How Firebrick Pottery is Shaping Lynchburg’s Creative Community
By: Jeremy Angione / Photos By: Ashlee Glen
Whether you’re a seasoned potter, or have only experienced pottery from Patrick Swayze’s hands in Ghost, Firebrick Pottery in downtown Lynchburg aims to give everyone the ability to connect with their own creativity.
Firebrick Pottery opened on Main Street on April 26, 2025, with the help of a $20,000 dollar grant from Downtown Lynchburg Association’s Launch LYH program. Owner Alexandra Milhous was among the five 2024 recipients of the grant, which helped kickstart her business.
“I feel very lucky,” Milhous said.
She credits much of her early success to guidance from the Lynchburg region’s Small Business Development Center.
“I feel like I got a full college course. They did such a good job of helping me flesh out the business plan,” Milhous said.
Although running a business was a new and challenging experience for Milhous, her passion for pottery and experience in design helped her create a space for all creative levels.
Milhous admits that her “initial idea for the business was just pottery supply and the kiln services.”
Richmond was the closest source of pottery supplies, and even with adequate supplies, many home potters did not have regular access to a kiln to finish their projects. According to Milhous, simply filling those two needs has granted Firebrick Pottery a measure of success early on thanks to support from the Lynchburg arts community.
“I knew that the pottery community had grown a lot and that there was a need for this, but I’ve been very surprised at how people have responded right away. The potter community is even bigger than I thought it was. I’ve also had a ton of potters come out of the woodwork that I didn’t even know were here,” Milhous said.
Fortunately for Milhous, many of the experienced potters in the area have been willing to round out her teaching staff to offer workshops to guests still learning the craft.
Firebrick offers a variety of workshops that aim to teach specific pottery skills rather than aiming to make each participant an expert.
“It’s a lot of trial and error. You’re gonna get muddy, you’re gonna get dirty, you’re gonna have things crumble, and the clay will collapse. Even if you don’t have an end product, working on the wheel with clay is one of the most therapeutic things,” Milhous explained.
The process of manifesting your imagination through your hands takes guests through building shapes with the clay, working it on the wheel, firing it in the kiln, glazing it, and re-firing it.
“The workshops that we offer, they’ll be able to go through that entire process. I think experiencing that process from start to finish is one of the most magical things,” Milhous said.
While creating something beautiful is rewarding, Milhous is more concerned that her guests find new ways to engage with their artistic capabilities.
“There’s no judgement here on what your final product looks like. We’re just feeding our creativity. Pottery is basically trying to get the four elements—air, water, earth, and fire—to all cooperate with each other to make art,” Milhous said.
Firebrick Pottery is a bright and open space that is functionally segmented into several distinct sections. As you walk in, the dark green walls are contrasted by all the brightly colored ceramics that make for a dedicated artisanal shop with products from several local potters.
In the central portion of the shop, Firebrick offers several key pottery supplies that are often difficult or expensive to acquire. In the back of the shop is the main workspace and kiln. There are several stations with pottery wheels, tools, sinks, and shelves for projects in progress. One of Firebrick Pottery’s more unique features is the 24-hour studio access it offers to members.
“There’s always someone in and out working on projects,” Milhous said.
She discovered her love for pottery in an elective course she took at Virginia Tech, where she studied interior and industrial design. Much of Firebrick Pottery’s operational philosophy was born from her own experiences and needs as a potter. She admits that in her college days she’d utilize the school’s 24-hour studio access to work on her pottery projects late into the night.
“I want to find more ways to help people interact with clay and unleash their creativity in ways that are more accessible to people,” Milhous said.
A core value of Firebrick Pottery is connection. It’s about connecting the community to the artists in it, while also connecting individuals to their own sense of creativity, according to Milhous.
“One of the big goals is to build up Lynchburg’s creative community.
If someone is wanting to get into pottery for the first time, my workshops are good to get a taste of it,” Milhous said.
Currently, Firebrick Pottery offers two to three workshops a month, and a basic studio membership is $95 a month.
Milhous says that although Firebrick Pottery is a great resource to kickstart someone’s interest in pottery and equip them with basic skills, it isn’t intended to make the average person an expert. Milhous attributes much of her continued education in pottery after college to the Parks and Recreation Art Studio at Jackson Heights.
According to Milhous, she enjoys the symbiotic relationship she shares with other public art studios. Where she creates and nurtures initial interest and skill building, the other studios send her more experienced artists that value her space to display their art and use of the shop’s kiln.
“There are so many talented potters in Lynchburg, I just wanted to give the community access to them,” Milhous said.
