Sydney Dickson- owner

Sydney is a young potter from Portland Oregon. She moved to Bend shortly after graduating Woodrow Wilson Highschool- where she first began creating pottery under the instruction of Andrew Butterfield.

After moving to Bend, she wasn’t quite sure where her business degree at COCC would lead her. Fortunately, she decided to take what she thought would be, “one last” pottery class. Turns out, that pottery studio was hiring. After getting hired as a kiln and fire technician for the COCC studio- she only grew from there. She began assisting date nights and classes at Pottery By Yvonne in Tumalo, OR. She created a line of glazes for the school, and learned the ins and outs of firing gas and elecric kilns. In the following years she helped run various community studios, and even taught classes from her home.

She opened synergy ceramics in june of 2021 and HASN’T looked back since! Her joy and love for teaching has only grown over the years.

Sydney's personal line of work, Centered Syd Ceramics, focuses on functional, fun pots for the home. She enjoys carving, imprinting flowers from around Bend, and altering her forms to make them unique. She also enjoys hand building quite a bit. She finds it fun to switch it up from circles on the wheel… as those can get old quickly. You can find her work online at CenteredSyd.com. You can also purchase her work in person at the NWX Farmers market every Saturday mid june- october, 10am-2pm.

Alex Gnefkow- Raku fire tech

Alex was born and raised in the south, spending a majority of his life living in Dallas Texas. After graduating high school, Alex moved to Florida to pursue a beach bum lifestyle, soaking in the rays and spending plenty of time out at sea.

After three years, Alex discovered his love for different forms of art and decided to move to the PNW to pursue his newfound passion. After starting at COCC as a student, Alex unearthed a love for ceramics and joined the ceramics department under the tutelage of Sydney Dickson herself as a lab assistant. Eventually, Alex was promoted to the Kiln Technician position and put in charge of managing the ceramic studio. This included maintaining and creating glazes, scheduling and firing both electric and gas kilns filled with students work, As well as communicating with both students and falcuty in order to run the studio as efficiently as possible.

During this time, Alex also involved himself in both the 3D sculpture and metalwork departments of he college as an employee and a student.

Alex currently specializes in raku firings as well as sculptal work.

Outside of ceramics, Alex enjoys road tripping and keeping in contact with friends all over the United States. When the sun's out, Alex is usually floating the river or hiking and kayaking up in the cascades.

You can find his work at various markets around town, and online on etsy!

Sign up for a “raku date night” to experience a firing with this amazing instructor!