New pottery painting studio opens in Maidenhead's Nicholsons Centre

A new pottery painting studio in Maidenhead looks to bring families and friends together to enjoy an activity that is both ‘mindful and fun’.

Bisque-It Studio in the Nicholsons Centre is the brainchild of Maidenhead resident Loiza Tallon, 42, and offers a space to ‘play, paint and create’.

The studio provides creative experiences and features a play zone for children, known as The Pottery Patch.

The business provides all the materials so customers can spend their hour-and-a-half session painting their piece of pottery.

Loiza said that while youngsters can enjoy the experience of painting pottery, the play zone also provides plenty of entertainment with play equipment such as mini trampolines, push cars, a wendy house, a ball pit and soft play.

The studio also serves drinks and snacks to customers in collaboration with The Coffee Collab, situated in the Nicholsons Centre atrium.

Loiza has lived in Maidenhead for almost 10 years and comes from a corporate learning and development background.

Wanting a change to spend more time with her children, Loiza said she embarked on the business venture after feeling there is a lack of
experiences available in Maidenhead that are suitable for all ages.

She said: “Over the years, I’ve just found that there isn’t really anything for families and children to do, and I felt that we needed and experience destination where all ages can get involved and take part.”

On the last Friday of the month from 6pm to 9pm, the studio is also hosting a pottery painting and Prosecco night for adults.

Loiza said visitors who come into the studio, but do not take part in the pottery painting, such as those accompanying their children, pay a pottery pals fee of £1 which goes towards subsidising the studio’s home education workshops.

“Every Tuesday, we do a home education workshop for an hour where children that are home-schooled, because mainstream school isn’t for them, can come in,” she said.

“Each week there’s a different topic and they get to paint a piece of pottery that links to the topic of the week.”

The pottery pals fee is also used to subsidise pottery painting for local charities who want to come into the studio and do workshops.

Loiza said the idea is that even if visitors are not taking part in an experience at the studio, the small fee they pay is going towards helping young people and youth development in the community.

The studio also offers opportunities to capture children’s milestones with handprints.

Dogs are also welcomed to enjoy some treats and have their paw prints taken.

The studio is also available for parties and commercial events.

A soft launch opening took place on Saturday, April 5 and Loiza said feedback from customers has been ‘amazing’.

“For our first week, we’ve really been overwhelmed with the amount of people that we’ve had, considering this was a soft launch.

“There’s been days where we’ve just been completely rushed off our feet and we had to place two further orders in the space of five days [for] pottery.

“So far, it’s absolutely been brilliant, and we’ve been really happy with how Bisque-It Studio has been received by the community.”

The team will be having an official grand opening in the next few weeks with Maidenhead MP Josh Reynolds in attendance.

The event will feature giveaways and face painting.

The studio is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10am to 5pm and 11am to 4pm on Sundays.

For more information, visit: www.bisqueitstudio.co.uk