🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #113: Interview with Shaun Kelly, Pottery Instructor, SoKo Pottery Studio https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-09-21-2026/ In this heartfelt episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA welcomes her pottery instructor, Shaun Kelly, of SoKo Pottery Studio, who shares how clay first came into his life through his mother, and how a career as a programmer and IT project manager that kept him always on call, and at 350 pounds, gave way on his doctor's advice to a healthier life in pottery. He credits his first teacher, Pauline Harman, for the projects-and-templates approach he still uses with beginners, and his mentor, Sandi Dunkelman, for teaching him everything from throwing to loading kilns, making glazes and running a sale. Shaun talks listeners through centering clay on the wheel and his "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" method for rolling an even slab, describes how simple pinch pots helped a man named Ricardo rebuild his motor skills after a stroke, and remembers Studio on the Hill as a safe space where everyone who walked in the door was a potter. He explains how SoKo, named for his initials, became his own studio when he took it on on May 1st, and shares plans for a Christmas show and sale on November 6th, 7th and 8th, a possible spring sale and an Empty Bowls fundraiser, while Donna looks ahead to her Canadiana line. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Remarkable World Commentary. I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate, and one who sees the world mainly through sound, touch, and stubborn optimism. I am a law graduate, an accessibility consultant, author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November of 2010, I won the landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its websites accessible to every Canadian, not just to sighted ones. And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen disability groups to turn equal access into federal law. And most recently, on June the 3rd, 2022, I was greatly humbled by Her Late Majesty's Platinum Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to the removal of barriers. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or in a pottery studio, you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss, producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their gadgets talk back in plain language. Everything I do circles one goal, and that is to turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench, where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, before we jump into today's conversation, let me shine a quick spotlight on today's guest, a changemaker whose work is every bit as remarkable as the world that we are trying to build. I am absolutely pleased and excited to welcome my pottery instructor, Shaun Kelly. Welcome, Shaun, to the Remarkable World Commentary podcast. Shaun Kelly: Thank you very much, Donna, for having me today. It's been a long time coming, and I'm excited to be part of the program. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You changed my life when we met. You have forced me to stretch my imagination and to use my imagination, based on the functional vision I had before I lost it, to develop pieces, to create, and there's no limit to what we've been able to do over the last few years. Shaun Kelly: Exactly. And that's the beauty of pottery, is it's a metaphor for life. We're always evolving, adapting, growing. The only time you lose is when you say, "I can't do it." You gotta push through, right? And we gotta find a way to do it. Shaun Kelly: And that's the beauty, is both you and myself, I've learned how to express, to communicate, to look and... I shouldn't say to look at things differently, to hear things differently, to feel things differently. To express things differently. Just because there's one way, a common way, doesn't mean there's several other ways that might even be better. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Absolutely. So Shaun, I would like to start right at the beginning, long before any of this was your work. Tell me how clay first turned up in your life, and what happened in that very first class that made you want to come back the following week? Shaun Kelly: Yeah, so I was very fortunate that my mom, she always had a love for pottery. And she said, "Come, come, come." And it was like, "Yes, I'm coming. I'm gonna be there." And then during that first class, you could build, right? You could build, you could create. You had the freedom to do what you wanted to do. And you literally had the tools in front of you to accomplish whatever that vision was. And doing this in a shared space, a group space, it had a lovely community feel. You got to meet people. You got to talk with people. And you learned from everybody. And from that first time, it was just like a lovely, humble family safe space that you could create anything you wanted in. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Now, was she a potter? Was your mom a potter? Shaun Kelly: Yeah, she was. She loved the pottery. She collected it first. And then she started to be a potter, and then both my brother and myself got involved. But I got hooked hard. I took it even further than just the therapeutic side, the hobby side. I went on to do it more professionally. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh, okay. Now, you made a big turn in your life from working with technology to working with clay, and I know something about turns like that, because I have made a few of my very own. Walk me through how that turn actually happened for you. Not the tidy version, but the real one. Shaun Kelly: Exactly. So it was a big decision, right? When you pivot, when you change your career, your field of study, it's a big, big life-changing moment. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: It is. It is. Shaun Kelly: And for me, it was slowly building. In my corporate life, in the life as a programmer, there was no leaving the building for lunch. No going to the gym. I was always on call, even on weekends. You had to be within an hour on call all the time. So I couldn't go afar. I couldn't go on vacations, and it really took a heavy toll on my life in terms of my health. Right? So I had money, right? I had a lovely career, but I had no time to spend it or to actually enjoy it. And it got to the point where I was 350 pounds. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh, my lord. Shaun Kelly: It was just like, "What happened?" So it was like, my doctor said, "You have to make a life choice. You have to decide," right? "What are you gonna do?" And I chose a life, a healthy life. And that's what pottery gave me. Mentally, physically, it gave me that healthy lifestyle, that balance, right? That I think a lot of people need. Right? And all of us, like myself in my early days, I was just running, running, running, trying to get to the finish line, trying to make the buck. And I don't think that's what life was for me. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Yeah, I can empathize with that. My goodness. I still remember how clumsy my own hands felt the first time [laughs] that I tried to center a lump of clay, and I doubt that you were born knowing how to do, either. Take me back to when the wheel was still new to you. What did you do over and over and again to get from clumsy to steady? Shaun Kelly: Exactly. And you're completely right. I was not a natural on the wheel by any means. I was very clumsy on the wheel. Trying to figure it out. And part of it is trying to center yourself so you can center the clay. So sometimes if you have a bad day, if you're distracted, if you can't focus, that can really throw off the work you're trying to do on the wheel. Shaun Kelly: So for me, I took a whole summer and I said to myself, "I'm gonna throw a bowl. I'm gonna make a bowl." And if I didn't, I'd scrap it and try again. And I just kept telling myself, "You know what? I can make a bowl. I can make a mug. I can make a cylinder." And I didn't give up. I just kept pursuing that. And I got closer and closer and closer until finally I achieved it, where by the end of that summer I could sit down, and say I wanted to make a bowl and I would make that bowl. And like you say, it's the repetition, the practice. A lot of it is muscle memory. So even for me now, I'll close my eyes and use my hands to feel the clay to reassure myself that, yes, I can do it. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I guess you know how much I detest the wheel, don't you? Shaun Kelly: [laughs] I hear you. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: But I— Shaun Kelly: But sometimes we can't let it get the better of us. And it's a tough journey, I have to admit. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Well, I think that one of these days I will say, "Okay, wheel, I'm coming," you know? But right now... yeah. No, but I think you're right, absolutely right. Wow. Shaun Kelly: And when you get it, the success, that achievement, like, "Yes, I've done it,"
