The Team

Our skilled instructors are dedicated to nurturing your artistic growth. Join our vibrant pottery community and experience a world of diverse techniques that will inspire and ignite your creativity. Nurture your artistic potential in a supportive environment, where you'll find encouragement and inspiration at every turn. Get to know our talented pottery teachers and embark on an enriching clay experience that will leave you feeling accomplished and inspired. Click here to meet our team and begin your creative journey with us.

Founder and Instructor

Dana Dallal

Dana, the Founder of Parkdale Pottery, is an accomplished ceramic artist working in both handbuilding and wheel throwing techniques. Her expertise lies in surface design, where she seamlessly incorporates her fashion and textile design background. Her work is characterized by layered florals and botanicals, creating unique and captivating ceramic pieces.

Dana's Website

Administrative and Marketing Coordinator

Alassandra Rojo

From a young age, Alassandra has always been captivated by the arts and would frequently find herself dabbling in a diverse array of crafts and hobbies. Pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Craft and Design, specializing in ceramics at Sheridan College, was a natural choice for her. Crafting mark-making tools is her joy and she often uses handcrafted stamps to create floral compositions and blooming patterns on all her work, producing detailed, embossed surface design. No matter where she goes, Alassandra will always intertwine her love for the arts within her day-to-day life.

Alassandra's Work

Instructor

Mariana Bolaños-Inclan

I am a Mexican sculptor based in Toronto. My body of work is based on the stories of where I come from and who I am as a woman and as an immigrant. I use references to pre-hispanic symbols and Mexican popular culture to represent these stories in figurative sculptures. Focusing on art with a social purpose, I work as a facilitator in community programs with children, women and newcomers around Tkaronto and the GTA.

Mariana's Work

Instructor

Emma Bickers

Emma Bickers seamlessly melds illustrations with substantial earthenware vessels, crafting poignant visual narratives. Initially drawn to illustration, she serendipitously discovered ceramics through an introductory course. Today, a recent graduate in ceramics from Sheridan College's Craft and Design program, Emma thrives as a full-time resident artist at Harbourfront Centre.

Emma's Work

Instructor

Valentina Guevara

Valentina moved from Toluca, Mexico over a decade ago, however she still maintains a deep connection to her Mexican roots. She has earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University (2006) in Montreal, specializing in painting and ceramics. Valentina went on to further develop her skills while working at Mosaika Art & Design. After working for 15 years in Montreal and more than 9 years doing ceramics in public art,  Valentina decided to move to Toronto, to work on her passion in a fresh new environment. She is currently working as a pottery instructor and studio technician, for several studios located in Toronto.

Valentina's Work

Instructor

Zsuzsa Monostory

My inspiration comes from architecture, nature, all things living. The human and animal form, their behaviour and relationship are the most intriguing to me. These are the features that I try to express in my narrative pieces.

Zsuzsa's Work

Instructor

Natalie Waddell

Natalie Waddell is a Canadian ceramic artist and educator based in Toronto. Her practice is driven by the love of process and the exploration of heritage and memory through clay. 

A student of the Sheridan College Ceramic Craft and Design program (2003), she is known for her functional and sculptural work and active participation in local ceramic and arts communities and associations. Natalie was invited to participate as a judge in the CBC tv show The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down.

Natalie's Work

Instructor

Habiba El-Sayed

With an interest in archives and paralleling mythology with contemporary experience, Habiba El-Sayed’s multidisciplinary practice re-imagines historical references using a combination of both old and new technologies. While her work has expanded beyond traditional ceramics, her work considers clay’s materiality in all its states in both the physical and virtual world. El-Sayed currently makes and teaches in studios across the city and has shown her work in galleries and museums locally and internationally

Habiba's Work

Instructor

Darren Cross

Years after graduating from OCAD University and earning a degree in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Darren rediscovered his passion for the visual arts in the form of pottery. Darren’s earnestness and enthusiasm is evident in the style of his instruction and his desire to help foster a community of potters. As for Darren’s playfulness, he strives to embody an old adage: “maturity consists in having reacquired the seriousness one had as a child, at play”.

Darren currently teaches 2 hour wheel throwing classes and multi-week wheel throwing classes

Darren's Work