By Samantha Belcourt
Northeast News
April 1, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Back Door Pottery was originally built in the 1920’s. The Northeast staple has been an automobile repair shop, machine shop, hardware store, and laundromat before serving the community as a neighborhood pottery shop.

With a show room in the front, weekly pottery classes are held in the evenings and are open to beginners, as well as advanced recreational potters. All work is produced at 3922 St. John Ave.

“I started in a little basement studio making pottery doing art shows,” Rebecca Koop, founder of Back Door Pottery, said. “I’ve always known I wanted to have an art career. I moved over to [the building on] St. John and rented a space. I needed to expand and the space became available so I took over and rented it for a year. I then bought the building, which I have had since April 1986.”

According to the Back Door Pottery’s website, the studio has nine potter’s wheels including electric and kick, a slab roller, an extruder, four electric kilns (a furnace for burning or drying), wood and propane Raku (lead-glazed Japanese earthenware, typically used for the tea ceremony) kilns and a 40 foot gas downdraft kiln for students use. Kilns space can be rented for firing one piece or full loads.

“I’ve been making art since I was a kid, “Koop said. “Pottery was a good fit for me. I remember going to art shows as a kid, potters seemed to always sell.”

Most of Koop’s work is functional kitchenware in stoneware, porcelain and Terra Cotta earthenware. She has been teaching professionally since 1980, and is currently working on scarecrow sculpture projects.

“It’s a personal object, and it can be useful as well as decorative,” Koop said. “I make objects but I am confident in saying I am a really great instructor. I’ve been teaching at UMKC for the past 12 years. This Saturday [March 28], I will be doing a woodfire Raku. By the end of the day students take stuff home.”

Children’s workshops and individual group sessions are by appointment only. Koop’s work may be found in specialty shops and galleries around Kansas City, as well as in the studio.

“Kids love to get dirty and have fun,” Koop said. “Not many kids get this exposure anymore.”

Because of her busy schedule, Back Door Pottery is open by chance and by appointment.

“It’s important to do something you love, and I love this,” Koop said.