisconsin, which shaped her approach to clay, but Fort Worth had always felt like home.
“We had really good friends here, people that feel like family,” she says. “This community is tight, and we wanted to be part of that again.”
Savor Ceramics features classes for all ages and abilities. Oaks prides herself on quickly adapting to people’s needs, physical, mental or emotional.
“For some reason, people tell me all their stories here,” she says. “I think it’s because art and community just go hand in hand.”
Of course, her expertly crafted work garners plenty of attention. Patrons can find her matte porcelain fortune cookies dotted around the studio. Oaks has a passion for soda firing and sculptural work, as well as a love for functional pieces.
“When you drink coffee out of a handmade mug, it’s better.”
But the heart of the studio is collaboration. She hosts everything from corporate team-building events to creative mash-ups with local businesses. A recent favorite: hand-thrown pour-over coffee sets designed exclusively for The Dryce Hotel.
“I love finding ways to reach out into the community and make this space bigger than just me,” she says.
As the holidays approach, the calendar is filling up quickly with festive workshops, Friday night wheel-throwing dates, cozy Saturday projects, holiday work events and even team-building activities. And while the clay creations are wonderful keepsakes, it’s the connections forged here that last even longer.
“Clay is inherently collaborative,” she says. “It’s heavy, it’s messy — you can’t move a thousand-pound kiln by yourself. Pottery is a community sport, and that’s the best part of it.”
